Aurelia's Oratorio and Christmas Carol and the Rrazz Room too , Something old, something new - - This week's offerings are sure to delight you!

Lucie Arnaz lights up the Rrazz Room in San Francisco!

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This week’s entertainment guide covers a number of entertainment opportunities around the Bay Area, including that grand perennial old Christmas favorite, the Center Repertory Company’s “A Christmas Carol” being performed in Walnut Creek, as well as a delightful revisioning of the Invisible Circus of “Imaginaire” in “Aurella’s Oratorio” at Berkeley Repertory Company in Berkeley. In addition, we will explore another entertainment venue called the Rrazz Room, in San Francisco.

Aurelia’s Oratorio (Cirque du opera) brings a standing ovation in Berkeley!

"A Christmas Carol" delights young and old alike in Walnut Creek!

Center Repertory Company's Director Scott Denison has honed his artistic palette down to a fine art with his current production of Charles Dickens’ heartwarming tale of reclamation. No matter how many times I see this company’s production, even in its 12th reincarnation, this great show always warms the cockles of my heart! The cast is re-engaged again this year, for the most part, in the same roles, but with a few important (albeit it subtle) changes to add some spice and variety.

Scrooge is once again captured perfectly by Jack Powell. It seems that even though I raved about his genuinely moving performance last year, he has even grown more believable this year. Bob Cratchit is again delivered convincingly by Jesse Caldwell. Marley’s Ghost is even better this year with the sterling performance of Jeff Draper and Evan Lachman is quite excellent as Tiny Tim, a role played eleven years ago by his older brother, Daniel Lachman. Daniel has moved on to play Tiny Tim’s older brother, Peter Cratchit in this production. Michael A. Berg delivers the most delightful Fezziwig ever and Michael Ray Wisely is back again (thank goodness) as the wonderfully whimsical and devilish Ghost of Christmas Present. Wisely’s portrayal is one portrayal I really look forward to each year, as he is the best of the best in this wonderful role. Kerri Shawn once again reprises in superb fashion the role of Mrs. Cratchit. One very important contributor each and every year is the musical quartet that adds Christmas carol music to enhance the mood. This quartet adds measurably to the mood of this production in clear and beautiful tones and its members consist of Robin Melnick, Barbara Reynolds, Tim Reynolds and Molly Thornton. As you are well aware, there is a plethora of fine acting talents that bring this show to full realization, far more that I could begin to applaud individually.

Fine actors who know their roles and their character bring "A Christmas Carol" to life again and again, but it could never happen without the excellent creative team that consists of Director Scott Denison, Costume Designer Melissa Anne Davis, Choreographer Jennifer Perry, Sound Designer Jeff Mockus, Music Director Mark Hanson and Lighting Designer John Earls.

Certainly everyone must be familiar with this tale of the hard-hearted money lender, Scrooge, who considers Christmas reveling a humbug! This is the magical story of how his former business partner, Jacob Marley, returns to the living world on the eve of his death to give his old associate a spiritual warning that the life he has lead while alive on this earth, will influence his experience of life in the afterworld. He foretells of visitations from three spirits who will arrive, one after the other. They are his only means of possible redemption and will give him one opportunity to amend his heartless ways and find redemption in the eyes of his fellow men.

This perfect theatrical experience lightens the heart and encourages even more compassion toward those less fortunate than ourselves, in these very difficult times. “A Christmas Carol” continues tomorrow morning with a 9:30 am performance along with 7:30 pm performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings, matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., closing this coming Sunday, December 20th. Call (925) 943-7469 or visit their website at www.centerrep.org/season0910/ for ticket information. The Box Office is open Tuesday-Thursday, Noon-6:00pm, Friday-Saturday Noon-7:30pm, and Sunday Noon-6pm.

Aurelia’s Oratorio (Cirque du opera) brings a standing ovation in Berkeley!

The Berkeley Repertory Theatre is currently presenting a very different entertainment opportunity with a stage show that is an entertainment evolution of circus skits, slight of hand, slight of body, aerial daring do and stage illusion, brought to us from French actress, Thierree Chaplin in the form of “Aurelia’s Oratorio”. Miss Thierree grew up in show business, performing in intimate troupes that introduced the idea of cirque noveau. With dancing, puppetry, acrobatics and unimaginable body manipulation and slight of hand, a whimsical evening of fantasy and imagination fills her audience with awe and applause.

Victoria Thierrée Chaplin, along with her husband Jean Baptiste Thierrée, created Cirque Bonjour, Cirque Imaginaire and Cirque Invisible, innovative troupes that inspired Cirque du Soleil.

After watching this incredible show of acrobatic dancers, the thought that captured my imagination was that there has never before been a more “Material Girl”, who uses flowing folds of curtains, drapes, clothing and material to such great imagination and flourish.

In the opening act, she gives new meaning to the term “dresser drawers”. A chest of dresser drawers stands by itself center stage. It becomes a chest of drawers in which one actually dresses! This you can only see to believe as Miss Thierree appears to don her entire evening apparel from undergarments to dress to shoes while extracting each article from its respective drawer, while she herself seems to reside, to be completely contained, within the same dresser at the same time while she is dressing. You’ve heard of slight-of-hand, well this is a demonstration of what might well be called “slight-of-body!”

She becomes a stage magician, using what appears to be the stage curtains as her aerial acrobatics tools, as she wanders in and out of the folds of the curtains, ascends the curtains, descends the curtains, engages the curtains in more ways than one could ever imagine her doing so. She glides above and across the stage on material aerial ropes and bands of material much as a fireman would use a pole to descend in a firehouse. She and her team of performers perform a series of delightful skits, puppet shows, freak shows, a kite “flying a person”, and acts that are reminiscent of vaudeville and traveling circus performers from many years ago. It is a 70 minute chaos of clever skits that keep you engrossed from beginning to end, and leave you begging for more.

Aurelia’s Oratorio will delight audiences with performances on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with earlier performances on Wednesdays and Sundays at 7 p.m., and matinees on Sundays at 2 p.m., now through Sunday, January 24th. Tickets range in price from $33 to $71 with a $10 discount for seniors and students one hour before curtain. You can and should (if at all possible) visit their website at www.berkeleyrep.org/season/0910/3648.asp to help you perceive what this incredible show is all about. The Berkeley Repertory Rhoda Theatre is located at 2025 Addison Street in Berkeley. You may call (510) 647-2949 for tickets and more information as well. Box office hours are noon to 7 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday.


Lucie Arnaz lights up the Rrazz Room in San Francisco!

There is a sophisticated new night club in San Francisco that is offering the best in cabaret, jazz, comedy and popular entertainment that is eager to earn your appreciation and it is the Rrazz Room at the Hotel Nikko, located at 222 Mason St., San Francisco.

Karen and I visited the closing performance of Lucie Arnaz last night and thoroughly loved every minute of it. My wife often listens to Ronn Owens and Brian Copeland on radio station KGO (810 on the radio dial) and picks up on the many delightful guests they have on their shows. This past week, Brian interviewed the multi-talented actress, singer, dancer and producer, Lucie Arnaz, daughter of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. My wife was so intrigued by her interview that she suggested we call the Rrazz Room and see if there was any chance we could get in to see her final show before she left this venue this past week. We were fortunate to get in with our last minute request and were totally captivated by her outstanding performance and terrific band, led by her pianist and music arranger, Ron Able.

Lucie tells about her life in the entertainment business, mixed with memorable melodies that embraced aspects of her life and even about her husband, actor-producer Laurence Luckinbill and their children. Starting with music by Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Chuck Steffan and Ron Able, moving on to Madeline Stone, and “All I am is just a Housewife” (a song from the musical “Working”), and finally to restored arrangements of music and songs originally written by her father, Desi Arnaz, the entire evening was an exhilarating evening of great listening and storytelling.

If you by any chance remember the good old days in Las Vegas, when you could go to a night club and enjoy great entertainment without having to mortgage your house, then the Rrazz Room will bring back fond memories of intimate entertainment where you feel like you are in the entertainer’s living room and he or she is speaking and singing directly to you. By all means, drop in at the Hotel Nikko on Mason Street. You can call for reservations at (866) 468-3399 and/or visit their www.therrazzroom.com/ website to get a flavor of the terrific variety of coming events. With new acts and performers almost nightly, you need to visit the website. By the way, Karen and I are planning to see Florence Henderson entertain in the Rrazz Room beginning on January 5th. We saw Ashford and Simpson there two weeks ago.

The Rrazz Room has a two-drink minimum for all-ages and seating is host escorted and assigned on a first come first serve basis. They have a variety of very nice drinks, alcohol or not, and they have a bistro meal menu. What is really cool is that they even have a dress code: upscale casual; inappropriate attire includes ripped jeans (I don’t care what they cost!), flip flops, baseball caps, and jerseys! Tickets to the Rrazz Room events are non-refundable. Prices range between $30 to $80 each, depending on the performer and /or event.