Two very enjoyable musicals, "Chicago" in Martinez and "Into the Woods" in an entirely new theater in the San Ramon Valley are reved up just for you!
Life is a cabaret old friend and as the words from the 1966 Kander and Ebb stage musical version of “Cabaret” reverberates in my head, my introduction to this week’s reviews have to include these lines:
“What good is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the music play. Life is a Cabaret, old chum, come to the Cabaret. Put down the knitting, the book and the broom, time for a holiday. Life is a Cabaret, old chum, come to the Cabaret. Come taste the wine, come hear the band. Come blow a horn, start celebrating; Right this way, your table's waiting -“
The first show I am reviewing this week takes place in the Willows Campbell Cabaret Theater in Martinez, where the award winning Fossee, Kander and Ebb musical, “Chicago”, is reving up audiences and it is an absolute blast! This exciting production is the kind of show that really works in this cabaret style theater venue. Under the articulate direction of Eric Inman, Musical Director, Rachel Robinson, and Choreographer, LaTonya Watts, this driving, upbeat, funny show came to a fevered pitch. The audience was applauding at just about every nuance, every delightfully delivered comedic routine and jumped to their feet at the final curtain delivering an appreciative and resounding roar of approval. Wow! What a show!
In this theater, you can do just about everything encouraged by the Cabaret lyrics above, you can taste the wine or mixed drinks at a little cabaret table, hear the band (a terrific real live combo style band) and do everything else - - except, perhaps, blow the horn! This has to be one of the best productions in this very compact little space in a long time, if not ever.
The story is actually based on fact, the re-invented stories of two different women accused of murder in Chicago in the early 1920’s. In 1926, Chicago Tribune reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins penned her play, “Chicago”, based on the actual trials of Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner and examined the corrupt criminal justice system that existed in the 1920’s. Fast forward 30 years and actress Gwen Verdon, Bob Fosse’s wife, read Watkins’ play and suggested that her husband see if they could turn it into a musical. The then born-again Christian Watkins declined the offer by Kander, Ebb and Fosse to revitalize the play as a musical, as she thought it would glamorize a scandalous way of living. After Watkins passed away in 1969, her estate sold the rights to Richard Fryer, Verdon and Fosse.
Shortly thereafter, these same people created a satire on corruption in the administration of criminal justice and developed the concept of a “celebrity” criminal and “celebrity” lawyer, making it a center piece of their musical. The result is a modern day setting, using a smoke filled bar/cabaret venue in place of the vaudeville theatre in which the original play was set.
The cast includes 24 actors and actresses, all with genuine professional training, experience and even some with union (Actors’ Equity Association) credentials. The two main characters, the leading “incarcerated ladies”, Velma Kelly (played by Nicloe Helfer) and Roxie Hart (Kerry Wininger), plus the “celebrity attorney, Billy Flinn (Mark Farrell), are absolutely superlative! Roxie Hart’s milk toast and devoted husband, Amos Hart, is played by Shaun Carroll. The Jailhouse Matron, Mama Morton, is played to perfection by Michelle Ianiro. Isaiah Tyrelle is a very talented dancer and actor who plays multiple roles (including reporter Little Mary Sunshine) with puck and panache in pluperfect fashion. There are many, many more excellent talents that I simply do not have room to provide adequate kudos to for their excellent contributions.
"Chicago" is decidedly a show crafted with an adult audience in mind. It is risqué, a bit ribald and just plain fun! Chicago runs Thursday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturdays and on Sundays at 3 p.m., now through June 12th.
The Campbell Cabaret Theater is located at 636 Ward Street in Martinez where it enjoys well lighted, ample, low cost and seemingly safe street parking for all theater patrons. Tickets range in price between $22 and $32 each with discounts for seniors (65+). To purchase tickets, call (925) 798-1300 or visit the Willows Theater web site at www.willowstheatre.org.
The City of Martinez must be congratulated for its far thinking management and council who actively support theatre and the arts for its residents and in particular their mayor, Rob Schroder, who goes out of his way to support the company and his community, tirelessly. All of Contra Costs County benefits from this community’s support of theatre, when tight money and tough budgets make this job very difficult for all!
Now, off to a theater in San Ramon, the Front Row Theatre, a relatively new theater company that I had not had the opportunity to attend until this past weekend, when I sat in on a very spirited production of Steven Sondheim’s brilliant musical, “Into The Woods”. This new theater will be glad to open its doors to all of our Rossmoor Readers and I want to tell you about what it has to offer. The San Ramon Community Theatre is now performing in a new theater venue built as part of the Dougherty Station Community Center at the corner of East Branch Road and Bollinger Canyon Road in San Ramon.
Director Terry Cunningham has done an excellent job, in the face of great adversity, in finding actors and directors and stage hands to make this little company work. While all theatrical companies are facing even more difficult times in the recent economic downturn, some of the restrictions placed upon this company by the City of San Ramon, such as restricting it to a meager two shows a year, each limited to two week runs, in this theatre facility, has placed an unnecessary burden on this theatrical company that is quietly discriminating against and undermining its chances for success. When I spoke to Terry recently, we discussed the problem he was having in getting theater reviewers to come to his shows. I told him that I, for one, never, or at least seldom attend productions that only run for two weeks, because by the time I see a show and it gets in the paper on the Wednesday of the week following the show’s opening, my readers only have two days to make up their minds to see his shows and to purchase tickets and make arrangements to see it. There is simply too much competition out there for me to see and review a theater production, unless it runs for at least three or four weeks. Further, most good actors will not commit to the weeks of hard work memorizing lines and making costumes and attending rehearsals for a show that only runs two weeks! Generally, it just AINT worth it! Let’s face the fact that most amateur theaters don’t have the budgets to hire costumers to make the costumes, or lighting designers or set builders for a homegrown community theatre show. It is purely a do-it-yourself, love of the arts dedication at the hands of all participants that gets it done!
While this 88 seat theater is very comfortable for the audience and the stage is very nice in size for the actors to perform upon, it has no backstage area and no wings to work with, necessary for a legitimate show and it has no dressing rooms. This means everybody is working with marginal, makeshift equipment and support facilities. If the City of San Ramon really wants to provide this facility for its citizens’ enjoyment, it would have to do very little to make it work much better for everyone concerned. Another problem is with the city’s lack of flexibility by enforcing an antiquated sign ordinance that did not have the foresight to allow for their own theater to put out temporary, removable signage that would allow potential patrons to know where the theater is located! My daughter and I drove past and around the buildings several times, wasting valuable time just trying to figure out where the theater was located, and even with a proper address, you still have a hard time figuring out in what building it is located! These are not great big problems to the City, but they are very negative logistical problems that may eventually spell disaster to this hard working company. This would be a very enjoyable theatre for Rossmoor residents to go to if they could just find it. This would even be a very enjoyable theater to San Ramon residents, if they could just find it! Can you imagine a city that builds a theatre and puts in place rules so restrictive so that no one can find it or figure out where it is? Does this make any sense? Come on guys, get your act together!
Now, on to the show itself! “Into the Woods” is a show that I seldom pass up when the opportunity arises because it is such a brilliantly written piece of work that takes the scary out of fairy tales. All of us have grown up with the brothers Grimm and their folk tales told to children of all ages, stories with the purpose of installing morality and values in young minds. At the same time, the fairy tales prescribe fancifully solutions to life’s wants and needs, often needlessly filling our heads with fluff and not the real stuff. By this I mean, we are promised that if we are all good little children, living the straight life, doing what our parents tell us, we will meet our prince or princess, get a good job and find happiness ever after!
Not so - - and how do you know, they ask? Well, history has not proven the dream to work as promised and Sondheim, really tells it like it is. In the second act of his musical, life’s realities come through, as they most often really do! Into the Woods takes a number of well known fairy tales and mixes them all together, as though they are all the fanciful residents of the same interconnected community. Take Little Red Ridinghood and the Wolf, Cinderella, a wicked stepmother, two nasty sisters and a promising Prince Charming, Jack and the giant Beanstalk, a Baker and his Wife, a woeful revengeful giant, a less than imaginative local governmental steward who is overseen by a pair of inadequate princes and you have the makings for a very wild and wacky community tale. In the first act, most of the fairy tales follow the original story lines as purloined from the Grimm Brothers. However, in the second act, we discover what happens when Cinderella discovers that her prince is no longer honest, completely truthful and is “Charming” no longer. Similarly, each fairytale erodes into the normal muck of life and strife and becomes the reality that, unfortunately, most of us know as the true way of life.
The characters are played for the most part, very well by amateur actors eager to please and who love the opportunity to share their love of theater with you , the audience. Granted, there is room for improvement in many areas, but such is the nature of amateur theater. Several actors deserve my kudos for their work. The Baker and his wife, Kevin Dahlstrom and Sharon Kantor, are very good, very engaging and believable. The Narrator (Dan Brown) and his son Tommy Brown (who plays Jack) do a very good job, are delightfully funny and quite believable, as fairy tale characters. Little Red Ridinghood (played by Nicole Simons) is also quite good, as is Bonnie Lafer, as the wicked witch! I do not have room remaining in my article to cover everyone who contributed to the show, but it is very enjoyable, at least from the acting aspect. The singing aspect was weak as only a few of the entertainers had really satisfactory voices, more specifically Mallory Viera (Cinderella), who really has an excellent voice and is an excellent actress as well. There were a couple of other performers who had minor roles, also had excellent voices.
As always, Into the Woods is a fun-filled, cleverly written musical that not only entertains as a musical with songs that continue in our brains for days, but it really gives us food for thought as well. This very good local production continues Friday and Saturday evenings at 7:30 p.m., with matinees at 3 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays now through May 28th. You can call the Front Row Theater at 973-2787 or visit their website at www.sanramonperformingarts.com to purchase tickets. The Front Row Theater is located in the building next to the Library in the Dougherty Station Community Center at 17011 Bollinger Canyon Road, in San Ramon. Also, let me repeat the fact that the evening show times are set at the unusual time of 7:30 so be sure to allow enough time to get there early to find your self a good seat (and the seating is open seating).