Also, this week's STAGE FEATURE on improvised musicals
Alretha Thomas' play continues this weekend at the Imagined Life Theatre. Photo courtesy of Imagined Life Theatre
L.A.'S FRINGE FEST EN ROUTE
Can L.A. handle a Fringe theater festival? The geographic/cultural/psychic impediments undid L.A.'s Edge of the World Theater Festival in a town already saturated with content, and not enough audiences. But New York is even more saturated that we are, and they have a sustainable Fringe-fest that's both an audience magnet and launch pad for some of the shows that appear there.
Hollywood Fringe has announced dates of June 17-27, 2010 for another try in L.A. Plans are still being formulated, and we're watching with interest, and hope.
For this weeks COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS, press the Continue Reading tab directly below.
COMPREHENSIVE THEATER LISTINGS FOR JULY 31-August 6, 2009
(The weekend's NEW REVIEWS are embedded in “Continuing Performances”
below. You may also be able to search for them by title using your
computer's search program.)
Our critics are Paul Birchall, Lovell Estell III, Martin Hernandez,
Mayank Keshaviah, Deborah Klugman, Steven Leigh Morris, Amy Nicholson,
Tom Provenzano, Bill Raden, Luis Reyes, Sandra Ross and Neal Weaver.
These listings were compiled by Derek Thomas
OPENING THIS WEEK
AS YOU LIKE IT Shakespeare's comedy, re-set in the 1980s San Fernando Valley. (In rep with Snoopy: The Musical;
call for schedule.). Knightsbridge Theater, 1944 Riverside Dr., L.A.;
opens July 31; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 6 p.m.; thru Aug. 23. (323)
667-0955.
CARNEVIL Michael Teoli's horror musical about the accidental death
of a carnival worker. Sacred Fools Theater, 660 N. Heliotrope Dr.,
L.A.; July 31-Aug. 1, 9 p.m.. (310) 281-8337.
COMEDY IN THE PARK “A sketchy skip through eternal love, fragile
relationships and a penchant for black attire,” by Lauren Lewis and
Cullen Kirkland. Two Roads Theater, 4348 Tujunga Ave., Studio City;
July 31-Aug. 1, 8 p.m.. (818) 510-8083.
DON'T FORGET TO REMEMBER Patrice Parker's world premiere about a
family undone by moral conflict. Lounge Theatre, 6201 Santa Monica
Blvd., L.A.; opens Aug. 1; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru Sept.
6. (323) 960-7780.
(DUB)ZECK Patrick Kennelly remixes Buchner's Woyzeck with
Patty Hearst, transsexual clones and Motorhead. In English, Spanish,
French, Polish and German. Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th St.,
Santa Monica; Sat., Aug. 1, 8 p.m.. (310) 315-1459.
FRANZ SCHUBERT: HIS LETTERS AND MUSIC Opera diva Julia Migenes and
actor Jeff Marlow interpret the classical composer. Odyssey Theatre,
2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A.; opens Aug. 1; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7
p.m.; thru Aug. 23. (310) 477-2055.
GOLIATH Middle East faceoff by Karen Hartman. Part of Open Fist
Theatre Company's First Look Festival of New Plays. Open Fist Theatre,
6209 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A.; Fri., July 31, 8 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 1, 8
p.m.; Sat., Aug. 8, 3 & 8 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 9, 3 p.m.; Thurs., Aug.
13, 8 p.m.; Fri., Aug. 14, 8 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 16, 3 p.m.. (323)
882-6912.
GROUNDLINGS SPACE CAMP All-new sketch and improv, directed by Mikey
Day. No barfing allowed. Groundling Theater, 7307 Melrose Ave., L.A.;
opens July 31; Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 8 & 10 p.m.; thru Oct. 3. (323)
934-9700.
GUYS AND DOLLS IN CONCERT Jessica Biel, Scott Bakula and Beau
Bridges try not to butcher the Frank Loesser musical. Hollywood Bowl,
2301 N. Highland Ave., L.A.; July 31-Aug. 1, 8:30 p.m.; Sun., Aug. 2,
7:30 p.m.. (323) 850-2040.
7DS Zombie Joe's Underground presents Amanda Marquardt's survey of
the seven deadly sins. ZJU Theater Group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., North
Hollywood; opens Aug. 1; Sat., 10:30 p.m.; thru Aug. 22. (818) 202-4120.
CONTINUING PERFORMANCES IN LARGER THEATERS REGIONWIDE
CATS Me-ow! Felines get funky in Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical.
Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, Fred Kavli Theater, 2100 E. Thousand
Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks; Thurs.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 & 8 p.m.;
Sun., 2 p.m.; thru Aug. 2. (805) 449-2787.
GO THE CHERRY ORCHARD In 1950, writer-director Josh
Logan transferred Chekhov's play to the American South in an adaptation
called The Wisteria Trees. Now, director Heidi Helen Davis, and Ellen
Geer have reset the play near Charlottesville, Virginia, and updated it
to 1970. The ex-serfs have become the descendants of slaves, and
Chekhov's Madame Ranevsky has become Lillian Randolph Cunningham (Ellen
Geer), the owner of the famous cherry orchard that's “mentioned in the
Encyclopedia Britannica.” Though it's a very free adaptation, it
admirably preserves the play's flavor and spirit. And while Davis'
production skewers the characters for their vanity, folly and
ineptitude, it treats them with affectionate respect. She's blessed
with a wonderful cast, including William Dennis Hunt as the landowner's
garrulous, fatuous brother; J.R. Starr as an ancient family retainer;
Melora Marshall as the eccentric governess Carlotta; and Steve Matt as
the grandson of slaves — and a go-getter businessman who longs to be
the master. The production is easygoing, relaxed, faithful in its own
way, and often very funny. It may be the most fully integrated (in
every sense of the word) production of the play that we're likely to
see. (NW) Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 North Topanga Canyon Blvd.,
Topanga; call for schedule; through September 26. (310) 455-3723 or
www.theatricum.com.
Photo by Ed Rachles
a personable, grimy, makeup-smeared, cigar-chomping guy in a tank top,
not unlike Tommy Lee Jones, playing cards outdoors on the porch of some
trailer with a grunting little guy in a cowboy hat but also with
smeared makeup who makes up the rules as he goes, spies conspicuously
on his opponent's cards and goes into paroxysms of glee with his
fraudulent victories. The “loser” — here named Big Bugs (Jim Turner) –
is not angry at all. Nor does he appear to be drunk, though his nose is
very red, from the clownface that he didn't wash off. Rather, he's
bemused by the antics of the little victor, named Corky (Mark Fite).
The pair comprises half of the quartet of the clowns named Two Headed
Dog. Corky can only grunt (he's nonetheless very expressive) because he
was gored in the head by a bull during his former stint as a rodeo
clown. Welcome to Clowntown City Limits. What sets Big Bugs into a rage
isn't Corky's cheating but the very mention of Whistles (Craig Anton),
a traditional clown in bright orange attire, a bulbous nose and frizzy
hair, who gets all the bookings for kiddies' birthday parties. The mere
idea of Whistles sends Big Bugs down a fast-track of fury, cursing like
a loan shark in a David Mamet play; meanwhile, for reasons undisclosed
yet sort of apparent, his peers (aside from Whistles) remain
unemployed, and probably unemployable. The fourth is a cadaverous
fellow named Adolph (Dave “Gruber” Allen) who looms around like a
doorman making subtle, quizzical expressions at the absurd goings on
around him. John Ferraro's staging is on the red nose. Andy Paley's
original music (performed by Paley, Jeff Lass, Mike Bolger and Mike
Uhler) offers beautifully understated accompaniment to this Beckettian
no-man's land that features a ravishingly brilliant repartee (script by
Joel Madison, Dale Goodson and Bob Rucker) between Big Bugs and Corky:
Corky can't resist making the insult to Big Bugs:: “You're a piece of
shit.” (These are the only words he's capable of uttering.) With each
volley, Big Jim responds with a return, each wrapped in an increasingly
baroque story that culminates in rimshot rhythm with the words written
in a fortune cookie or in skywriting, how the entire universe is
declaring that it's Corky who's a piece of shit. Corky absorbs
each return like a blow to his already damaged head, yet can't resist
the automatic reply by employing the only wit he has at his disposal:
“You're a piece of shit.” And so it goes. As funny and pointless and
circuitous as life on the margins – which, according to this show, is
pretty much life in general. Steven Allen Theater, 4773 Hollywood
Blvd., Los Angeles; Thursday, July 30, 8 p.m.; then from September,
first Sunday of every month, 8 p.m. (323) 666-4266 https://steveallentheater.com (Steven Leigh Morris)
GO COMING HOME A sequel to his 1995 postapartheid
play, Valley Song, Athol Fugard's latest work, Coming Home, tells of
the decimation of one person's dream and the recasting of hope from its
ashes. The luminous Deidrie Henry portrays Veronica, a once-aspiring
singer who returns to her rural childhood home, child in hand, after 10
bitterly disappointing and difficult years in Cape Town. Resilient and
nurturing despite her anguish, Veronica has a single-minded purpose: to
establish a home for her son Mannetjie (Timothy Taylor and then by
Matthew Elam as he ages), who will need support and protection in the
event of her demise from AIDS. With her beloved grandfather, her only
relative, dead, she turns for help to her childhood friend Alfred
(Thomas Silcott), a sweet, slow-minded man who has always loved her
dearly but whom her son despises. Spanning five years, the story
depicts Veronica's transformation from a buoyant woman to a sick but
seething, determined molder of her son's future to, finally, a
bedridden invalid, yet with enough energy to foster her boy's
burgeoning ambition to write. Part of Fugard's ongoing reflection of
his native country's woes, the play contains sometimes burdensome
exposition, which is offset by its masterfully drawn characters and
deeply embedded humor. Under Stephen Sachs' direction, Henry shines,
while Silcott is equally outstanding. As Mannetjie, whom we watch
evolving into manhood, Taylor and especially Elam both impress;
Adolphus Ward skillfully fashions the ghost of Veronica's grandfather.
(DK) Fountain Theatre, 5060 Fountain Ave., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.;
Sun., 2 p.m.; thru Aug. 29. (No perf July 4.) (323) 663-1525.
CROWNS This musical by Regina Taylor examines the passionate attachment
of certain churchgoing African-American women for their hats. Adapted
from the book by Michael Cunningham and Craig Marberry, Crowns:
Portraits of Black Women in Church Hats, it turns on the interaction
between Yolanda (Angela Wildflower Polk), a tough street girl from
Brooklyn raging with grief over the murder of her brother, and various
women she encounters after she's shipped off to South Carolina to live
with her grandmother (Paula Kelly). The book that was the musical's
source material consists of an elegant collection of photo portraits
and firsthand reminiscences; Taylor appropriates these as monologues,
then juxtaposes them with original dialogue and gospel hymns. The
thrust of the show — increasingly churchly as the evening wears on — is
the effort to educate Yolanda regarding the importance of hats to her
identity and her spirituality. Under Israel Hicks' direction, the focus
is clear but its execution — both script and performance — is
disappointing. Five female performers each deliver various monologues
that simply don't add up to recognizable characters who serve the story
— itself a cobbled construct. Lackluster choreography, less than
top-notch vocals and indifferent lighting also detract, as does the
production's two-hour length, without intermission. The strongest
element is the outstanding contribution of Clinton Derricks-Carroll in
a variety of male roles, but especially as a fervently possessed,
pulpit-thumping preacher. In an uneven ensemble, Vanessa Bell Calloway
and Suzzanne Douglas are worthy of note, as are the instrumentals,
under Eric Scott Reed's musical direction. (DK). Pasadena Playhouse, 39
S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena; Tues.-Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 4 & 8 p.m.;
Sun., 2 & 7 p.m.; thru Aug. 16. (626) 356-PLAY.
GO CYMBELINE What might Shakespeare have written if
he'd been asked by some 17th-century counterpart of a TV producer to
come up with something quick, hot and flashy? It's likely an
extravagantly plotted comedy like this one, with story ideas snatched
from legend, his peers and some of his own better-developed and more
sublime works. Regarded today as one of Shakespeare's more minor plays,
this comedy revolves around a king's daughter named Imogen (Willow
Geer), banished from court by her father, Cymbeline (Thad Geer), for
daring to marry the man of her choice. The plucky gal's travails
intensify when a villain named Iachimo (Aaron Hendry, alternating with
Steve Matt) decides willy-nilly to slander her to her husband Posthumus
(Mike Peebler), who then commands a servant to assassinate her for her
alleged infidelity. Her wanderings eventually land her on the doorstep
of her father's old enemy, Belarius (Earnestine Phillips), who has
raised two of Cymbeline's children (thus Imogen's own siblings) as her
own. Director Ellen Geer has fashioned an appealing production laced
with an aptly measured dose of spectacle and camp. At its core is
Willow Geer's strong and likable princess. As her adoring and, later,
raging, jealous spouse, Peebler's Posthumus is earnestly on the mark,
while Jeff Wiesen garners deserved laughs as the foppish suitor she'd
rejected. The latter meets his end at the hands of the princess'
newfound brother, well-played by Matt Ducati. (DK) Will Geer Theatricum
Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga; Sun., 3:30 p.m.; thru
Sept. 27. (310) 455-3723.
NEW REVIEW GO FIDDLER ON THE ROOF Following hard on the ruby-encrusted heels of Broadway's greatest 21st century's phenom Wicked,
the Pantages returns to this equally significant Broadway hit from the
middle of the last century (nearly a decade as longest running musical)
in a spectacular revival. Sholem Aleichem's tale of life in a Jewish shtetl
under the thumb of Russia's tzar, dramatized by Joseph Stein with a
glorious score and lyrics by Jerry Bock Sheldon Harnick respectively,
still generates laughs and other emotions. This production remains
loyal to Jerome Robbins' original staging, with expertly recreated
direction and choreography by Sammy Dallas Bayes. You won't find any
flying or other magical machinery expected in contemporary Broadway
fare. It feels like time-traveling 50 years back – yet there's no sense
of museum theater here. Leading way is, of course Topol, the Israeli
star who first played the lead tole of Tevye on London's West End when
he was far too young, then in the 1971 film at the perfect age, now in
this “final tour,” when he is too old, but still enormously effective
as the faithful but constantly God-questioning milkman who sees his
Jewish traditions and way of life falling apart. Upon Topol's first
entrance he is greeted as a rock star – but the production doesn't rest
on his laurels alone; it earns its standing ovation from the merits of
the ensemble, musicians and designers. Pantages Theater, 6233 Hollywood
Blvd., Hollywood; Tues.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat., 2 p.m.; Sun., 1 & 7:30
p.m.; thru Aug. 9. (213) 365-3500. (Tom Provenzano)
JULIUS CAESAR Shakespeare's tragedy. Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum,
1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga; Sun., 7:30 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 29,
4 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 6, 7:30 p.m.; Sat., 4 p.m.; thru Sept. 26. (310)
455-3723.
LOUIS & KEELY: LIVE AT THE SAHARA I haven't seen this musical
study of '50s lounge-act crooners Louis Prima and Keely Smith since its
transcendent premiere at Sacred Fools Theatre last year, and oh, is it
different. Documentary and Oscar-nominated film maker Taylor Hackford
has been busy misguiding writer-performers Jake Broder and Vanessa
Claire Smith's musical. Taylor took over from director Jeremy Aldridge,
who brought it to life in east Hollywood. Smith and Broder have drafted
an entirely new book, added onstage characters – including Frank
Sinatra (Nick Cagle) who, along with Broder and Smith, croons a ditty.
(As though Cagle can compete with Sinatra's voice, so embedded into the
pop culture.) They've also added Prima's mother (Erin Matthews) and
other people who populated the lives of the pair. The result is just a
little heartbreaking: The essence of what made it so rare at Sacred
Fools has been re-vamped and muddied into a comparatively generic bio
musical, like Stormy Weather (about Lena Horne) or Ella
(about Ella Fitzgerald). The good news is the terrific musicianship,
the musical direction originally by Dennis Kaye and now shared by
Broder and Paul Litteral, remains as sharp as ever, as are the title
performances. Broder's lunatic edge and Bobby Darin singing style has
huge appeal, while Vanessa Claire Smith has grown ever more comfortable
in the guise and vocal stylings of Keely Smith. It was the music that
originally sold this show, and should continue to do so. With luck,
perhaps Broder and Smith haven't thrown out their original script.
(SLM) Geffen Playhouse, 10886 Le Conte Ave., Westwood; Tues.-Thurs., 8
p.m.; Fri., 7:30 p.m.; Sat., 3:30 & 8 p.m.; Sun., 2:30 & 7:30
p.m.; through Aug. 30. (310) 208-54545.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM Shakespeare's romantic comedy. Will Geer
Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga; Thurs., 8
p.m.; thru Aug. 27. (310) 455-3723.
THE MISER Molière's satire of greed, with songs by Ellen Geer and
Peter Alsop. Will Geer Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon
Blvd., Topanga; Sat., 8 p.m.; Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 8, 4 p.m.; Sat.,
Aug. 22, 4 p.m.; Sun., Sept. 13, 7:30 p.m.; Fri., 8 p.m.; Sun., Sept.
27, 7:30 p.m.; thru Sept. 25. (310) 455-3723.
MONTY PYTHON'S SPMALOT Monty Python and the Holy Grail –
the 1975 take on Arthurian legend — is probably not the sharpest
sendup in comedians Eric Idle & Associates' body of film work,
compared to their later, blistering satire on Biblical lore contained
in The Life of Brian (1979) – Brian being Jesus – and on the existential quandaries in The Meaning of Life (1983). The Holy Grail
nonetheless contains what was for a generation of fans a blithely
anarchistic and singularly British response to a constipated culture.
Idle and John Du Prez's long-touring musical, Monty Python's Spamalot, is lifted mostly from The Holy Grail
and is at its best when filching dialogue from the movie, with
performances that replicate the dry wry humor of faulty assumptions
taken to their most idiotic conclusions. In the film, there's a plague
sketch in which the city corpse collectors go round with a cart
calling, “Bring out your dead.” One ill fellow protests that he's “not
dead yet,” and that in fact he's feeling better. This leads to
bickering with the officials until his owner bonks him on the head with
a shovel, assuring that he is dead. In the musical, that scene gets
played out in a song called “I Am Not Dead Yet,” wherein the clout with
the shovel occurs twice. Evidently, the joke told once isn't
sufficient. With that kind of repetition throughout the musical, the
film's brisk tone shifts from the pinpoint sparks of standup comedy to
the comparatively lumbering reprises of musical theater, though there's
a wonderful parody of Andrew Lloyd Weber torch songs called “The Song
That Goes Like This.” But the larger issue resides in the motives of
creation. Monty Python created comedy in reaction to, and as a comment
on, the absurdities of life in Britain, and beyond. In the musical,
King Arthur (John O'Hurley) seeks – in addition to the holy grail – a
way to get onto Broadway. So this is no longer a vicious comedy about
the world, it's a far gentler homage to Monty Python, filled with Sarah
Palin jokes and mock-Academy Awards. The idea has undergone a tectonic
shift from being pointedly silly to generally silly. These are really
the aesthetics of marketing. The result is far more popular than
penetrating. The company is unimpeachable, as is Casey Nicholaw's
splendidly stupid choreography and Tim Hatley's deliberately cheesy set
and costumes. (SLM) Ahmanson Theatre, 135 N. Grand Ave., downtown;
Tues.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat. 2 p.m.; Sun., 1 & 6:30 p.m.; through
September 6. (213) 972-4400.
MY WAY: A MUSICAL TRIBUTE TO FRANK SINATRA Singers croon Sinatra
tunes. Laguna Playhouse, 606 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach; Sun., 2
p.m.; Tues.-Fri., 7:30 p.m.; Sat., 2 & 7:30 p.m.; thru Aug. 23.
(949) 497-2787.
GO NEVERMORE Poor Edgar. In Dennis Paoli's one-man
play, beautifully directed by Stuart Gordon, Jeffrey Combs portrays the
bedraggled Southern poet, Poe, in a staged reading. He's a bundle of
idiosyncrasies — tremors and a hesitation to complete sentences. The
man is ill with fevers and despondent over the recent death of his
wife, yet from the twinkle in Combs' eye, it's clear he rather enjoys
the attention of strangers, and is deeply proud of his masterwork, “The
Raven,” which he'll recite when he gets around to it. His
concentration, and his ability to perform, are steadily more impeded by
the after effects of a bottle of whiskey, which he clutches at the
inside of his suit. Fortunately, he recites “The Tell-Tale Heart” while
still lucid, and what an absurd, showoff-y, macabre display it is —
pure Victorian melodrama, in the style of Chekhov's one-act, one-man
show: “On the Harmfulness of Tobacco,” also about man making a
presentation ostensibly for one purpose, while undone by another.
Chekhov's character is persecuted by his wife, or by his imaginings of
her. Edgar is torn by the presence of his fiancée, who is assessing
whether her groom-to-be can stay on the wagon. The harrowing answer
becomes self-evident as, in one scene, he goes off on a spontaneous
rant against Longfellow; and in another, as he's leaping around to a
poem about bells, he abruptly falls off the stage into the orchestra
pit. It's an almost unbelievably hammy turn, as mannered as the style
of the era he's depciting, a gorgeous rendition of a tragic clown whose
heart has been cleaved open by loss and regret. His rendition of “The
Raven” is clearly an homage to his late wife, and how any hope of her
return is forbidden by the reprise of this show's title. (SLM) Steve
Allen Theater, 4773 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles; Fri.-Sun., 8 p.m.;
through Aug. 29. (323) 666-4268.
SIDE MAN Warren Leight's jazztastic memory play. (In the Studio
Theater.). Long Beach Playhouse, 5021 E. Anaheim St., Long Beach;
Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru Aug. 9. (562) 494-1014.
SIXTH ANNUAL NEW ORIGINAL WORKS FESTIVAL (NOW) There are three
cycles in this forum for inventive multimedia works. Call for
schedules. REDCAT, 631 W. Second St., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8:30 p.m.;
thru Aug. 8. (213) 237-2800.
NEW REVIEW THE TEMPEST Many would argue that Shakespeare
is not meant to be experienced in a darkened proscenium house with
fancy sets, a silent audience and plush seating, but with minimal
lighting and sets, a boisterous crowd and no seating at all. Those
preferring the latter will find this production of Shakespeare's final
play to their liking. The familiar story about the wronged former Duke
of Milan who is banished to an island with his daughter, only to use
his powers of sorcery to command the faeries of the isle to exact
revenge on his fellow nobles is performed with traditional minimalism,
but with much modern commentary and humor. Director and company
co-founder Melissa Chalsma incorporates into the dialogue jokes about
cell phones, Martha Stewart, and even the Barnsdall performance space.
Continuing the modern aesthetic are Daniel Mahler's costumes, which
feature a blend of bubble wrap, duct tape, and other shiny bits for the
faeries and Prospero's cape, in styles ranging from Mafioso (Sebastian)
to band geek (Trinculo) to Charlie Chaplain (Stephano). The latter two
work well for the bawdy, vaudevillian duo, who along with Caliban,
become the most engaging part of the performance. What's gained in
comedy, however, is lost in the somber philosophical inquiry that makes
up significant part of the text. A major reason for this is the
setting, which, by allowing food, drink and a “family atmosphere,” also
suffers from the distraction of crying, talking children. And while
that atmosphere is good for a summer community event, give me the
darkened proscenium house for this play. Barnsdall Park, 4800 Hollywood
Blvd., Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 7:30 p.m.; Sun., 7:30 p.m. (in alternating
rep with Henry V, so performance dates vary); through August 30. (323)
836-0288. An Independent Shakespeare Company. Production. (Mayank
Keshaviah)
CONTINUING PERFORMANCES IN SMALLER THEATERS SITUATED IN HOLLYWOOD, WEST HOLLYWOOD AND THE DOWNTOWN AREAS
ACME SATURDAY NIGHT ACME's flagship sketch show, with celebrity
guest hosts each week., $15. Acme Comedy Theatre, 135 N. La Brea Ave.,
L.A.; Sat., 8 p.m.. (323) 525-0202.
GO ALTAR BOYZ For those over the age of 15, boy
bands have long been fodder for easy ridicule – stir in Christian rock
and malicious burlesque becomes ripe for the picking. But in this
outing by playwright Kevin Del Aguila with songwriters Gary Adler &
Michael Patrick Walker, derision is superseded by affection. The book
is so sweet and so gentle the lyrics that the show lacks a satisfying
satirical bite. But the good news is in the performances. Jesse
Bradley, Clifford Bañagale, Jake Wesley Stewart, Robert Acinapura and
Kelly Rice blend their disparate personalities, boyish charms and
harmonic voices to create an ensemble that could easily play it
straight for the right audiences. Choreographer Ameenah Kaplan takes
great advantage of the boys' uniform physical agility and athleticism,
creating song and dance numbers far more entertaining than the overdone
Catholic jokes. Musical director Christopher Lloyd Bratten and his band
(Adam Halitzka, Nick Perez and Carson Schutze) are totally in sync,
keeping the show bouncy and charming for 90 minutes. Michael Mullen's
too-precious rock costumes are terrific and amusing. Only the imminent
threat of forced audience participation slightly dulls the glister.
Celebration Theatre, 7051-B Santa Monica Blvd., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8
p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru Aug. 23. (323) 957-1884. (Tom Provenzano)
BABY IT'S YOU! American Pop Anthology presents Colin Escott and Floyd
Mutrux's musical biography of Scepter Records founder Florence
Greenberg., www.babyitsyouthemusical.com. Coast Playhouse, 8325 Santa
Monica Blvd., West Hollywood; Sun., 3 p.m.; Fri., 8 p.m.; Sat., 4 &
8 p.m.; thru Aug. 30. (800) 595-4TIX.
NEW REVIEW GO BIG BRO/LIL BRO
Photo courtesy of Company of Angels
In
playwright Jonathan Ceniceroz's torn-between-two-lovers potboiler, a
wannabe actor named Carlos (Vince Tula) leaves his mature and ailing
partner to set up house with a coquettish young gent from his acting
class. The wallowing melodrama commences with Carlos resolutely packing
his bags, deaf to the incessant pleas of wheelchair-bound Gil (Art
McDermott). We next see him in his new digs, in thrall to the alluring
Jeremy (understudy David Padilla), whose clothes he's possessively
concealed in a power play seemingly intended to proscribe his new
boyfriend's coming and goings. Directed by Josh Chambers, the stilted
first act unwinds with a rather depthless display of passions as the
financially pressed Carlos struggles to support his increasingly sulky
and demanding inamorato. Act 2 improves, however, first because the
script acquires some texture as Jeremy evolves into a narcissistic
psychopath, but more so because Padilla – in his debut stage
performance – makes the most of the material to establish a beguilingly
ominous presence. MC Dermott is persuasive as the catty but
perspicacious invalid. To the playwright's credit, the drama ultimately
detours away from a sensationalized denouement into one more sensible
and satisfying. Alexandria Hotel, 501 S. Spring St., downtown;
Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 & 7 p.m.; thru Aug. 2. (323) 883-1717.
A Company of Angels production. (Deborah Klugman )
CABARET THE MUSICAL The economy is terrible; unemployment is rising;
sex and promiscuity abound; traditions are constantly broken, creating
backlash from social conservatives — of course, it's Germany in the
early 1930s. Against the backdrop of the Weimar Republic, Kander and
Ebb's 1966 classic musical follows American novelist Clifford Bradshaw
(Michael Bernardi) through his affair with English singer Sally Bowles
(Kalinda Gray), whom he meets in Berlin at the Kit Kat Klub as the
Nazis are taking over. At the top of the show, the iconic “Willkommen”
introduces the club and its dancers — the Kit Kat Girls and Boys — as
well as the Emcee (Eduardo Enrikez), whose outrageous persona is a dead
ringer for Joel Grey's 1972 Oscar-winning performance in Bob Fosse's
movie. When not at the cabaret, Cliff stays in a boarding house run by
Fraulein Schneider (Annalisa Erickson), who has a soft corner for local
fruit vendor Herr Shultz (Jayson Kraid) and constantly battles with
tenant Fraulein Kost (Josie Yount) over the stream of sailors who flow
through Kost's bedroom in order to help “pay the rent.” Cliff, on the
other hand, pays the rent by giving English lessons. Director Judy
Norton's use of table seating and a working bar completes the cabaret
ambiance, but her transitions drag and she fails to bring out the je ne
sais quoi — or perhaps ich weiss nicht — that would have made the
brilliant source material leap off the stage. Even Greg Hakke's musical
direction is sluggish at times and Derrick McDaniel's lighting leaves
many dark spots onstage. The performances, unlike the German accents,
are solid, but only Enrikez really stands out. (MK) MET Theater; 1089
N. Oxford Ave., Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through
August 9. (323) 965-9996. www.plays411.com/cabaret. (Mayank Keshaviah)
GO CARVED IN STONE In Jeffrey Hartgraves' comedy,
it's always cocktail hour in the afterlife lounge shared by Truman
Capote (Kevin Remington), Quentin Crisp (Leon Acord), Oscar Wilde
(Jesse Merlin) and Tennessee Williams (Curt Bonnem). Witty aphorisms
fly fast and furious, as each writer tries for the perfect bon mot to
top the others. Into this literary hothouse stumbles Gryphon Tott (Levi
Damione), who can't believe he's dead. He's further perplexed by the
denizens of the lounge because he's heterosexual. The other writers
explain that he's a gay icon, which has brought him to their cozy
setting. They add that the door though which he entered occasionally
opens, but the four literary heavy heavyweights have no desire to move
on. Judy Garland and Bette Davis (both played by Amanda Abel) make a
brief appearance, and leave just as suddenly. William Shakespeare (Alex
Egan) stays around for a while longer to much hectoring from the lounge
habitués. Tott's status as a gay icon unfolds slowly — he borrowed
background scenery from a gay writer, bringing up the question of
plagiarism. The cast is superb under the fast-moving direction of John
Pabros Clark, and the pacing and timing are remarkable. (SR) Theatre
Asylum, 6320 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.;
Tues., 8 p.m.; through Aug. 9, www.carvedinstonetheplay.com. (310)
473-5483.
CHARIOT It is 1987 and the Hills are the only black family in a tidy
but sterile suburb of the San Fernando Valley. In a too successful
attempt at assimilation, the family members have repressed nearly every
emotional and spiritual problem to come their way. In Steven Lee's
everything-including-the-kitchen-sink melodrama, Grandmother (Gayle La
Rone) arrives from the south in her chariot (an expensive sports car)
to spread her wealth and shake the family loose from its self-loathing
and hypocrisy. Lee's script gives each of the generally solid actors
enormous scene-chewing speeches and director Cary Thompson encourages
high-powered performances, which never let up and unfortunately too
often turn to screaming matches and chest-pounding. Lee's exhaustive
list of dramatic issues center on homosexuality, psychosis, religious
rejection, alcoholism and violence. Near the end we wonder why he left
out incest – oh, never mind we get to that too. Thomas (TJ) Walker
provides an array of terrific costumes which provide the visual cues
not found in the very simple set pieces that create the modest suburban
home. Stella Adler Theatre, 6773 Hollywood Blvd.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.;
Sun., 3pm.; through Sept. 6. (323) 960-7788. (Tom Provenzano)
DEATH, LIES AND ALIBIS Riffing full-length improvs on the works of
famous writers is becoming something of a cottage industry — Impro
Theatre has busted open works of Jane Austen, Stephen Sondheim, Anton
Chekhov, Tennessee Williams and William Shakespeare. Here, director
Patrick Bristow (formerly of the Groundlings and currently also with
Puppet Up Uncensored) does his own take on Agatha Christie's literary
idiosyncracies with a company named Improvatorium. Creating an
improvised production from a couple of audience suggestions in the
style of Ms. Christie is, well, murderously difficult — even with
Christie's pro forma structure of a group trapped in a locale, a
mysterious death, and an investigation of some sort. The 10-person
ensemble comports itself with moments of brilliant off-the-cuff wit
intermingled with references to the play's climactic sporting event —
three-legged and potato-sack races. Part of the joy is the strain for
dignity, as the circumstances around them prevail against it, combined
with their posh attire (wardrobe by Leslee Harman and the cast).
Obviously, the event changes nightly, but when I attended, the momentum
rolled into a few mud holes and the evening was more a series of
lovely, delicate cameo performances rather than a larger view of what
Agatha Christie meant to her audience — or means to ours — or even a
satire of the essences that ensure her works endure. Amidst the very
good company, Bristow and Jayne Entwhistle are standouts. (SLM) Theatre
Asylum, 6320 Santa Monica Blvd., Hollywood; every other Thursday, 8:30
p.m.; through August 20. (323) 962-1632. An Improvatorium production.
NEW REVIEW GO THE DEBATE OVER COURTNEY O'CONNELL OF COLUMBUS, NEBRASKA
Photo courtesy of Chalk Repertory Theatre
If
we're to believe playwright Mat Smart, which is probably not a good
idea, the bloody rampage of a jealous lover in 1894 Columbus, Nebraska
led to the “Morgan Morality Act,” stipulating that if a woman chose a
fiancée over the objections of a former lover who had taken her
virginity, her first lover was entitled to challenge her fiancée in a
public debate, sort of like a cross between The Dating Game and The Jerry Springer Show.
After hearing argumentation from both parties, the woman was free to
choose her future mate. If the woman continued to rebuke the
challenger, the law forbade him to contact her or to mention her name
in public. This anti-stalking bill placed profound confidence in the
power of debate in general, and argumentation in particular, to prevent
corpses from piling up, as they evidently did in 1894 Nebraska, at
least according to the record cited in Smart's play. In Act 1 of his
delightful comedy, set in a contemporary Nebraska tavern – here
portrayed in the site-specific environs of downtown's Metropol Cafe —
Smart is really grappling with the intersection of commitment and
ownership. Jeff Galfer, who originated the role at New York's Slant
Theatre Project, is both horrifying and endearing as Scott P. Scooner,
a snazzily dressed local denizen whose dream of making it big consists
of landing the assistant manager post at the suit shop where he now
works as a sales clerk. Scott is a romantic extrovert with a history of
suicide attempts over the loss of his love, Courtney (Amy Ellenberger,
nicely capturing an emotional descent after floating on air) to a
six-figure-salary-earning “dickwad from Sacramento” named James
Alexander (Larry Heron, in a suave and smart performance). Courtney's
been dating James for two months (compared to her five-year courtship
with Scott). During the debate, James offers her a vacation in the
Bahamas that only makes her swoon some more, as Scott must endure the
site of his ex embracing and kissing his competitor while he's trying
to win her back. Thomas (Feodor Chin) gently moderates the debate in a
performance of wry intelligence and absurdity, clutching a handbook of
the law that stipulates time limits and other protocol for the
growingly ludicrous spectacle. After both suitors' presentations,
Courtney finds herself paralyzed by indecision, which is when the law's
more arcane articles, such as a corn-shucking competition, come into
play. Act 2 flies back in time to 1894 and tracks the origins of this
“morality act” via a farce with the actors in drag and impressive
quick-changes. It's a different play in a different style that presents
more of a challenge to the actors than the real-time naturalism of Act
1. It nonetheless tracks the origins of our so-called freedom, and how
incapable we are of handing the responsibilities that come with it.
Despite the shortcomings of the farce, Jennifer Chang stages the event,
and it is an event, with a nimble touch, and Rachel Schachar's costumes
are perfect. Metropol Cafe, 923 East Third Street, downtown; Sun.-Mon.,
8 p.m.; through Aug. 24. (800) 838-3006 or https://brownpapertickets.com A Chalk Repertory Theatre production. (Steven Leigh Morris)
FERNANDO Art scholar versus curator, by Steven Charles Haworth. Part of
Open Fist Theatre Company's First Look Festival of New Plays. Open Fist
Theatre, 6209 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A.; Sun., Aug. 2, 3 p.m.; Through
Aug. 7, 8 p.m.; Sat., Aug. 15, 3 & 7 p.m.. (323) 882-6912.
FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE Weekly sketch comedy. Acme Comedy Theatre, 135 N. La Brea Ave., L.A.; Fri., 8 p.m.. (323) 525-0202.
A HATFUL OF RAIN Michael V. Gazzo's study of substance abuse. Skylight
Theater, 1816 1/2 N. Vermont Ave., L.A.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7
p.m.; thru Aug. 23, www.katselastheatre.org. (310) 358-9936.
NEW REVIEW GO HELLZ KITCHEN ABLAZE
Hellz Kitchen Ablaze
Tommy
Carter's hard-hitting drama delves into the sadly familiar terrain of
police brutality and corruption. After a drug raid in which a team
member was shot and killed, a clique of New York City's finest
rendezvous in an abandoned, graffiti pocked warehouse, ostensibly to
commiserate about their dead partner. Robert Mangiardi, Michael
Camacho, Sal Landi, Phil Parolisi, Charles Taylor and Gary Werntz turn
in harrowing performances as gritty, street wise narcotics officers
whose psychological and emotional black holes are nothing short of
terrifying. It isn't long after the team assembles that the real reason
for the “party” emerges, and we learn that a bond has been made to
split nearly a million dollars in confiscated drug money, which is to
be retrieved by this gang in blue's only black member, Dash (Tim
Starks). It's while waiting for the payoff to arrive that a toxic stew
of racism, fear, suspicion, paranoia and undiluted greed start to erode
alliances causing insurmountable conflicts that culminate in crushing
betrayals and murder. In addition to chillingly realistic characters,
Carter's blunt writing and gallows humor propel this 90-minute drama,
which in spite of its dearth of action is never boring or tedious. And
director Barry Sattels and his cast excel in opening up the explosive
tension of the plot. Pan Andreas Theatre, 5125 Melrose Ave. L.A.;
Thur.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Aug. 15. (213) 712-5021. (Lovell Estell III)
THE HIGH Teen-drama parody, “from OMG to LOL.”. ComedySportz, 733 Seward St., L.A.; Fri., 10:30 p.m.. (323) 871-1193.
KEEP THE BALL ROLLING Skipper by Robert Beiderman, Dead Angel by Dale Andersen, Cupidity by Thomas J. Misuraca, Table for One by Hindi Brooks, Up on the Roof by Mark Harvey Levine, Dear John by Herman Poppe. Write Act Theater, 6128 Yucca St., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Aug. 1. (323) 469-3113.
GO KILL ME DEADLY Few literary figures seem as
blatantly ripe for satire as the gumshoe detective. Playwright Bill
Robens ably answers the call, with an entertaining spoof about an
obtuse private dick named Charlie Nichols (Dean Lemont) and his
obsession for a witless scarlet-clad siren named Mona (Kirsten
Vangsness). Called in to forestall the murder of a wealthy dowager,
Lady Clairmont (the comically skillful Kathleen Mary Carthy), he's soon
embroiled with the usual parade of tough-guy gangsters, dumb cops and
seductive debutantes. Obstacles confront Charlie everywhere — his
client soon ends up dead — but none prove as treacherous as his buxom,
doe-eyed lady love, whose predilection for homicide he myopically
ignores. Savvily staged by director Kiff Scholl (with fight
choreography by Caleb Terray and videography by Darrett Sanders), the
script successfully parodies the genre's multiple clichés and evocative
parlance, even as it lacks the razor-sharp edge of a top-notch farce.
(The show goes on a bit too long.) Still the adroit supporting ensemble
makes the most of the piece's convoluted subplots — among them Nicholas
S. Williams as Lady Clairmont's effete son Clive, Phinneas Kiyomura as
an eyewitness to her murder and Ezra Buzzington as her suspiciously
implicated butler. As the hero, Lemont demonstrates facileness. With
her pouty lips and batting eyelids, Vangsness' outrageous Mona becomes
the show's star. (DK) Theatre of NOTE, 1517 N. Cahuenga Blvd.,
Hollywood; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 & 7 p.m.; through Aug 30.
(323) 856-8611.
NEW REVIEW GO THE NUCLEAR FAMILY
Photo courtesy of The Nuclear Family
As
they've been doing since 2007, the company of three actors (Stephen
Guarino, Jimmy Ray Bennett and John Gregorio), and pianist Matthew
Loren Cohen, staggered through on wit and a prayer to create a
90-minute musical theater piece off-the-cuff, sprung from the core
characters of a generic American family: Mom, Dad and Daughter (some
nights it's Son). The piece and even the characters' names are
different every night, thanks to the unpredictability of audience
suggestions, and the trio play different roles at each performance.
Every show, however, starts in the “kitchen” – four wooden chairs, two
with broken cross-beams – and spirals in and out of control from there,
spinning the dual mythologies of The American Family and The American
Musical around and around on a spit. It's ribald, insane, and great
fun. Meta Theatre, 7801 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood | Thurs.-Sat., 8
p.m.; through August 9. https://needtheater.org A NeedTheatre production (Steven Leigh Morris) See Theater Feature.
OCTOMOM! THE MUSICAL Chicago has gritty realism. New York has
Broadway musicals. So what's the L.A. aesthetic? I've heard complaints
– I think they were sneers – that L.A. has no unifying theater style,
just like it has no unifying geography. Not true: camp. You see more
parody of stupid movies, stupid TV shows and stupid people on the
stages of L.A. than any other genre – even more than one-person
showcases for TV. The latest example is this quite charming,
clever-in-parts (the eight kids are sock puppets) and terribly
over-hyped (preview coverage on Fox TV and in People Magazine) cabaret
about thoughtless and relentless greed, which is probably to our era
what religious hypocrisy was to Moliere's. Writer-director Chris
Votaire's theatrical comic book, with witty, light music by Rachel
Lawrence, interlinks the voracious appetites of Nadya Suleman (the
excellent Molly McCook) and Bernie Madoff (John Combs, also fine). It
suffers somewhat from the plight of trying to be on top of the news
with topics that were in the news cycle a few months ago. But the
underlying source of the satire that Voltaire is gunning for certainly
hasn't gone anywhere. The insights are broad as a barn. Madoff meets
that schemer Ponzi (Blake Hogue, with a keen expression of derangement
that works for number of cameos) in a sweet soft-shoe number. It could
be in the style of Tom Lehrer, but this is more obvious and less sly.
The production's strength lies in Dean McFlicker's musical staging, and
the actors' terrific movement skills – particularly that of Dinora
Walcott, the crooning emcee. Oh, but the thin voices bring it down. As
though this stuff is easy, as though a musical can be without the
triple threat of acting, dancing and singing. With the threadbare
canned accompaniment, we're missing about a third of the musical-comedy
trinity in those whispy voices, sometimes out of key. Not so for
McCook's Octomom, beautifully peevish, whining and with a sense of
entitlement as bloated as her belly. She carries the show, in tune and
on step, like a latter-day Mother Courage. Fake Gallery, 4319 Melrose
Ave., Los Angeles; Sat., 8 & 10 p.m.; indef. (323) 856-1168.
(Steven Leigh Morris)
NEW REVIEW GO
Photo courtesy of Josh Margolin
ONE
NIGHT STAND: AN IMPROVISED MUSICAL Seven young actors don't use wigs
for a musical parody concoted in the spur of the moment – this is the
improv equivalent of performing without a net. On the night I saw
them, they brewed a father-son conflict that parodied the literary
convention of young people arriving in L.A from the hinterlands to
become stars. The lanky Quinn Beswick portrayed a kid in Tennessee
confronting his dad (Jonah Platt) about not wanting to live out his
father's failed dreams, about not wanting to be a star, but wanting
instead to escape to L.A. to pursue his dream of cleaning up after
other people who do want to be stars. (No shortage of employment
opportunities in that field.) The fresh-scrubbed ensemble showed wit
aplenty and boasted bone fide musical theater chops, particularly
though the sharp energy and even sharper voices of Samantha Martin and
Mollie Taxe. Musical Director Andrew Resnick did piano-accompaniment
duties. Hudson Theater Guild, 6539 Santa Monica Boulevard, Hollywood;
Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sat., 9:30 p.m.; through August 22. (323)
960-4429. (Steven Leigh Morris) See Theater Feature.
ONE WOMAN, TWO LIVES Alretha Thomas, past winner of several NAACP
awards, is writer of this play about the effort to protect a family by
a woman with a past, played by Kellita Smith of “The Bernie Mac Show.”.
Imagined Life Theater, 5615 San Vicente Blvd., L.A.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.;
Sun., 3 p.m.; thru Aug. 23…
GO POINT BREAK LIVE! Jaime Keeling's merciless
skewering of the 1991 hyper-action flick starring Keanu Reeves and Gary
Busey is loaded with laughs, as well as surprises, like picking an
audience member to play Reeves' role of Special Agent Johnny Utah. It's
damn good fun, cleverly staged by directors Eve Hars, Thomas Blake and
George Spielvogel. (LE3). Dragonfly, 6510 Santa Monica Blvd., L.A.;
Fri., 8:30 p.m.; Sat., 8 p.m.. (866) 811-4111.
SAY GOODBYE, TOTO The Wizard of Oz from Toto's POV, by Amy
Heidish. Hayworth Theatre, 2511 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.; Fri.-Sat., 8
p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru Sept. 19, www.arktheatre.org. (323) 969-1707.
GO SCHOOL HOUSE ROCK LIVE! TOO The original School
House Rock was a long-running kids' TV show that winningly combined
cartoon characters and songs with a high educational content. Here
director-choreographer Rick Sparks assembles six terrific, high-energy
performers — Harley Jay, Tricia Kelly, Jayme Lake, Michael “Milo”
Lopez, Lisa Tharps and Brian Wesley Turner — to employ all their skill
and pizzazz on songs about numbers, multiplication, parts of speech,
American history, government, the bones of the body, financial interest
rates, and a score of other useful topics, all turned into lively
entertainment. (A math song about multiplying is called “Naughty Number
Nine,” and the American Revolution is served up in “No More Kings.”)
There's a scrap of plot, about saving a financially failing diner, but
that's the merest of pretexts. Cody Gillette provides crisp musical
direction and leads the trio (with Anthony Zenteno, on guitars, and
Eric Tatuaca on drums) to provide infectious, hard-driving
accompaniments on Adam Flemming's handsome diner set. Clever costumes
are by Kat Marquet, and Daavid Hawkins provides hundreds of zany props.
If you already know that 7 x 9 = 63, you might feel, as I did, that 20
songs is a few too many, but the kids seem to love it. Greenway Court
Theatre, 544 N. Fairfax Avenue, L.A.; call for schedule; through August
9. (323) 655-7679, ext. 100, or www.schoolhouserockla.com.
GO SEARCH AND DESTROY Howard Korder's play begins like
a mildly absurdist comedy about a feckless, dunderhead Florida ice-show
promoter, Martin Merkheim (Brian Ridings), who owes $47,000 in back
taxes. When he becomes obsessed with late-night TV self-help guru Dr.
Waxling (Joseph Dunn), he decides he must make a movie of the doctor's
novel, Daniel Strong, as part of his self-empowerment campaign. But the
doctor (who has marketing problems) is unimpressed by Martin's high
ideals and wants cold, hard cash. And the play turns darker. In his
pursuit of money, Martin becomes involved with a receptionist (Meagan
English) who wants to write gory horror flicks, a shady businessman
(Adam Hunter Howard), a couple of drug dealers (Dan Fishbach and
Anthony Duran), and a strung-out coke head (Thom Guillou), who is
political consultant to a conservative senator. The pursuit of
self-improvement leads only to sleaziness, corruption and
self-destruction. Korder's script ricochets between picaresque comedy,
morality play, melodrama and a play of ideas; it's fun to watch, and
director Joshua Adler has assembled a terrific cast. Ridings makes
Martin's bumbling desperation believable, Fishbach and Guillou
contribute sharp comic vignettes, while Howard and Dunn lend a more
sinister touch. (NW) The Complex, Ruby Theatre, 6476 Santa Monica
Boulevard, Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; through Aug. 23.
(323) 960-7776.
GO SHAKESPEARE UNSCRIPTED The idea hasn't lost
anything in the decade since I reviewed this concept-driven
improvisation. Shakespeare Unscripted is an impromptu story inspired by
the Bard's work, using Elizabethan literary conventions and stylistic
nuances. Audience members are asked for suggestions to start things
off, and if something sounds good, the “play” is on. A slow start is
common, but as the actors get warmed up, the wit, charm, energy and
creativity on display are delightful and entertaining. The night I
attended, the subjects chosen were “river” and “waterfall,” and the
cast did a snappy job of creating a storyline about two lost brothers,
exiled from their kingdom; a mother mourning her lost sons; a jilted,
German suitor, who is cuckolded by an enchantress;, and tossed in for
good measure, a scheming pair of siblings and some humorous courtly
intrigue. Most of the fun here comes from trying to guess where the
plot is heading and seeing the cast members straining to contain their
own mirth. The production utilizes alternating casts, and is
co-directed by Brian Lohmann and Dan O'Connor. (LE3) Theatre of the
Arts, 1625 N. Las Palmas Ave., Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m. through
Aug. 1. (800) 838-3006. Impro Theatre.
SNOOPY!!! THE MUSICAL Larry Grossman and Hal Hacakady's sequel to You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown. Knightsbridge Theater, 1944 Riverside Dr., L.A.; Sat., 5 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru Aug. 23. (323) 667-0955.
GO STOP KISS Manhattan traffic newscaster Callie
(Deborah Puette) meets Sara (Kristina Harrison) the week the young
blonde schoolteacher arrives in the city. Both have always identified
themselves as straight: Callie's got her friend-with-benefits George
(Christan Anderson), who she assumes she'll marry once they both stop
trying to find someone better, and Sara has just left her boyfriend of
seven years, Peter (Justin Okin), behind in St. Louis in her quest to
find a bigger, harder, more worthwhile life. The two women gradually
become best friends, deliciously tormented by their quiet hints that
they both want a more physical relationship. But no sooner do they
stick a tentative foot out of the closet than they're pushed out in the
worst possible way — as a news story about a violent bigot who puts
Sara in a coma. Diana Son's time-jumping play about coping with the
unexpected skips from their first meeting to Callie's first sitdown
with the investigating cop (Jeorge Watson); we're rooting for the
couple to get together under the shadow of the consequences. But Son's
equal emphasis on romance makes the play looser and more inviting than
a social problem drama, and the question isn't about the source of
hate, but the depth of Callie's love when Peter announces that Sara's
family wants to move her hospital bed back to Missouri. Under Elina de
Santos and Matthew Elkin's direction, the ensemble opening night was
still a little stiff, but Puette's tender performance captures a
haphazard woman realizing that she's finally sure of at least one
thing. Theatre/Theater, 5041 Pico Blvd., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.;
Sun., 7 p.m.; thru July 26, www.roguemachinetheatre.com. (323)
960-7774. A Rogue Machine production (Amy Nicholson)
SUNDAY OF THE DEAD All-new sketch and improv by the Sunday Company.
Groundling Theater, 7307 Melrose Ave., L.A.; Sun., 7:30 p.m.. (323)
934-9700.
NEW REVIEW TERMINUS AMERICANA
Photo courtesy of the SpyAnts
Matt
Pelfrey's weird hot mess of a dark satire is a virtual dramatization of
lunacy, as seen from the inside peering out. If you have ever noticed
someone walking down the street, with a tin foil hat firmly lodged atop
his or her head muttering imprecations about this or that conspiracy,
Pelfrey's play is a work that tells you how that tragic figure came to
that point. Mac Winchell (Brett Hren) is a contented cubicle-dwelling
office worker whose life is thrown into disarray when co-worker Felix
(Eric Bunton) goes berserk and starts shooting up the building. Felix
offs himself right in front of Mac, but before he does, he whispers
something unmentionable in his ear. From that moment, Mac finds
himself sliding into a bizarre, alternate universe in which everything
is deranged and violent. After inheriting the Terminus Americana, a
phone book-sized manual of madness left by Felix as an office Secret
Santa gift, Mac wanders the country having a bizarre series of
adventures and ultimately being hailed as a prophet in the New Church
of Christ The Office Shooter – and you can imagine what one must do to
join that organization. Pelfrey's comedy is intentionally meandering,
full of seemingly random incidents and a disjointed structure that is
meant to be both frustrating and arch. Unfortunately, a little goes a
long way, and two hours of the disconnected babble almost leaves the
audience groping for our own tin foil hats. Danny Parker-Lopes's
phlegmatic staging suffers from lagging pacing and strangely clumsy
blocking. Although Hren's slow transition from mild mannered office
drone to howling loon is chillingly convincing, some of the supporting
performances are prone to stiff acting turns and halting line
readings. The Elephant Theatre, 6322 Santa Monica Blvd, Hollywood;
Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru August 15. (323) 860-8786 or https://thespyants.com. A SpyAnts production. (Paul Birchall)
TREEFALL Henry Murray's cabin-fever future shock. Theatre/Theater,
5041 Pico Blvd., L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Aug. 1,
www.roguemachinetheatre.com. (323) 960-7774.
WIFE SWAPPERS “It's nice to have new blood. We get sick of the same
asses and tits all the time,” says Jake (Jonathan Palmer) as he and his
wife, Loretta (Mary Scheer), welcome the much younger Paul (Cody
Chappel) and Karen (Chloe Taylor), to their American flag-festooned
Orange County home for a swingers party. While Karen is uncomfortable,
Paul seems eager to explore, throwing himself into a world straight out
of the “free love” 1970s, complete with wooden hot tub. To try to get
in the mood, Karen looks for liquid courage, but in the first of many
ironies, Loretta informs her that alcohol is “against the rules” and
generally frowned upon by these staunch Republicans . . . who
nonetheless freely imbibe on the sly. Soon the group is joined by old
friends Gina (Melissa Denton), her husband, Mac (Michael Halpin), and
Shirl (Jodi Carlisle). All is fun and games until Paul's friend Roy
(Todd Lowe) arrives unexpectedly and goes too far, leading to a quick
dissolution of the party. Justin Tanner, who wrote and directed the
piece, pens snappy banter that cleverly juxtaposes disparate elements
to mine their comic potential, but his overt commentary on the
hypocrisy of these Christ-and-country-loving patriots who love to fuck
each other's wives, is awkward at times. Among the cast, Denton stands
out with her sexually explicit motor mouth, though the rest also play
their roles with aplomb. The Zephyr Theatre, 7456 Melrose Ave.,
Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; through Aug. 8. (323) 653-6886. (Mayank
Keshaviah) elements to mine their comic potential, but his overt
commentary on the hypocrisy of these Christ-and-country-loving patriots
who love to fuck each other's wives, is awkward at times. Among the
cast, Denton stands out with her sexually explicit motor mouth, though
the rest also play their roles with aplomb. (MK) The Zephyr Theatre,
7456 Melrose Ave., Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; through Aug. 8. (323)
653-6886.
YA GOTTA GO HIGHER One-man show on addiction and recovery by
comedian Yul Spencer. East Theatre at the Complex, 6468 Santa Monica
Blvd., L.A.; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 4 p.m.; thru Aug. 9,
www.yagottagohigher.com…
YOU LOOK GOOD ON PAPER “In my 20s, I knew who I was — because I was
a slut,” chirps solo performer Juliette Marshall with the brazen
self-deprecation the blond beauty has wielded for a decade of
monologues about her quest for love. In her first, she readied herself
for the right love. In her second, she married him. Now, 10 years
later, they're divorced (“He was controlling and I was co-dependent —
we were so happy”) and Marshall is trying to shape her story into an
evening of torch songs and standup. “You Look Good on Paper,” is the
number about her travails in matchmaking; “When Did I Become a Cougar?”
questions if she should accept a young bartender's offer of passion.
Drummer Denise “Delish” Frasier and musical director-pianist Mitch
Kaplan keep time as Marshall tangos with a handsome stranger and then
tries her hand at a dark ditty in which she asks a doctor if she could
be mentally ill. (His assessment: “adjustment disorder.”) Marshall is
earnest about trying to make sense of her past and grab the reins of
her future, but she and director Clifford Bell seem to be too close to
the material to make it about anything bigger than cocktail chatter
translated to the stage. Fittingly, she ends one song with “I don't
know how to end this song . . . yet.” (AN) Improv Comedy Lab, 8162
Melrose Ave., L.A.; Sat., 8:30 p.m.; through August 1. (323) 651-2583.
CONTINUING PERORMANCES IN SMALLER THEATERS SITUATED IN THE VALLEYS
THE APPLE TREE In a series of three one-act musicals by Jerry Bock
and Sheldon Harnick (the duo who brought us Fiddler on the Roof), this
1966 piece thematically explores whether getting what you want leads to
wanting what you get. However, unlike the original Broadway version,
this production features three (mostly) separate casts and directors.
The opener, The Diary of Adam and Eve, a wry take on the familiar
Biblical tale adapted from the Mark Twain story, is followed by The
Lady or the Tiger?, from Frank R. Stockton's story of a king's barbaric
system of justice, and finally by Passionella, a Cinderella-style tale
about a chimney sweep who dreams of being a movie star. In the first
act, Gary Lamb's direction and choreography are unspectacular, and the
energy of the piece, including the pacing of the musical direction, is
lacking. In the second, director William A. Reilly's pacing is
similarly uneven, as is the level of camp required to sell the
material, though Kit Paquin as Princess Barbara really sells “I've Got
What You Want.” The final act is the highlight of the evening as
Matthew J. Williamson's direction features cleverly minimalist set
pieces, unique staging, quick costume changes, and the right amount of
shtick to bring the material to life. Stephanie Fredericks also shines
as Ella/Passionella with her strong vocals, comic flair and timing.
Crown City Theatre, 11031 Camarillo St., N. Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8
p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through August 9. (818) 745-8527. (Mayank Keshaviah)
BILLIE AND BOGIE Billie Holiday and Humphrey Bogart had enough
superficiality in common to make them an apt pair for a show about the
psyche of two hard-drinking, hard-living New Yorkers. They became icons
while still feeling they had something to prove — Holiday to the
bigoted, and Bogart to audiences who underestimated then overestimated
his acting ability. This is a fine show, but it isn't the show I've
just described. at show. Instead, director Bryan Rasmussen presents
Bogie (Dan Spector) and Lady Day (Synthia L. Hardy) as legends gracing
us with a few dark anecdotes about their roots. Spector and Hardy are
sincere in their affections for these imposing pop figures, but there's
a whiff of Wikipedia to their character profiles — their monologues
are arranged chronologically, not thematically, chugging along at the
highs and lows of lives about to be cut short while guzzling (but not
feeling) enough booze to tranquilize a tiger. With a running time of
nearly three hours, we should know Bogie and Billie better than we do
by the end. Instead we walk about with the warm melancholy of sharing a
drink with a fascinating stranger we'll never meet again. Whitefire
Theater, 13500 Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Aug. 22.
(818) 990-2324. (Amy Nicholson)
CARAPACE ISLE Jon Courie's story of lesbian's return to her
dysfunctional North Carolina home. Raven Playhouse, 5233 Lankershim
Blvd., North Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru Aug. 16,
www.collaborativeartistsensemble.com. (323) 860-6569.
DOG SEES GOD: CONFESSIONS OF A TEENAGE BLOCKHEAD Bert V. Royal puts
the Peanuts gang in high school dealing with sex, drugs, violence and
homophobia. Secret Rose Theater, 11246 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood;
Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 6 p.m.; thru Aug. 23. (877) 620-7673.
GO EQUUS Director-set designer August Viverito and
his colleagues have mastered the art of clarity and intensity when
working in a tiny space such as this. Peter Shaffer's drama has always
told the harrowing tale of psychiatrist Martin Dysart (Jim Hanna), who
must discover why a severely troubled teenager, Alan Strang (Patrick
Stafford), has gouged out the eyes of six horses with a hoof pick.
What's different here is that Hanna's Dysart suffers an anguish at
least as deep as the boy's, and this carries the play from clever
melodrama into the realm of tragedy. Dysart slowly realizes that Alan
has evolved his own bizarre religion, in which horses are his gods —
and has enacted a strange Passion Play. The doctor understands that to
cure the boy, he must take from him the richest and most profound
experience of his life. The boy's fierce passion forces Dysart to
recognize the barrenness and aridity of his own existence. Viverito has
cast it beautifully, with riveting performances by Hanna, Stafford and
a splendid supporting cast, who make us feel the play, as well as
understand it. The Chandler Studio Theatre, 12443 Chandler Blvd., North
Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; selected Sundays, 3 p.m.; through August
22. (800) 838-3006, or www.theprodco.com. (Neal Weaver)
GOD BOX Ana Guigui's “musical dramedy” has moments of brilliance but
suffers from a lack of coherence and an awkward format. The play is set
in a local hotel lounge where she Guigui – the daughter of Aregentinian
Jews — plays piano, she recounts her life as the daughter of a
peregrinating symphony conductor, life in New York, and a warm but
often testy relationship with her parents and brother. Initially, the
material is compelling and often humorous, so much so, that you want to
hear more of it. But the real focus of the play is her frustrating
search for romance and a soul mate, whose qualities are written down
and kept in her “God box.” Accounts of a furtive childhood kiss, a
first love and sexual outing, the pain of an abortion, and a romantic
hookup with a salesman, unfurl in a facile, patchwork that is often
difficult to follow and not particularly interesting. Guigui is
delightful channeling characters, with the singular exception of a
black rapper she encountered, which hovers perilously close to crude
caricature. But the woman can play the hell out of the piano, and sings
like an angel, with a diverse repertoire that even includes a haunting
rendition of Beethoven's “Moonlight Sonata.” Robert Barker Lyon
directs. Actors Forum Theatre, 10655 Magnolia Blvd., North Hollywood;
Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun. 2 p.m. August 2 perf at 1 p.m.), thru Aug. 16.
323-960-5770. (Lovell Estell III)
GO THE HOSTAGE In 1959 Dublin, a young British
soldier is held captive by the Irish Republican Army while an equally
young IRA volunteer awaits execution for killing a policeman. Should
the British carry out the Irishman's sentence, the IRA will do the same
to the Englishman. Playwright Brendan Behan, himself a former IRA
member, took this dire premise and molded a sly political satire that
reveals on both sides of the Anglo-Irish conflict, there is plenty of
guilt and hypocrisy, which tend to be drowned in swigs of Guinness or
shots of Jameson. Pat (John McKenna) is an ex-IRA soldier who with his
“wife” Meg (Jenn Pennington) runs the establishment whose denizens
include assorted whores (male and female), a daft ex-IRA leader (Barry
Lynch) and other sundry lumpenproletariat. When a steely IRA officer
(Mark Colson) hides a British conscript (Patrick Joseph Rieger) in the
house, tensions and hilarity ensue, as assorted characters begin to
question the rationale for the soldier's fate, especially a young girl
(Amanda Deibert), who falls for him. Director McKerrin Kelly and
company have culled text from the original Irish version and the
subsequent English one to craft a boisterous production filled with
songs and jigs, characters chatting with the audience and a provocative
finale. (MH) The Banshee, 3435 W. Magnolia Blvd., Burbank; Fri.-Sat., 8
p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through Aug. 16. (818) 846-5323.
INSANITY In this unexpectedly inert musical from James J. Mellon,
Scott DeTurk, and Larry Russo, Zarek Saxton (Kevin Bailey) is a B-movie
director who, midway through filming his latest slasher flick, drops a
designer drug, sees visions, and decides to make a totally different
movie — one he hopes will cure war, feed children and save the world.
In other words, he wants to make a movie that will go direct to video.
Perhaps understandably, producer Ramsey (a nicely oily Bob Morrissey)
decides to commit the director to a mental hospital, and tries to bribe
top shrink Megan (Dana Meller) to certify him as nuts so she he can
toss Zarek off the movie. While he's in the bin, Zarek casts a darkly
ironic outsider's eye on the various emotional problems of the inmates
— a collection of damaged souls whom he comes to admire. The play's
shift in tone from sassy Hollywood spoof to a mawkish recycle of One
Flew Over The Cockoo's Nest is awkward and strangely uninvolving — and
the play's central relationship, between the arrogantly self-important
Zarek and the smirking, humorless Megan, thuds. Strangely enough, the
relationship between DeTurk's unmemorable, smooth jazz score and
Mellon's overly complicated lyrics is not much better, although
Bailey's comical rendition of “You Couldn't Write This Shit,” in which
his character ridicules his fellow patients behind their backs, has
some toe-tapping potential. In a supporting role as an actor with
emotional problems, Brad Blaisdell's character shows some depth, while
Sabrina Miller, as the director's self-absorbed leading lady and
girlfriend, conveys the Hollywood mood believably. The rest is a
comparatively dull opus that hasn't yet gelled. (PB) Noho Arts Center,
11136 Magnolia Blvd, North Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.;
through Aug. 9. (818) 508-7107, ext. 7.
INSIDE PRIVATE LIVES Audience members interact with infamous or
celebrated personages from the 20th century, as re-created in a series
of monologues. Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave., South
Pasadena; Sun., 7 p.m.; thru Aug. 30. (866) 811-4111.
LOVE SEX VIOLENCE ETC. Six one-acts by Helena Weltman on the L-word,
the S-word, the V-word and the ETC-word. Whitefire Theater, 13500
Ventura Blvd., Sherman Oaks; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru Aug. 30. (866) 811-4111.
NEW REVIEW THE PAIN AND THE ITCH
Photo by Ed Krieger
Judging
by this 2004 comedy of manners, Steppenwolf playwright Bruce Norris'
worst enemy isn't the left-leaning, urban-professional parenting he
targets in his caustic, social satire, but his own penchant for
overloaded metaphors and excessively convoluted plots. The action
centers on a fateful Thanksgiving gathering hosted by Kelly (Vonessa
Martin), a young attorney, and her stay-at-home husband, Clay (Brad
Price), as told in flashback to a mysterious, Arab cab driver, Mr.
Hadid (Kevin Vavasseur). Kelly and Clay seem to be living the American
dream with success, wealth (suggested by Kurt Boetcher's distractingly
literal, luxury townhouse set) and two young children. With the arrival
of Clay's acid-tongued, plastic-surgeon brother, Cash (Scott Lowell),
and his malaprop-spouting, Slavic-immigrant girlfriend, Kalina (Katie
Marie Davies), however, a host of simmering tensions and festering
family resentments quickly surface, not the least of which concerns
Clay's growing alarm at the suspicious genital rash afflicting his
overprotected, four-year-old daughter, Kayla (Ava Feldman in a role
double cast with Olivia Aaron). Norris is at his best when skewering
the culture of narcissism that blinds his Yuppie protagonists to the
grimmer truths of the world around them (as when Kelly's claim of
childhood abuse by “neglect alternating with sarcasm” prompts naive
comfort from Kalina in her own story of her brutal, childhood rape by
soldiers). But Dámaso Rodriguez's crisp direction of a talented cast
can't mitigate the tangle of telescoping flashbacks, red herrings and a
wildly improbable and bathetic dénouement that all ultimately blunt
Norris' critiques. Theatre @ Boston Court, 70 N. Mentor Ave., Pasadena;
Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Aug. 23. (626) 683-6883. (Bill Raden)
PROOF David Auburn's story of a mathematician's daughter. Sierra
Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre; Fri.-Sat., 8
p.m.; thru Aug. 1. (626) 256-3809.
GO TEN CENT NIGHT Marisa Wegrzyn's Texas melodrama
is as emotionally overloaded as a jukebox favorite. A country star and
abusive father of two sets of twins has shot himself in the head,
orphaning his children just when the youngest girl, Sadie (Alison
Rood), needs a heart transplant — literally and metaphorically (She's
just realized she's in love with her twin brother Holt (Shane Zwiner).
Older daughter Dee (Caitlin Muelder) is furious that Sadie has asked
Dee's twin, Roby (Tara Buck), a hard-drinking singer, to come back to
the ranch, which she does, handcuffed to a police chair and pursued by
a handsome mute (Martin Papazian) and a gangster (Gareth Williams) with
a magic dime. Maria Gobetti's naturalistic direction delays our
awareness of and enjoyment in the script's mythological ambitions; with
the second act entrance of a local whore (Kathleen Bailey), who
controls the hearts, bodies and bank accounts of Dee and Roby, we're in
waters as deep and loaded as the Oedipus myth. Staged more like a comic
soap opera than a fable with fangs, its rhythm could be sharper, but
once the ensemble gets rolling, we're humming along. (AN) Victory
Theatre Center, 3326 W. Victory Blvd., Toluca Lake; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.;
Sun., 4 p.m.; through Aug. 2. (818) 841-5421.
THE UNSEEN In some unspecified country, two
prisoners, Valdez (Matt Kirkwood) and Wallace (Darin Singleton) have
been held for years in isolation cells. They are close enough to talk
to but not to see each other. They don't know why they have been
incarcerated, or by whom. They are constantly questioned and tortured,
and subjected to nerve-shattering noises. They spend their days
carrying out private rituals, and playing word and memory games in an
attempt to preserve their sanity. The only mortal they see is the guard
Smash (Douglas Dickerman), who is both torturer and caretaker. Craig
Wright's allegorical new play keeps its larger meaning sketchy, perhaps
because it lacks a concrete context. It's interesting mainly for the
interaction of the two men, and the strange and whimsical nature of
Smash. Wright directs his play skillfully on Desma Murphy's handsomely
bleak set. Kirkwood and Singleton provide richly detailed portraits of
the two men who comfort themselves with escape fantasies, and Dickerman
creates a bizarre figure as the guard who hates his charges because he
can't help feeling their pain as he tortures them. (NW) The Road
Theatre, 5108 Lankershim Boulevard, North Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.,
Sun., 2 p.m., through August 22. (866) 811-4111 or www.roadtheatre.com.
RAY BRADBURY'S YESTERMORROWS The sci-fi author's
short stories “The Meadow,” “Cistern” and “A Device Out of Time,”
adapted for the stage. Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave., South
Pasadena; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru Sept. 5,
www.plays411.com/raybradbury. (323) 960-4451.
NEW REVIEW 74 GEORGIA AVENUE/THE PUSHCART PEDDLERS
Photo by Doug Engalla
Murray
Schisgal's two mildly absurdist one-acts chronicle varied aspects of
Jewish life. In the good-hearted but conventional farce The Pushcart
Peddlers, directed by Chris Winfield, and set on the New York
Waterfront in the early 1900s, wily banana peddler Cornelius (Lloyd
Pedersen) cons greenhorn Shimmel (Ren Bell) out of all he owns –but
Shimmel falls for Maggie (Melissa Soso), a flower-seller with
theatrical ambitions, he quickly learns street smarts. The performances
are broad but skillful. The more ambitious and more personal 74 Georgia
Avenue, directed by Frances Mizrahi, is set in a formerly Jewish
neighborhood that's now entirely black. Martin Robbins (Larry Margo)
revisits his childhood home and discovers it's occupied by Joseph
Watson (Disraeli Ellison), the son of the janitor at Robbins' old
synagogue, who has become more Jewish than Robbins. Joseph fondly
remembers the old days from the synagogue and has collected clothes,
which mysteriously allow him to assume the identities of their former
owners. When he “becomes” Martin's zayda, it allows Martin to resolve
old resentments, and regain respect for his nebbishy father. Both
actors deliver fine performances, despite the play's heavy-handed
treatment of the supernatural. Lonny Chapman's Group Repertory Theatre,
10900 Burbank Boulevard, North Hollywood; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m., Sun., 2
p.m., thru Aug. 22. https://www.lcgrt.com or (866) 811-4111. (Neal Weaver)
GO SPRUNG: A LOVE STORY The
“sprung” in writer-director Tony Marsiglia's off-kilter, comic grand
guignol carries multiple connotations for his antihero chemist, Samuel
Nathanson (Marsiglia in a compelling performance). There is the sense
of obsessive infatuation, although in the 49-year-old Nathanson's case
it is not for his 20-year-old, pregnant girlfriend, Tracy (co-writer
Donna Kane), but for the MDMA and methamphetamine crystals he cooks up
and deals from his living-room lab. That he also loves to ingest the
particularly potent creations he calls “red doxies” leads to the second
sense — the spaced-out, psychotropic paranoia produced by his
ecstasy-eating diet. Finally there is the haywire clockwork sense of
his tightly wound existence coming un-sprung before our very eyes. As
the wild-eyed Nathanson painfully rehearses for the important job
interview he is clearly in no shape to make, a succession of skeevy
ravers (Jeremy Gladen & Lucas Salazar), psychotic tweekers (a
charismatic Tom Wiilde & scene-stealing Amelia Gotham), malevolent
cops (Gladen & Jim Eshom) and even a vindictive third wife (Denise
Devlin) collide in his seedy apartment and derail his belated attempts
to get his runaway train of a life back on track. Marsiglia, a
direct-to-DVD horror auteur, successfully transfers his black,
surrealist humor to the stage, racking up laughs, an impressive body
count and a surprisingly authentic portrayal of the retreat into
solipsistic self-destruction that awaits substance abusers of any
stripe. ZJU Theater Group, 4850 Lankershim Blvd., North Hollywood;
Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Aug. 1. (818) 202-4120. A Theatre Slanty
production. (Bill Raden)
CONTINUING PERFORMANCES IN SMALLER THEATERS SITUATED ON THE WESTSIDE AND IN BEACH TOWNS
AUNT FONDEEN AND THE LOST DUTCHMAN GOLDMINE Free
performances, courtesy Culver City Public Theatre. Dr. Paul Carlson
Memorial Park, Motor Ave. & Braddock Dr., Culver City; Sat.-Sun.,
noon.; thru Aug. 23. (310) 712-5482.
BACH AT LEIPZIG With a few notes of sardonic humor,
Itamar Moses' sketch about would-be musical stars of the 18th century,
who ultimately fade into the shadows of Johann Sebastian Bach, aims for
erudition but too often lands in tediousness. Director Darin Anthony
serves up almost balletic choreography, with some success. (TP).
Odyssey Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., L.A.; Wed.-Sat., 8 p.m.;
Sun., 2 p.m.; thru Aug. 23. (310) 477-2055.
CANNIBAL! THE MUSICAL South Park's Trey
Parker penned this man-eating musical. Garage Theatre, 251 E. Seventh
St., Long Beach; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Aug. 22,
www.thegaragetheatre.org. (866) 811-4111.
THE CHAIRS Eugene Ionesco's 1952 tragicomedy. City
Garage, 1340 1/2 Fourth St., Santa Monica; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun.,
5:30 p.m.; thru Sept. 13, (Discussion with the cast and creative staff
follows Aug. 23 perf.). (310) 319-9939.
CINDERELLA THE MUSICAL I attended writer-director
Chris De Carlo & Evelyn Rudie's musical adaptation of the timeless
fairy tale with my 9-year-old niece, Rachel. We found ourselves joined
by a birthday party of kids who appeared to be around 6, though there
was a smattering of infants and adults. These kids were obviously
smitten with the broad comedic antics of the stepsisters (Celeste Akiki
and Billie Dawn Greenblatt) and their mom (Serena Dolinksy, doubling,
in a rare, high-concept moment of intended irony, as Cinderella's Fairy
Godmother). The actors' goggle-eyed expressions and broad-as-a-barn
reactions generated screams of laughter from the kids, who were also
riveted by the songs (ranging in style from pop ballads to Gilbert and
Sullivan parodies). This production has been chugging on and off for 25
years now. Actor John Waroff has dedicated a quarter century of his
adult life strutting the boards as King Isgood, so points scored for
perseverance, which is more than can be said for Rachel, who promised
to write this review and then left it to me. Can't not mention Ashley
Hayes' lush costumes, nor the tinny sound design that left the singers
marooned. Rachel said she really liked the stepsisters and Cinderella
(Melissa Gentry) but wished somebody had been more cruel, as in the
story. Everybody here was just so nice, and Rachel was aching for
something meaner or weirder. I concur. Rachel also said some unkind
things about some of the performances, but if she wants those aired,
she can write a review herself. (SLM) Santa Monica Playhouse, 1211
Fourth St., Santa Monica; Sat.-Sun., noon & 3 p.m.; indef. (310)
394-9779.
CRACK WHORE BULIMIC, GIRL-NEXT-DOOR Marnie Olson's
1980s coming-of-age story. Psychic Visions Theatre, 3447 Motor Ave.,
L.A.; Sat., 8 p.m.; Fri., Aug. 7, 8 p.m.; thru Aug. 8. (310) 535-6007.
NEW REVIEW GO CYMBELINE THE PUPPET KING
Photo by Jean-Louis Darville
Shakespeare's Cymbeline is a natural for adaptation as children's theatre since it shares many plot elements of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The play has been much shortened and simplified. Imogen's husband
Posthumous and his treacherous friend Iachimo have been eliminated, and
the sex and violence are reduced to minimum in slapstick. In this
goofy, kid-friendly adaptation by Angela Berliner, King Cymbeline
(Stephen M. Porter) is an ineffectual booby, easily manipulated by his
evil, ambitious second wife (Donna Jo Thorndale), who wants to marry
off her boorish, dim-witted son Cloten (Adam Jefferis) to his daughter
Imogen (Erin Anderson). But feisty Imogen (she calls her unwelcome
suitor Cloten the Rotten) is having none of this, and takes to the
woods, where she's befriended by Belarius (Mary Eileen O'Donnell) and
his adopted son Guidarius (Kirstin Hinton), who was raised by wolves,
and is given to occasional howling. Many of the jokes are probably over
the heads of most children, but they're kept amused by director Will
Pellegrini's zanily frenetic staging, and the prospect of free
popsicles. The short piece (under an hour) is performed outdoors, and
best of all, admission is free. The Actor's Gang at The Ivy
Substation, Culver City Media Park, 9070 Venice Boulevard; Sat.-Sun.,
11 a.m., thru August 30. Info: (310) 838-4264 or
https://theactorsgang.com. (Neal Weaver)
GO HEAVY LIKE THE WEIGHT OF A FLAME
While R. Ernie Silva's older brothers were doing hard drugs, he hid out
in his room and watched Masterpiece Theater. Silva wasn't a nerd; he
break-danced, liked weed, and grew dreadlocks. But he lived in
Bushwick, and to cops, bosses and his mom, being a young, black male in
Bushwick meant you were and would always be just like everyone else.
Railroaded into a life headed for rehab or death, Silva grabbed a
boxcar heading west to go on an American walkabout. Silva is a
charismatic talent with slender build and wide grin. The story of his
travels, co-written with James Gabriel and directed by Mary Joan Negro,
taps into his charm and energy, sending him up and around a set of
simple black boxes, strumming his guitar, Savannah, and impersonating
the noteworthy, from Richard Pryor and Jimi Hendrix to August Wilson.
The travails of young artists and their search for self-definition are
a familiar solo show trope, but even the heightened moments — the death
of a brother, an auspicious visit from an eagle — feel earned, not
manufactured. I expect we'll see a lot more of Silva, and this very
solid monologue is a good place to get acquainted. (AN) Odyssey
Theatre, 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West L.A.; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.;
through August 8. (310) 477-2055.
I'LL GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO CRY ABOUT Even by the
standards of the venerable 12-step confessional, Jonathan Coogan's
one-man memoir of growing up amid the pot smoke, promiscuity and
pernicious parenting of the freewheeling Hollywood of the '70s is
fairly tepid stuff. Which is not to say Coogan doesn't have a lot going
for him as a performer. With a wry, self-deprecating manner and an
engaging stage presence, he clearly knows his way around a one-liner.
His autobiographical material, however, just doesn't generate the highs
— no pun intended — or lows demanded by the shopworn victim-recovery
formula. Perhaps that's because, in the land of medical marijuana,
having been a teenage stoner turned weed dealer scared straight by a
brush with the law seems so, well, underwhelmingly ordinary. More
likely it's because this “addiction” story, at least as it's framed
here by Coogan and his co-writer, director Dan Frischman, seems to
constantly shrink before a pair of far more compelling characters
always looming in the background — namely Coogan's colorful,
pot-smoking New York-Jew parents. In fact, judging by the unresolved
bitterness permeating the piece, its real star is Rosy Rosenthal,
Coogan's Ralph Kramden-esque wisecracker of a father (tellingly, the
mother's name is never uttered). Far more than any clichés about a
“higher power,” it is Rosy and his spare-the-fist-spoil-the-child
version of tough love that determines the psychic trajectory of
Coogan's life and is this tale's true heart and soul. )BR) Beverly
Hills Playhouse, 254 S. Robertson Blvd., Beverly Hills; Fri.-Sat., 8
p.m.; through August. 1. (310) 358-9936.
GO A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM In a
forest of fairies, skater boy Lysander (a nicely slacker-y Rett Nadol)
runs off with his sweet fiancée, Hermia (Rachel Emmers, whose Valley
Girl-like accents add comedic luster). However, mischievous fairy Puck
(Joey Pata) casts a spell on Lysander so he falls for Hermia's pal
Helena (drolly neurotic Adeye Sahran). Meanwhile, fairy-queen Titania
(Amanda Arbues) is enchanted into falling in love with a boorish Bottom
(Kenneth De Abrew, playing the well-known character as an East Asian
Oliver Hardy), who has been turned into a donkey for the day. Director
Stephan Wolfert's charming staging of Shakespeare's romantic comedy
fantasia is a co-production between the Veterans Center for the
Performing Arts, the U.S. Veterans' Artists Alliance and Shakespeare
Santa Monica. The show's ensemble is a mix of professional actors and
military veterans — and one or two of whom are both at the same time,
since the vocations are not mutually exclusive. One might expect the
presence of veterans to give the show a somehow therapeutic
undercurrent, but, in fact, the show is just good comedy, boasting some
polished clowning. If it weren't for the program bios, which mention
the performer veterans' time served and military branch (alongside the
usual list of turns in standards like Noises Off and Blithe Spirit) the
idea that the briskly staged and thoroughly enjoyable show has a
connection to the armed forces probably wouldn't occur to us. Staged in
a makeshift theater space atop a musical band shell behind a West L.A.
library, the show's delightfully daffy mood and intimacy combined with
the picniclike atmosphere offer a laid-back, unpretentious spectacle
that's perfect for summer — and for Midsummer. While some performers
may wrestle with the verse or fall prey to weak diction, the show's
energy and innocently romantic comic timing craft a production that's
hard to resist. (PB) West L.A. Bandshell, 11338 Santa Monica Blvd,
Santa Monica; Sat., 6 p.m.; Sun., 4:30 p.m.; through Aug. 9. Free.
MUTINY AT PORT CHICAGODuring the American
Revolution, George Washington opposed arming African-Americans, “lest
they turn our weapons against ourselves.” This attitude prevailed in
the American military until after World War II. The Navy allowed black
seaman to serve only as noncombatant cooks and day laborers, and at
Port Chicago, near San Francisco, they were deployed as stevedores,
loading volatile explosives onto transport ships. Neither white
officers nor black workers received training in handling explosives,
safety rules were ignored, workers were driven to meet dangerous,
impossible quotas, and workers were told the ammo “couldn't possibly
explode.” But on July 17, 1944, it did explode, killing 320 men and
injuring 390. Fifty black seamen, ably represented here by actors J.
Teddy Garces, Eric Bivens-Bush, Pedro Coiscou and Durant Fowler,
refused to return to ammo-loading duties under the same terrible
conditions, and were falsely accused of conspiracy/mutiny. White
officers fabricated evidence in a kangaroo court, where the attorney
for the defense (the excellent Maury Sterling) was hamstrung at every
turn. Because the issues were so completely black and white, playwright
Paul Leaf can't avoid melodrama. His brief Act 1 is a setup for
effective trial scenes in Act 2. An uneven production is graced with
some solid performances. (NW) Ruskin Group Theatre, 3000 Airport Ave.,
Santa Monica; Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; through Aug. 15. (310)
397-3244.
GO ST. JOAN OF THE SLAUGHTERHOUSES
For a lucid analysis of the malfunctioning global financial markets,
one could do worse than Bertolt Brecht. And it's hard to imagine doing
Brecht any better than director Michael Rothhaar in this electrifying
staging of the Marxist maestro's classic, anti-morality play, St. Joan
of the Slaughterhouses. Set in the Chicago meatpacking markets of the
1930s (wittily caricatured in Danielle Ozymandias' costumes), the story
cleverly inverts the Jeanne d'Arc legend in the character of Joan Dark
(a dynamic Dalia Vosylius), an antipoverty crusader whose “Warriors of
God” mission caters to packers left destitute by slaughterhouse
closings. Joan's efforts to get the men back to work lead her to
financier Pierpont Mauler (the fine Andrew Parks), unaware that it is
his stock manipulations that are responsible for the closings and that
Mauler is cynically using Joan's appeals to further his scheme. When
she subsequently refuses a Mauler bribe for the financially strapped
mission, she is cast into the street, where she belatedly realizes the
pointlessness of good intentions without collective action. Powered by
Peter Mellencamp's vivid, new translation and an unerring ensemble
(including standouts Robin Becker, Ed Levey, Tony Pasqualini and Daniel
Riordan), Rothhaar's production is a perfectly pitched tribute to the
principles of epic theater. (It's also a showcase for the multitalented
Norman Scott, who lights his own set design and shines as Mauler's
scurvy hatchet man.) Rothhaar & Co. not only prove that the old,
dialectical dogmatist still has teeth but that Brecht's bark and his
bite are both wickedly entertaining. (BR) Pacific Resident Theatre, 703
Venice Blvd., Venice; Thurs.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 3 p.m.; thru Aug. 9.
(310) 822-8392.
THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE Roaring '20s musical, book
by Richard Henry Morris, music by Jeanine Tesori, new lyrics by Dick
Scanlan. Morgan-Wixson Theatre, 2627 Pico Blvd., Santa Monica;
Fri.-Sat., 8 p.m.; thru Aug. 1. (310) 828-7519.
THEATER SPECIAL EVENTS
THEATRE WEST PLAY READING SERIES July 7: What Are Friends For? by Victoria Vidal; July 14: Moose on the Loose by Dina Morrone; July 21: There Is a Season by Doug Haverty; July 28: Abandon by Chris DiGiovanni; August 4: Grandma Good by Arden Teresa Lewis; August 11: Zeno's Paradox by Wendy Graf. Theatre West, 3333 Cahuenga Blvd. West, L.A.; Tues., 8 p.m.; thru Aug. 11. (323) 851-7977.
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