Charles Jarrett reviews

The Wild Bride is a very wild and wonderful ride and the Silent Film Museum in Niles is well worth the easy drive!

2011-12-19T13:41:00.000-08:00

The Wild Bride with Patrycja Kujawska as the bride and Stuart Goodwin as the Prince
Photo by: Kevin Berne

This week before Christmas I wanted to bring you something different to spice up your Christmas Holidays, a brand new look at a rewritten German fairytale , one that was part of the Grimm Brothers collection entitled (in one of the 16 slightly different versions), “The Handless Maiden”. In joint co-operation with Berkeley Repertory Theater and the Kneehigh Theatre in Great Britain, the story has been re-envisioned, adapted and altered again. This time the brilliant Emma Rice, co-Artistic director of Britain’s “Kneehigh Theater”, along with her company’s dedicated co-authoring writers and actors who make up (perhaps the most innovative theatrical company in all of Great Britain,today have engrossed themselves in an incredible project, the rewriting of a fairy tale for modern audiences. As it is currently re-incarnated, “The Handless Maiden” has become a brilliantly conceived and orchestrated musical fairy tale, now known as “The Wild Bride”.

One common theme in many similar or closely related fairy tales, tell of a poor farmer or miller who is met at a symbolic crossroad in his life by a charismatic character, the devil, who is generally dressed in contemporary clothes with a beguiling offer of some nature, most often, in exchange for the poor man’s soul. Using that basic storyline, as taken from these German Fairy tales, Kneehigh Theater ventured across the Atlantic Ocean and snatched up another tale about another poor man, famous blues guitarist, Robert Johnson, to incorporate, in no small part, into their new tale. Johnson’s incredibly poignant blues music was so outer-worldly (according to author Julie McCormick), that Mr. Johnson must have made a deal with the devil to become the legend he did in such a short time! Actually, little is really known of him other than he was born in 1911 in Hazlehurst, Mississippi, produced 29 recordings between 1936 and 1937, and has become one of the most celebrated blues musicians of all times and died mysteriously at age 27.

This production company hasextraordinary story telling style, with its earthy eclectic costume design, broadly diverse musical talent, and dancing and acting skills of its actors. When you add the poignancy and vibrancy of darkly tinged and occasionally vibrant blues music, the merger resonates and reverberates well with the mysticism, mystery and magic surrounding the tale of “The Wild Bride”!

The hapless father (Stuart Goodwin), at times switches roles to that of the “adoring prince”. There are three women who play the same “Wild” woman with no hands at different times during the performance. Audren Brisson, Patrycja Kujawska and Eva Magyar, are found to switch roles again and again, to add to the diversity, and proper age of the characters needed. Musician Ian Ross plays many different instruments and melds them exquisitely into the romantic fiber of this story.

The basic story in this tale is about a father who is very poor, but is just getting by, when he is met by a gentleman (the devil in disguise) at a crossroads and is offered fabulous wealth provided he merely surrender whatever the gentleman might find in the father’s back yard. The father does not take the bet too seriously as he believes that the only thing in his back yard, is a dying apple tree. He agrees to the offer, only to find out too late that his beautiful young daughter was coincidentally standing in the back yard exactly at the time her father and the devil made their deal.

To make a very complex and exciting tale move along, I will simply say that each of the numerous times that the devil comes to claim the father’s daughter, for one reason or another, either because of chastity, cleanliness, virtue, or whatever, the devil claims that he can not take the girl. He finally orders the father to cut off the girl’s hands or to give up his own life instead. The daughter begs her father to cut away her hands if it would spare her loving and much adored father his life.

The daughter, after losing her hands, disappears into the woods and becomes a creature of the woods, surviving by her own wisdom, wit and wiles. She is eventually discovered by an unmarried prince as she steals the pears from his highness’s royal garden. The prince fashions mechanical hands for her made from silver. She and the Prince wed and eventually she bears the prince a beautiful child. The devil tries again and again to exact his revenge upon the “Wild Bride”, causing great pain and suffering along the way, but does not win the handless maid.

It is a magnificent fairy tale, an allegory told in powerful, visual and musical terms, rich with ribald adult, yet child-like humor, a tale of coming of age, for young and old alike!

This is one of the better productions to come out of a Bay Area theater this year, a wonderful and wacky tale, well told. The first act is a bit slow, by purpose no doubt, to make the final act the wonder that it is. The sound effects, the tension, the dance choreography, the marvelous singing voices of the actors, all add indispensable elements that make this production sing! This is a wild tale, delightfully well told, a spell magically executed!

The Wild Bride continues Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Wednesday and Sunday performances at 7 p.m., plus matinees on Saturdays and Sundays at 2 pm, extended now through January 22nd. Tickets range in price between $14.50 and $73 for each ticket. Call (510) 647-2949 or visit their website at http://www.berkeleyrep.org/ or call the toll free number at (888) BRT-Tix. The Roda Theater is located at 2015 Addison Street in Berkeley (near Shattuck)

Silent Film Flickers bring miles of smiles in Niles!

Around the first of November, I wrote in my column about the wonderful era of silent films, or as my grandparents called them, the fabulous “flickers”. I also detailed a little history of the birth of the film industry that prospered right here in the East Bay, circa 1912, just a short drive from Walnut Creek to the community at the end of Niles Canyon, commonly known as Niles, California.

The Essanay Silent Film Museum is now located at 37417 Niles Boulevard, in Fremont, California. I mentioned that I was looking forward to attending the comedy evening of selected silent film shorts on December 17th, consisting of four terrific films of the silent film era, the first of which was Charley Chase’s “There Ain’t No Santa Claus.” In this delightfully funny film, a hard working gentleman finds himself trapped between tough financial times and poor credit. He desperately wants to provide some basic Christmas gifts for his wife and daughter. At the same time he is confronted by his landlord who is demanding his December rent. The challenge is how to avoid paying the rent in order to make his family’s Christmas gift expectations come true. This simply written and directed movie has a delightful, positive and clever twist at the end.

The second film was Charlie Chaplin’s famous comedy about an alcoholic who checks into a spa where he attempts to take “The Cure”. This Charlie Chaplin film is one of his funniest, employing multiple madcap revolving door sequences, a moose of a masseuse, a big guy with gout, a lovely young lady (Edna Purviance) and a lot of booze accidentally emptied into a “health spa spring”, enough to make us all sing with laughter.

The third was the classic Buster Keaton 1920 film (written and directed by Keaton) about love’s labor’s nearly lost and a “scarecrow” who finds himself lucky in love, entitled, “The Scarecrow!” This movie is renowned for an opening scene in which Buster Keaton and his roommate, “Big” Joe Martin, engage in the most brilliant breakfast preparation, consumption and clean up scene. Keaton cleverly employs the choreographed use of a kitchen stove, a revolving tub, convertible table, eating tools and Rube Goldberg type table top props in a fashion you have never seen before! The real story, once you get into it, is about Keaton and Big Joe’s competitive sparring for the hand of a beautiful farmer’s daughter (played by Sybil Seely). Even Fatty Arbuckle’s own dog, Luke, was borrowed and used in very funny chase scenes.

Finally, we enjoyed the famous Lauren and Hardy movie entitled “Big Business”, in which they are attempting to sell Christmas trees on a door to door basis from their little pickup truck. The “tit for tat” or “I’m getting even with you” theme that made this movie such an incredible success had been used again and again in many of their story lines over the years.

Granted, these movies are only shown once by scheduled performances that are announced a couple of months in advance, so you have to go to the Museum’s web site or sign up for their email communications to be kept informed as to what shows will be playing on which nights. The 120 seat theater and museum is staffed by volunteers and is only open from noon until 4 pm on Saturdays and Sundays. The movie theater opens at 7 p.m. and the movies start at 7:30 pm. The museum is open at intermission and after the movies’ end, for you to peruse the wonderful collection of historic movie equipment and to provide you with an opportunity to purchase many of these old movies restored on DVD. They also have a wonderful collection of books and posters related to the silent film era. The tour of the projection room was a real treat. The museum which started out with an initial collection of about 400 movies now has accumulated over 9000 original films for which the museum is trying to accumulate the funds necessary to preserve and properly store.

Niles is now a tourist town with lots of antique shops, restaurants, gift shops, a couple of old bars, a fancy old fashioned train station and sightseeing train tours and this great silent film museum. You can find the details on the web page at http://www.nilesfilmmuseum.org/ or call them at (510) 494-1411. The only requested donation (total cost to see the film) is $5 for the silent film pianist (Judith Rosenberg on the night we went, who brilliantly provided the appropriate background mood music much of which was done extemporaneously).

Niles is a fun town to bum around in with lots of intriguing shops, which provide some great Christmas gift opportunities. You might even go to one of the local restaurants for dinner, before the movie.

Tis the season to be jolly and Christmas offerings are popping up everywhere!

2011-12-05T15:43:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: Kevin Berne

Scrooge (Richard Farrell) stares in bewilderment as the Ghost of Christmas Present (Seth Margolies) casts a magical spell from his cornucopia of good will in San Jose Rep's "A Christmas Carol"!

Tis the season to be jolly, by golly, everywhere you turn! I was beginning to think that retail stores were about to have Santa Clause trade in his reindeer for a turkey with an entourage of goslings, when I saw Christmas decorations going up before my family had even arrived for our Thanksgiving gathering!

Thanksgiving leftovers were hardly out of the refrigerator when the Smuin Ballet opened their exciting “Christmas Ballet, 2011 Edition” last week in the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts for two evenings only, on November 25th and 26th. Then on November 30th, The San Jose Repertory Theater delivered a superlative “A Christmas Carol”, certainly one of the most memorable, innovative and ingenious I have ever seen! On November 28th, the Willows Cabaret Theater in Martinez brought up the curtain on a delightfully entertaining Christmas holiday musical comedy featuring the Wonderettes, while in Lafayette, the Town Hall Theater opened their fun musical version of "Scrooge!" on December 1st.

Where do I start this week? Perhaps with the closet theater to Rossmoor first, Lafayette Town Hall, and moving onward and upward using the same formula, the next shortest travel distance, Martinez and leaving the longest journey till last.

Typical of most productions featuring the most reviled skinflint in theatrical history, "Scrooge!", Town Hall’s production starts off with a great opening musical number featuring some very lovely voices and some very talented actors. John Blytt once again returns in the role of the not so nice money lender, Scrooge. Clive Worsley is quite superb as Bob Cratchet, Randy Anger does an excellent job as the Ghost of Christmas Present, and Dennis Markham provides an most satisfactory and believable nephew, Fred. While I cannot begin to address each and every actor in the production, special credit was earned by the acting skills of Rebecca Pingree who played Martha Cratchet and Michael Sally who embodies well the character of the out of body ex-partner of Scrooge, Jacob Marley.

Altogether, this production of “Scrooge!” is a very good production, reasonably priced and close to home. Director Jessica Richards has done some very clever things, in fact added a concept that I have never seen done before that I feel adds measurably to the story. In this production, the ghost of Christmas Past turns out to be Scrooge’s deceased sister, Isabel, (Fred’s mother) returning from the “other side” to try to help her brother reclaim his life before it is too late. I frankly thought this was a brilliant touch, even more touching than just having his deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, coming back to help him. Also, Anna Smith, who played Isabel and two other characters as well, demonstrated some pretty outstanding acting skills, delivering an excellent performances.

The costumes starting with the dress Isabel was wearing, were really quite excellent. Bessie Delucchi provided the cast with costumes that fit well and looked very appropriate. The set design, by Emily Greene, was really quite favorable and worked well.

I personally have never really cared much for this adaptation of the “Christmas Carol” story, because I frankly do not care for several of the songs and the type of musical “take” its author envisions for a story that is really quite sad and poignant. To me, “Scrooge” the musical, by Leslie Bricusse, is far too much like a Walt Disney adaptation, much too upbeat, with songs like “It’s Not My Fault”, “Thank You Very Much” and “I Like Life”, sounding too much like Mary Poppins or Chitty, Chitty, Bang, Bang styled musical numbers. The “Thank You Very Much” number, where the creditors of the mean old Mr. Scrooge are celebrating his demise, releasing them from their financial obligations, is just too out of character for the recipients of this good fortune in this time and place. The music style is 20th Century music, definitely not in keeping with the time frame in which the story takes place, not even remotely reminiscent. In addition, Scrooge’s response as he joins in the celebration is just too much out of character for him, certainly for this point in his redemption. He dances around like a school boy, thinking all of this jubilation is because for some unexplainable reason, these hard pressed debtors now love him. Humbug! I always feel Dick Van Dyke will come storming in any minute adding his dance choreography to this “lighter” version of the infamous epiphany that Scrooge is supposed to be going through. I guess I am just an old stick in the mud, great acting aside; I just seem to prefer the more typical, darker version of “A Christmas Carol”. This adaptation certainly weakens the powerful message that this story portends! This may be a great version for the kids and younger audience and perhaps for someone who have not been steeped in the old Christmas Carol tea pot, as I have, but there I go, blowing off steam again!

“Scrooge!” continues Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with 7 p.m. performances on the 11th and 18th, in addition to matinee at 2 p.m. on December 11th and 18th, and a 3 p.m. matinee on December 10th and 17th, closing on the 18th. Tickets range between a very reasonable $12 and $32 each. The Town Hall Theatre Company is located at 3535 School St, on the corner of Moraga road near downtown Lafayette. Call (925) 283-1557 or visit their website at http://www.townhalltheatre.com/ to purchase tickets.

The Willows Theatre has unleashed a delightfully silly story, entitled the “Winter Wonderettes” about a girl’s quartet who reside in a rural community who call themselves, the “Marvelous Wonderettes”. This musical is actually a sequel to the earlier musical entitled the “Marvelous Wonderettes”, which is a tribute to the girl quartets of the 1960’s. This story takes place just a few months after the first story evolved as it is now Christmas time in 1968 and the Marvelous Wonderettes, Betty Jean, Cindy Lou, Missy and Suzy, have been asked to entertain fellow employees at the Holiday Party for Harper’s Hardware, where Betty Jean has worked since high school. The girls have decorated the hardware store, turning it into a winter wonderland! Their entertainment consists of the girls sharing some Christmas songs and greetings from a number of countries and a medley of well known, popular Christmas songs born in the same time frame. These old favorites include some upbeat 60’s songs that I am sure will be quite familiar to you, such as “Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree”, Jingle Bell Rock, Little Saint Nick and “A Marshmallow World”.

Interspersed with the girls homespun entertainment program, in their hometown hardware store, are some personal revelations about their own complex lives, including a very pregnant and happily married Suzy (Lisa Drummond) and an upbeat Cindy (Diahanna Davidson). Betty Jean (Laurie Hedstrom) is experiencing some romantic difficulties, and Missy (Pamely Khoury) has a few issues to reminisce about as well.

Every year, as is tradition, Mr. Harper is scheduled to appear dressed as Santa Claus at the end of the evening to pass out the employee’s holiday bonus envelopes. Trouble ensues when Mr. Harper misses his cue multiple times. Betty Jean runs off to find him and returns to the stage with what she thinks are the bonus envelopes. The envelopes are passed out to the audience (which are supposed to be fellow employees who have come to see the Christmas party show), but upon opening them they discover a big surprise, an ominous surprise about their employment future.

As is Missy's nature, she tries her best to cheer things up by sharing happy Christmas memories as well as a tribute to Christmas around the world. After everyone is feeling better, the girls decide to bring on their own Santa; Missy’s new husband Bill (an audience member). Following a delightful bit of audience participation in the program, the evening ends on a happy, upbeat note!

Under the excellent direction of Lois Grandi, a long time Rossmoor audience director favorite, the show moves along very well and provides an excellent stage for your future exploration of Christmas activities this year. The ladies are superb talents, two of whom I am very familiar with, having seen them perform previously, and whom I have already held in high regard, Pam Khoury and Laurie “Kinsella” Hedstrom. The two new acquaintances were an absolute delight, Lisa Drummond and Diahanna Davidson, who I hope to get to know much better in the future, as entertainers.

This fun-filled evening of entertainment continues Wednesdays (3:30 and 7:30), Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinees on Saturdays at 2 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m., now through December 30th. The Willows Campbell Theater is a delightful cabaret style, terraced seating theater in downtown Martinez, at 636 Ward Street (almost directly behind Bank of America, and one block east of Main Street). Call 798-1300 for tickets or visit their website at http://www.willowstheatre.org/ for more information, and the ability to order tickets on line.

I often rave about the professional and innovative theater that you can find with in a reasonably short drive to San Jose, located in the San Jose Repertory Theater company, and here I go again! I spoke earlier about my preference to see the time revered classic Christmas story, “A Christmas Carol”, done in the Dickensonian style, much as it might have risen from a spiritual vapor reincarnated from Dicken’s own personal pen and paper, an artfully reconstructed, faithfully detailed, a historical adaptation that richly rewards the audience with the true flavor and emotional value of his marvelous work. I do not believe I have ever seen a production more rewarding than this one! I have seen this story portrayed many times in my 28 years of writing this column and I believe Director Rick Lombardo has found the silver lining in this dark and poignant tale of greed and redemption. This production includes vocal and instrumental music relative to the time and to the mood, performed by the 16 actors themselves. Baroque and beautiful, the sweet sounds of voice, violin, chimes, bells, drums, a recorder (flute type instrument), guitars and piano are repeatedly introduced scene after scene, appropriately. The songs are familiar, many of which you may have sung in Sunday school or choir, and they ring richly and appropriately into the fabric of the tale.

Yes, this is the same tale which you have probably seen many, many times, by many theaters over the years, but perhaps not as simply presented or as scaled down and yet be so moving and effective. While I applaud its lack of grand, expensive sets, huge casts and artistic artifice, I equally applaud the remarkable cleverness with which each scene is executed. Scrooge’s office, desks, bed and props are quickly spun into the set fabric of the tale, almost magically, aided by some of the best lighting design I have seen in recent years (Dawn Chiang). Costumes designed by Frances Nelson McSherry are authentic and beautiful. Peter Colao has used a minimalist approach to the scenery, that when melded with the brilliant direction of Rick Lombardo, enriches this story, tenfold.

The acting includes only a couple of actors I am really familiar with, Dan Hiatt (superb as Marley) and Lizzie Calgero (terrific as the Ghost of Christmas Past). Richard Farrell, a veteran actor of many mediums, appears for his first time in “A Christmas Carol” as Scrooge and I must say, he delivers a remarkable performance. Marvin Greene is outstanding as Bob Cratchit and Kimberly Mohne Hill performs as Mrs. Cratchit and Mrs. Fezziwig, on an equally outstanding level. Blythe Foster is pluperfect in her several roles, Belle, Fred’s Wife and Molly. Seth Margolies owns the roles of Fezziwig and the Ghost of Christmas Present. Sam Misner is superlative as Fred and young Scrooge and Kate McCormick sings beautifully and plays Edna with bravado. Paul Baird plays his many roles, including Dick Wilkins - - in spades. Even the children, Emilio Fuentes (Ignorance), Lucas Kernan, Alison Lubiens (Want), Everett Meckler (Tiny Tim), and the young lady, Jessica Salans, deliver their many characters on a truly professional level, as professional as any young actors I have ever seen.

If you are an aficionado of the “art of theater”, then, if for no other reason you must make the trip to San Jose to see this simply stellar production. I will retain and cherish this memory for a very long time. I will encourage all my fellow theater critic members of the SF Bay Area Theater Critic’s Circle to make the trip to San Jose as this one needs to be seen by those who can fully appreciate its special qualities.

“A Christmas Carol” continues Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 7:30, with Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances at 8 p.m., and matinees on certain Wednesdays at 11 a.m., Saturdays at 3 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m., now through December 24th. Tickets may be purchased on line at http://www.sjrep.com/ or by calling (408) 367.7255. The box office is located in the theatre lobby. Tickets range in price between $28 and $74 each, with a $6 discount for all senior tickets. The San Jose Repertory Theatre is a beautiful facility, easy to reach and always rewarding. The San Jose Repertory Company Theatre is located at 101 Paseo de San Antonio, between 2nd and 3rd Streets, one block north of East San Carlos Street in San Jose. There is multi-storied public parking structure at the corner of East San Carlos Street, between 2nd and 3rd streets (rates vary), and a street level parking lot just north of the theatre (same block) at $10 flat rate for the evening.

New Nunsense is best yet and Christmas Ballet is coming your way!

2011-11-23T09:46:00.000-08:00

Dan Goggins indicated this past Friday night, that in least one sense, there is nothing quite like “Nunsense”,especially when it comes to delivering salvation! Salvation for Community Theater finances that is! He went on to express his gratefulness for the appreciative audiences that have continually subscribed to the “Nunsense” theatrical franchise. Goggin revealed in his post show remarks to the celebratory audience, that his highly successful musicals seem to work very well for small town theater companies. He stated that his musical franchise has literally saved over 100 community theaters across the country from financial ruin. There are many companies who were very nearly on the verge of financial disaster until they subscribed to the wacky antics of Dan Goggin’s “little Sisters from the Mt. St. Helen’s missionary order based in Hoboken New Jersey”.

What is it about these cabaret style, corny comedy musicals that repeatedly poke innocent fun at life under the banner of Catholicism, with productions that repeatedly brings back Nunsense devotees, year after year, show after show?

The first local production of Nunsense, directed by Mr. Goggin himself, was produced by the Willows Theater Company in Concord, in a former bowling alley turned theater venue in the late 80’s. It was outrageously funny and struck a very familiar chord to the many theater goers who also apparently remembered their life in Catholic Schools, and were subject to the stringent dictates of the strict and un-appeasing, all powerful teaching nuns. Now, the latest Nunsense offering, “Nunset Boulevard”, also takes place in a bowling alley environment as the Nuns bring their latest fund raising benefit tour to the foothills of Hollywood.

The original “Nunsense” off-Broadway production in the Cherry Lane Theater opened in December of 1985, moved to the Douglas Fairbanks Theater where it ran for 3,672 performances, and wasthe second-longest running official Broadway Show in history, second only to the “Fantastics”. It has been translated into 26 languages, with more than 8000 productions world-wide, grossing over $500 million for the franchise. The off-Broadway productions and resulting movie spin-offs have included and embraced such well known stars as Phyllis Diller, Sally Struthers, JoAnne Worley, Edie Adams, Kaye Ballard and many others.

“Nunset Boulevard”, The Nunsense Hollywood Bowl Show, is the seventh and newest and perhaps best in the Nunsense theatrical series. It opened its West Coast premiere on the Willows Main stage Theater in the Willows Shopping Center in Concord this past week. This 25 year old ongoing comic saga started off with a rather bizarre tale of an accidental food poisoning incident that did away with 52 members of their original order. Then, in order to finalize the burial of the last four remaining sisters (stored in a walk-in refrigerator while the funds were being accumulated), the convent had to come up with a fund raising scheme, which ultimately necessitated a home-spun variety show in which the remaining healthy nuns participated. The show was a great success, which in turn morphed into the next Nunsense show, entitled “Nunsense II, the Second Coming!” In this production, the Little Sisters of Hoboken stage another variety show to show their gratitude to the original show-goers when they are interrupted by two Franciscan monks showing up at the convent to claim and retain (for their order’s own good ) Sister Mary Amnesia, who they believe has won the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes. This show eventually, several years later, spins off into “Sister Mary Amnesia’s Country Western Jamboree”, which is presented as a musical stop on the promotional tour for the nun's new album, “I Could've Gone to Nashville”, which is released shortly after Sister Mary Amnesia regains her memory and discovers that she really is “Sister Mary Paul”, a former country singing talent. A few years later, this show is followed by “Nuncrackers: The Nunsense Christmas Musical”, which is then, after a suitable period, followed by “Meshuggah-Nuns!”, and then eventually by “Nunsensations: The Nunsense Vegas Revue”. Now, finally, 25 years after the original concept show came into being, this current show, “Nunset Boulevard”, The Nunsense Hollywood Bowl Show, delivers the Nuns on the theatrical fund raising road again!

Over the years, the jokes just seemed to get more and more lame, to the point that I really was not looking forward to seeing another “Nunsense” show. But boy was I wrong with this show! Goggin is now fully back on track with a brilliantly funny, well-crafted show. In fact, this may be the best one yet. The lyrics in this show are touching, meaningful, poignant, and they are just plain enjoyable! The five nuns who now take the “little Sisters from the Mt. St. Helen’s missionary order” to the Hollywood Bowl, are exceptionally gifted, professional performers in every respect singing, acting, dancing and even schlepping the jokes! In other words, they are excellent in moving the high fructose comedy right along with carefully calculated purpose and just plain old fashioned “you can’t help but love them” style.

In “Nunset Boulevard”, the nonsensical Nuns have moved on to Hollywood after having been scammed by the same guy who tricked them into appearing in a motel lounge in Las Vegas. Well, the famous Hollywood Bowl concert venue in which they thought they would be appearing, turns out to be the “Hollywood Bowl-A-Rama”, a bowling alley with an adjacent cabaret theater instead. Once again, the happy hokey Nuns from Hoboken make the best of a bad situation, all the while, secretly hoping to get a taste of potential stardom, maybe even a chance at a real screen test. Plot? - - - there is no plot, not in these shows, just plain unadulterated fun. Well, once again, five very funny Nuns make this madcap musical comedy an evening of simple silly fun, and perhaps, your best bet yet for the likes of the wacky Sisters of Hoboken!

Deborah Del Mastro plays Sister Robert Anne, Linda Dorsey becomes Sister Hubert, Juliet Heller is wonderful as Sister Leo, Alexandra Kapriellan is delightful as Sister Amnesia and Amy Washburn is brilliant, learned and lucid as the not-so-insightful Mother Superior! I think this group’s voices are the best cross section yet of professional level performance artists in any of these Nunsense shows, at least according to what I remember. The music is so good that I even recommend purchasing the musical CD of the show. The shameless numbers include one entitled “The Hollywood Blonds, a sort of backhanded tribute to the great blond ladies of the silver screen, or should I say, the silver scream! The costumes by Sharon Bell in this number are far different than anything you have ever seen in a Nunsense show. They are an absolute riot and the five ladies who pull it all together are the three ring musical masters of this number. Funny, funny, funny, Wow, I loved it!

The Willows musical orchestrations are under the expert direction of Kim Vetterli, orchestrations which are so well designed, it seems as if this three person combo is more numerous than they are in reality. It is a pleasure to have a real orchestra and in this production, the company has stepped up to the plate and invested in a much higher quality speaker and microphone system. The quality of this sound system is a resounding success, far better than anything I have ever heard in this theatre, or any other similar sound systems in the nearby area theatrical venues. The sound system is actually a big plus, another reason to see this remarkable show.

This outrageously funny and rewarding production, “Nunset Boulevard”, continues in the Willows Main Stage Theater in Concord, in the Willows Shopping Center, located at1975 Diamond Boulevard in Concord, next door to REI Sporting Goods, through January 15th. Performances are on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., with Friday and Saturday performances at 8 p.m., plus matinees on Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m., on Saturdays at 2 p.m., and again on Sundays at 3 p.m.. Call 798-1300 or visit the www.willowstheatre.org web site for more information and ticket sales on line. The theater ticket sales are only made on line or at the Daytime Box office at 115 Tarantino Drive in Martinez. Tickets which range in price between $28 and $34 are very reasonable and can be picked up at the Will Call Box Office in the theater in the Willows Shopping Center.

If you love ballet, then there is no way you should miss the Smuin “Christmas Ballet”, 2011 Edition! There will be two distinct acts; a classy Classical Christmas act and a COOL Christmas act, bursting out with every conceivable modern dance enhancement. From tap, to ballet, to jazz, holiday flavors will runneth over from your joyous Christmas cup! Choreographers Amy Seiwert and Robert Sund will add their artistic expertise to the eclectic mix of time-honored favorites and fabulously innovative additions. Sund’s articulate addition will include a gospel and soulful inspiring tribute to the Mahalia Jackson touch that melds with the out-of-sight dance formulation in “Oh, Holy Night”. This up passionate addition will resonate with Christmas spirit and embrace the wonderful soulful sounds of this special music. Included in the spirit-lifting mix, you will enjoy “Carol of the Bells”, “Sleigh Ride”, and even a rock-n-roll version of “Santa Baby” and, of course, you will delight in many other seasonal favorites as well.

Under the artful direction of Celia Fushille, this show will embrace your Christmas spirit heartstrings while the passion of the dance will embrace the stirrings of your inward desire to dance along with the many artistic talents in toe or tap or jazz mode!

Smuin Ballet continues to support its relationship with “Toys for Tots”, and with each new, unwrapped gift brought to the box office, Smuin will provide a reward to the gift bearer in the form of 25 % off every ticket he or she purchases for the 8 pm show on November 26th in Walnut Creek. If you decide to attend the show in San Francisco, Mountain View or Carmel, similar rewards will await you there. Please visit their website at www.smuinballet.org for more information and details. The shows in Walnut Creek are on November 25th and 26th, at 8 pm on Friday and Saturday evenings, and at 2 pm at Saturday’s matinee. Call the Lesher Regional Center for the Arts at 943-7469 to reserve tickets as well. The Smuin Christmas Ballet is a joyful and uplifting Christmas experience every year. I plan to be there and you should too!

Sex illuminates two shows in Walnut Creek, silent films brings smiles in Niles, and the Lafayette Improvement Assoc.celebrates 100 years!

2011-11-09T19:53:00.000-08:00

This week we have two really unique theater offerings, Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight at the Diablo Actor’s Ensemble and The Story Telling Ability of a Boy, presented by Center Repertory Theater, both in downtown Walnut Creek. Both plays are wildly different from each other and wonderfully different in their delivery to you, the audience.

The Story Telling Ability of a Boy is a turbulent story about two desperately needy and troubled high school students and their dedicated and idealistic teacher. This story is sprinkled with humor throughout but there is a very dark undertow just below the surface. It is in some ways a frightening story that mimics the real and often acrimonious student experience as it may well be experienced in today’s violent and unforgiving scholastic environment. Peck (Jeremy Kahn) is a brilliantly gifted, socially inept and nerdy student, endowed with what his English teacher, Caitlin (El Beh), perceives as having an incredibly passionate fantasy and story creation ability. In large part because Peck is so different, and has such an unique command of the English language well beyond most of his peers, Peck is constantly bullied, beaten and picked upon by the ne’er-do-well but socially prominent sports jocks.

Dora (Monique Hafen) is his friend, his one and only friend. She comes to his defense again and again but she is an anti-establishment loner, a provocateur of authority, constantly uttering profane verbal embellishments and gutter based diatribe. We don’t know initially why she is so insecure and angry, but whenever Peck attempts to discuss sex or personal intimate relationships with Dora, she regurgitates offensive rhetoric, which is her primary verbal defense bastion against directly dealing with the issues at hand. At one point, when she is confronted with an unpleasant proposition, she retorts, “I’d rather have my vagina stretched over a fire extinguisher”, - - end of discussion, move on to something else! In addition, Dora is obviously very angry with Peck’s English teacher, Caitlin, for the teacher’s apparent one time connection with her, which has now turned to rejection. She was once greatly impressed with this teacher, but now feels great hostility and regurgitates erogenous epithets to color even the most benign attempts at discussion or the posing of questions by the teacher.

More than likely, what you and I experienced in high school as antiestablishment behavior and exploration of crude language would probably be classified today as naïve kinder-prep language, too tame even for Homer Simpson. This play brings us into the 21st century, where there is a huge difference in social media and communication outlets, more opportunities for bullying, belittling and dehumanizing. It definitely is a moving, emotional play. There is a huge range today of what must be considered normal, probably more than we realize. In retrospect, you have to come away feeling compassion for these young people in the end. In the first few minutes of this show I found myself wanting to get up and walk out because of the language. I am glad I didn’t. The language is course but it is integral to the story. It is the only way Dora has to level the playing field. Without it she would simply be irrelevant!

"Story Telling Ability of a Boy" is a superbly written play by Carter W. Lewis, and directed by Jessica Heidt. It is clever, funny, disturbing and it plays through this weekend, Thursday, Friday , and Saturday at 8:15 p.m., closing this Sunday at 2:15 p.m. in the Knight Stage III theater, downstairs in the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts at 1601 Civic Drive in downtown Walnut Creek. . Tickets range in price from $20 to $30 each and can be purchased by calling Center REP at 943-SHOW (7469) or by visiting their web site at www.centerrep.org, and click on the “buy tickets” box or visit the ticket office in the Regional Center at the above address or in the Downtown Walnut Creek Library or in the Barnes and Noble book store in Walnut Creek.

Also in Walnut Creek at the Diablo Actors Ensemble Theater at 1345 Locust Street, a very funny, very risqué comedy awaits you in Peter Ackerman’s Things You Shouldn't Say Past Midnight. This play is a very funny bedtime story - - for adults - - definitely for adults! Talk about sexual overtones in playwriting. This story is not just bare bones overtones, this is like a sexual sonata, and a hotta sonata at that!

It begins with one straight couple “A” thrashing about under the covers in a bed demonstrating what appears to be copulating, complete with a sonorous lust laden sound track that reverberates with oh’s and ah’s aplenty! As couple “A” comes (no pun intended) to their last orgasmic gasp, an unexpected negative racial epithet is uttered by the feminine member of this passionate duet. This kind of comment is something that has no intelligent place in this type of romantic or sexual interplay, so the stunned and bewildered male partner, Ben, who is the apparent recipient of this epithet, struggles to deal with his feelings as to why this offensive phrase would even be uttered. Wait a minute, he asks, is there something going on under the surface of their relationship that needs to be examined? Nancy (Caitlin Evenson) tries to pass it off as simply interjecting something “dirty” into the sex play (she claims to not even being aware of uttering such a phrase) to enhance her experience, but her partner, Ben (Bryan Quinn), does not buy it.

After much discussion and argument, somehow, in the process of the give and take of two lovers having a tiff, Ben says that “we all say things sometimes that we don’t really mean”, and somehow there is an indication that he might have once had the feeling that he might even have had a “gay” moment. With that revelation, the evening ends with the angry female partner, Nancy, leaving and going to her girlfriend Grace’s apartment at 3 a.m. in the morning. The next couple “B” includes Nancy’s girlfriend, Grace (Hilary Hyatt), who is in the process of entertaining her “boy toy”, an older man named “Clean Gene” (Tony Rizzo), who is an exciting guy because he is more mature and he is also a nefarious character, at least on the surface. Gene is a mafia hit man known as a non-messy snuff artist and that turns Grace on! Clean Gene secretly wants to get out of his life of crime, but there is concern that his going straight (no pun intended) will diminish his sex appeal to Grace!
When Nancy tells Grace that her boyfriend might “be gay”, Grace opts to call her therapist, Mark (Nate Bogner), who is definitely gay and asks for his input. It turns out that at this time of the morning, Mark is in bed with his gay partner, Mr. Abrahamson (John Hutchinson), (couple “C”), and before long couples “A” “B” and “C” are in on the “is he”, “isn’t he” discussion, a 6 way therapeutic conference call at 3 a.m. in the morning. The acting is absolutely superb all around as is the “A B C’s of sexual discourse after intercourse”, after midnight. And you thought the “Late Show with Letterman”, the “Late Night show with Jimmy Fallon”, and the” Late, Late Show with Craig Ferguson” were entertaining? I’m sorry, but these shows were nothing compared to Pete Ackermans’ late night entertainment gem!

Outrageously funny, deliciously crazy and rampant with ribald sexual language, this play, directed very well by Vince Faso, is an absolute bizarre delight! You probably should attend, if you want to know “Things You Shouldn’t Say Past Midnight”.

This show continues through this week, Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8 pm, with matinees on Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., closing with the Sunday performance. Tickets range between $10 and $25 each. Call (866) 811-411 for reservations and tickets or visit their web site at www.diabloactors.com for more information. The Theater is located next door to Peet’s Coffee on Locust Street in Walnut Creek, at 1345 Locust Street.

Silent Films in Niles are bound to bring lots of smiles, check it out!

If you have ever enjoyed the silent films that were so prevalent after the turn of the century and would enjoy going to a historical little town where many of those early films were actually made, right here in the Bay Area, then you ought to take a little drive down to Niles, California, near Fremont, where Bronco Billy and Essanay Films at one time actually made movies and held sway. Gilbert M. “Bronco Billy” Anderson and George K. Spoor formed the Essanay Film Corporation in Chicago in 1907 but by 1912 they had grown tired of the cold unpredictable weather in the East and Anderson began to look for more moderate climes to make his films. By 1912, when Essannay and 52 members of their company arrived in Niles by train, the company had already made more than 200 films. George Spoor was the “Ess” part and Anderson was the “anAy” part of the film company’s name. Before very long, local businessmen saw the great potential of a film making company and what it could do for the local economy, so they hustled Anderson into the backroom of Billie Moore’s Bar and made a deal to sell an old barn on 2nd avenue to Bronco Billy as a makeshift movie studio.

The film company bought more property, enlarged their operation and continued to grow modestly until December of 1914 when Charlie Chaplin was signed by Essanay. His yearly income was $75,000 and each film he made brought in around $125,000. All went well until Chaplin’s contract came up in 1915 and he demanded $10,000 per week plus $125,000 just for signing his name to the contract. Anderson was ready to go elsewhere. Spoor rejected Chaplin’s demands and Chaplin moved on. In February 1916, the Niles Essanay company was ordered to shut down. It was an end of an era, but in Niles the history lives on.

There is an Essanay Silent Film Museum on what was then known as Front Street, and now known as 37417 Niles Boulevard, in Fremont, California. In the back of the museum ( a truly historic building) there is a little film studio where you can join many other silent film aficionados on Saturday evenings at 7:30 pm or Sundays at 4 pm to kick back and join the faithful to watch those fun, silly and sappy movies of yester year.
Niles is now a tourist town with lots of antique shops, restaurants, gift shops, a couple of old bars, a fancy old fashioned train station and a great Silent Film Museum. You can find the details on the web page at www.nilesfilmmuseum.org or call them at (510) 494-1411. I am planning to head down there for the December 17th Comedy shorts night (which is usually sold out) to join in the fun. The only requested donation is $5 for the pianist Bruce Loeb who provides the background mood music.

Niles is a fun town to bum around in. My wife and I bought a terrific antique mirror years ago from one of those antique shops, which hangs in our living room. There are also some pretty good places for a “down home” type meal to round out the day’s adventure.

The Lafayette Improvement Association, originally knjown as the Lafayette Improvement Club was instrumental in the founding of the Lafayette Town Hall and even the City of Lafayette, and the orgainization is now about to celebrate 100 years this coming Friday, 11/11/11.

Lafayette has some pretty significant history to celebrate this coming Friday, November 11th, as the Lafayette Improvement Association celebrates its 100th birthday with a procession of 100 candles at 7 p.m., outside the Town Hall Theater, located at 3535 School Street.

I know of several Rossmoor families who at one time belonged to the Town Hall, the Dramateurs (the old resident theater company) or the Lafayette Improvement Association (originally known as the Lafayette Improvement Club), whom I am sure would love to be part of this celebration.

In celebrating this remarkable event in the old fashioned way, family and friends are invited to join in as cake and cider will be served in the Town Hall’s modern 1st floor lobby (or green room as we used to call it). Former officers and board members of the Lafyaette Improvement Association and the Chamber of Commerce and civic officials are all invited, but Clyde Long, the president of the Lafayette Improvement Association (LIA), wants to place the emphasis on Lafayette families joining in the celebration, first and foremost!

My wife, Karen, and I met in that Town Hall Theater as members of the Dramateurs back in the early 80’s and it holds many fond memories for us as both her mother and father were also members of both the Dramateurs and the Lafayette Improvement Association. My wife’s birthday is on the same day as this celebration so we may not be able to attend. To learn more, call 283-1848 or visit www.lafayettehistory.org or visit the Lafayette Historical Society History Room in the Lafayette Library and Learning Center which is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., located at 3491 Mt. Diablo Blvd, Lafayette, CA 94549-3360. It is best to enter from Golden Gate Way.

Totem is totally awesome! Rosenkrantz & Gildenstern is NOT Dead and Rita Moreno is in a master class all her own!

2011-11-02T20:42:00.000-07:00

Rita Moreno responds to questions by actors during an after the show discussion of the Town Hall Theater's Production of "The Odd Couple, Female Version" in April of 2009 (Photo by Charles F. Jarrett)

This week’s broadly diverse theatrical adventures will allow you to focus on three highly entertaining opportunities here in the Bay Area this coming week. First, I will open with a look at an existential comedy in San Ramon written by Tom Stoppard’s, called “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead”. Next I will offer you a chance to re-imagine and intermingle a panoply of creation stories in Cirque du Soleil’s brilliantly conceived circus extraordinaire, “Totem”. Lastly, I will offer an opportunity for you to travel along on life’s great and challenging adventure with renowned actress, Rita Moreno in her fun-filled and engaging life’s story, “Rita Moreno, Life Without Makeup” at Berkeley Repertory Theater.

Dispite the rumors, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are absolutely NOT Dead”, there is a lot of life left in this play yet!

“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” is currently in production by the Role Players Ensemble in the Village Theater in Danville. It was Stoppard's first major play to gain resounding acclaim. This play is more or less the story of Hamlet, as it might have been witnessed by a fly on the backstage wall of a theater, yet it is first and foremost the story of two minor characters in the Hamlet play, two childhood friends of Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. The story is unveiled from their perspective, divulged as if this episode of their life is being lived by them as it happened, in the moment. The audience quickly recognizes that these two characters are not overly bright, unable to see the handwriting on the wall, as to how their lives will be affected by the realities of their ongoing involvement as they become agents of a corrupt king and queen. It is as if these two characters are a Laurel and Hardy mixture of modern, yet Elizabethan intellect, comedy and personalities. At times they express verbose existential themes and word play far beyond their perceived intellect and philosophical concept realities.

The play begins with the title characters, Rosencrantz (Damien Seperi) and Guildenstern (Charles Woodson Parker) traveling towards the town of Elsinore, having been summoned by the King and Queen for some unknown reason, to an audience with them. While they walk along the road, they idly engage in a game of coin toss, sequentially calling out their perceived lucky choice, be it heads or tails, with Rosencrantz winning an unlikely and impossible 85 times in a row. Guildenstern dwells on this highly unusual course of events, remarking how unrealistic and foreboding this turn of bad luck is. Rosencrantz sees nothing amiss; after all, he is winning! They are unsure where they are going or why, much like Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot”. The realities of their situation are beyond their comprehension. Because Hamlet is acting so strange and antagonistic before the Danish court, the King and Queen (Hamlet’s mother and stepfather) have sent for these two former childhood friend of Hamlet, hoping to engage them as spiess to determine what Hamlet is up to. Again, these two gentlemen are not very bright, nor are they adept at carrying out their intended goals. Much like accidents going somewhere to happen, they are the bound to be winners of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A great deal of the time, the play dwells on the impossibility of certainty, fate and free will and is a foil for the author, Stoppard, to exercise every opportunity to embellish nothingness with clever words and language! While the primary actors, Parker, Seperi, and Murray are very very good, I may not be clever enough to become enraptured in its subtleties and laborious language. There are many bright moments of very clever thought-provoking interchanges, humorous insights and verbal engagements. The audience was more appreciative than I and they really seemed to enjoy the show and laughed repeatedly at the subtle comedy. Director Chris Ayles is a very seasoned professional and my sense is that he has done the best he could with the resources at his disposal. Consequently, my review calls this a worthy production for Community Theater, and certainly a very good value monetarily. Dispite the rumors, “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are absolutely NOT Dead”, there is a lot of life left in this play yet!

“Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” will continue Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Sunday performances at 2 p.m. in the Village Theater at 233 Front Street, in Danville. Call 314-3400 or visit the website at http://www.villagetheatreshows.com/ or pickup your tickets at the Community Center, located at 420 Front Street in Danville. Tickets are only $15 to $26 each, which is very reasonable for local theater.

Totem is totally awesome!

You have seen the advertisements eliciting your interest in Cirque du Soleil’s newest show, “Totem”, for weeks now and it finally opened this past week in San Francisco, under the big Blue and Yellow tents adjacent to AT& T Park. “Totem” is certainly equal to the advertising hype, maybe even better.

Due in large part to the long standing history of spectacular theater created by this unique company, I have been eagerly awaiting this production. I know that some of the productions have seemed very similar in that they are all about elevating the aerial performance aspects, andthe theatrical and musical aspects. This show is remarkably understated and yet brilliantly clever and beautiful in every aspect. While some shows have been very grand, almost gargantuan in size, this show is more intimate and resonates, in my mind, on a very different, very personal level.

For writer & director Robert LePage, Totem is his second theatrical endeavor with Cirque du Soleil. His first production with them was the highly successful operatic and oriental themed “Ka” which opened in 2004 and continues to soar in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Hotel.

The multidisciplinary artist Robert Lepage, who is equally talented as a high tech theatre director, playwright, actor and film director, now finds himself reaching back into time to explore the myths and mysticism surrounding world cultures, creation beliefs. The fact that so many cultures share a belief in the slow moving turtle as a symbol for the underlying strength and ageless infinite progression into and through the universe, has led Lepage to tie this production to a turtle-like framework. One of the main elements of this production’s scenic design is a huge 2,700 pound turtle-shell shaped structure that provides a launching platform for the evolution of “Totem’s” protean landscape. It is from within this central mythical landscape that Totem’s acrobatic marsh creatures emerge, first scaling their earthbound platform, then launching skyward. At the same time, an outer worldly, crystalline bedazzled alien descends from the heavens, down and into the mother turtle shell to meld major theories of creation. LePage says that "inspired by the foundation narratives of the first peoples, TOTEM explores the birth and evolution of the world, the relentless curiosity of human beings and their constant desire to excel,” he says. “The word totem suggests that human beings carry in their bodies the full potential of all living species, even the Thunderbird’s desire to fly to the top of the totem.”

Now in this marvelous and wondrous evolutionary show, you can explore the richness of ancient beauty and beliefs, while frog like amphibian creatures cavort with man’s ape-like predecessors emerging from a collection of colorful marsh based fronds and grasses, across the volcanic landscapes to the barren terra firma, and even up into the starry heavenly nights above. It is in this wonderful landscape that quirky comedians, a ball juggling scientist, acrobats, a clowning fishermen, an American Indian, trapeze artists, foot jugglers, surfer dudes, hoop dancers, roller-skating acrobats, romantic aerialists, unicyclists, and others emerge and play for us in this imaginative ecosystem. Each act is in its own way unique and spectacular!
The set design and special elements, especially the mirrored 10,000 pound scorpion bridge between the mainland and the marshland is a moving structure that brings the diverse elements together in a fashion that is truly indescribable. You have to see this to believe it! The multi-media projections of water and lava flows provided an almost three dimensional depth and realism, beyond any multimedia projections I have ever seen or experienced before. The costuming created by Kim Barrett is exquisite and sets each scene appropriately. The musical innovation designed by composers, arrangers and orchestrators Guy Dubuc and Marc Lessard,(also known as Bob and Bill) set the many moods in pluperfect musical fashion.

Director LePage is reported to have proposed that “somewhere between science and legend, “TOTEM” explores the ties that bind Man to other species, his dreams and his infinite potential.” I agree, wholeheartedly! I cannot recommend highly enough that you find a way to bring those you love to see this incredible show!

While the show is scheduled to run in this location outside of AT & T Park at least through December 11th, it may well be extended, at least until they are scheduled to break camp and move to a parking lot near San Jose’s Taylor Street Bridge on March 2nd. Tickets range in price between $38.50 and $360 each. Call (800) 450-1480 or visit their website at www.cirquedusoleil.com/totem While my wife and I have personally seen 10 of the 22 shows that are currently in production around the world, we never get tired of going again, and again, and again - - - - C'est Magnifique!

Rita Moreno is just as stellar as ever and her show in Berkeley is bringing audiences to their feet every night as she steps on that Berkeley Repertory stage.

Meanwhile, if you have not seen the terrific show in the Roda Theater at the Berkeley Repertory Theater facility in Berkeley, featuring the multitalented Rita Moreno, in “Rita Moreno, Life Without Makeup”, where have you been? This show has been getting rave reviews and has just been extended again, through November 12th, for either the second or third time, I’ve lost count. My wife and I saw the show when it first opened and loved it!

Miss Moreno had her first Broadway role — as "Angelina" in Skydrift — by the time she was 13, which caught the attention of Hollywood talent scouts. She appeared in small roles in The Toast of New Orleans and Singin' in the Rain, in which she played Zelda Zanners.

In March 1954, Moreno was featured on the cover of Life Magazine with a caption “Rita Moreno: An Actresses' Catalog of Sex and Innocence” and that one event really opened the door to her American dream. In 1956, she had a supporting role in the film version of The King and I as Tuptim, but disliked most of her other work during this period. Then, in 1961, Moreno landed the role of “Anita” in Robert Wise’s and Jerome Robbins’ film adaptation of Leonard Bernstein’s and Stephen Sondheim’s groundbreaking Broadway musical, West Side Story. Moreno won the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for that role.

She has played many tough women, many very strong roles, from Anita previously mentioned to Maria Callas in Master Class. She has had to be a very tough woman in her own life’s trials and tribulations and yet has emerged as a very loving, giving, caring, down to earth local resident of whom we can all be very appreciative and proud.

The Town Hall Theater in Lafayette suffered a $100,000+ water damage loss three years ago, when a faulty fire sprinkler unit accidentally discharged and flooded the theater. On April 4th, 2009, the theater held a fundraiser along with producing the female version of the “Odd Couple”, a theatrical production in which Rita had starred on Broadway a few years earlier. Guess who voluntarily showed up to help with the fund raising effort? You’re correct, a very special lady who loves and supports local theaters, Rita Moreno!

This show is terrific, one you should not miss. Miss Moreno is still the consummate performer. She can still sing, act and dance your socks off! “Rita Moreno, Life Without Makeup”, continues Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Wednesday and Sunday performances at 7 p.m. with matinees on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m., closing on November 12. Evening performances replace matinees on 11/3 and 11/6. Call (510) 647-2949 or visit their website at http://www.berkeleyrep.org/ or call the toll free number at (888) BRT-Tix. The Roda Theater is located at 2015 Addison Street in Berkeley (near Shattuck)

Siguenza is brilliantly entertaining as Picasso at Center Rep and Geoff Hoyle is as ribald and funny as one could hope for in Teatro Zinzanni!

2011-10-25T18:58:00.000-07:00

Photo of Herbert Siguenza
as Pablo Picasso in Center Repertory Company's "A Weekend with Pablo Picasso" in Walnut Creek!
Photographer: Allesandra Mello

In San Francisco, Teatro ZinZani always equals Love, Chaos & Dinner and exceptional entertainment. On the waterfront since 2000 at the intersection of Piers 27 and 29, the Palsais Nostalgique, a grand mirrored and velvet Spiegeltent (large tent) has provided an intimate, glamorous, glitzy venue for a style of entertainment reminiscent of San Francisco’s yesteryears. Imagine cabaret singers, vaudeville clowns, cirque acts with men and women flying, balancing and bobbing above your heads as you drink and dine and have a marvelous time. In 2001, when Maria Muldaur, the earthy 60’s blues singer, appeared in Teatro ZinZanni, she declared that “ZinZanni is the most fun you can have - - with your clothes on!”

Unfortunately, Madam ZinZanni and her brilliant performers, whose art and entertainment extravaganza has captured center-stage on the San Francisco waterfront entertainment scene for the past 11 years, is humbly preparing to bid a temporary adieu to its present home and the patrons it loves. While the Company is searching for a new permanent location on the San Francisco waterfront, it has pulled out all stops with a spectacular season ending production entitled, “On The Air”, a parody of a radio broadcast company bringing its nightly musical & variety show to the Bay Area. I am not quite sure how such a visually rewarding production could ever fully capture the imagination of radio listeners, but none the less, as in the days before television, a radio listener would have to have a very active and visual imagination to fully grasp the beauty, artistry and chaotic fun delivered in this Spiegeltent (mirrored tent). Thank goodness I did not have to depend on the radio airwaves to deliver the zany ZinZanni magic and magnificent epicurean dining repast that my wife and I wholeheartedly consumed and thoroughly enjoyed.

Broadcasting live from Pier 29, Radio TZ, as it is fondly known from the back alleys of the embarcadero to the Tower of Coit, delivers an evening of entertainment embracing so many enchanting and engaging talents. Heading up this terrific cast, you will find another of the Bay Area’s real treasures, professional actor, master of theatrical delirium and comedian extraordinaire, Geoff Hoyle accompanied by bombastic blues singer, Duffy Bishop. This stellar spectrum of entertainers includes the remarkable Wayne & Andrea Doba (husband and wife performing as a comedy team) whom I would come back to see every year, just for their fun-filled vaudeville styled act. Wayne can take a simple snare drum and make you think that Gene Krupa has come back to life, followed up with a Bo Jangles tap and soft shoe routine that practically steals the show. Andrea can make you change your mind about your favorite “how many _______’s does it take to change a light bulb” routine. It only takes one Andrea, but after watching her do the chandelier repair routine, you will never want to see it done any other way or by anyone else. What a fun and sexy delight!

Please bring on the acrobatic hand balancing expertise of Bernard Hazens, because I want another encore! You can add to this the master balancing and juggling routines of Christopher Phi. Duffy Bishop sings the blues with melodious and earthy guts and gusto, reminding me a little bit of one of my early rock and roll favorites, Janis Joplin. Kristin Clayton adds a rich and wonderful operatic resonance to romance in a der Spiegeltent.
My first delightful encounter with actor Geoff Hoyle as a reviewer, was when he played Arlecchino, in Servant of Two Masters at Berkeley Repertory Theater, probably in 1986 or 1987. He plays a couple of different characters in this show, one of them being an older Scottish maid. Elena Gatilova is an aerialist extraordinaire defying the laws of nature and gravity from high in the air. She appears in the Spiegletent as an interloper from outer space, new to our planet and the San Francisco shopping scene. But, of course as a new tourist in San Francisco, how could an outer-worldly visitor with an interstellar credit card, not enjoy the city by the Bay? Radio Station host, Mat Plende, engages everyone as both the radio show and Spiegletent host, plus throwing in a hoola hoop light show that defies imagination. Watch your lip, don’t talk back, because the very tall, dark and dangerous dominatrix, Manuella Horn, (also known as the Austrian Amazon), dances, yodels and wields a mean whip! Even the Teatro ZinZanni orchestra is delicious, good enough to eat - - although that would be a tall order!

When it came to the delicious dinner, Karen and I both chose the mesquite grilled fillet of beef, which came with spinach and English cucumber salad, acorn squash and apple soup, and spice cake desert - - - um-m-m-m- good! The food is truly an epicurean delight which is amazing when they can produce such excellent food for so many and make it work properly.

This outrageous and extraordinary production is a fitting encore to the company’s eleven year stay in San Francisco, but you still have time to take it in before it goes away. The final show is scheduled for December 31st, but if you go to their web page at http://www.zinzanni.org/ you can purchase tickets and review show times. I believe I have attended their shows on at least 6 occasions in the past 11 years and never yet have I seen an empty seat. It is not cheap, but quality in every aspect and spectacular performance is always their credo. Tickets are available for Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for “On The Air”, and their final Halloween show, on the 31st entitled, Teatro Zin Zombie. Call (415) 438-2668 for additional information. Tickets range between $117 each to $195 for show and dinner. If you have never seen this wild and wonderful show, in any of its iterations, then by all means, it is the ultimate in outrageous excellence!

"Sequenza is a highly entertaining Pablo Picasso in Walnut Creek"!

Now, back on earth, there was no one more earthly or unabashedly unique than Pablo Picasso when it came to him expressing his opinion or painting in his own inimitable style. Adding his own uniqueness to the Picasso mystique, Culture Clash’s own matchless actor and author, Herbert Siguenza, delivers an extraordinary performance in Center Repertory Theater’s superbly crafted one man production, “A Weekend with Pablo Picasso”.

Picasso was a Spanish expatriate, painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer for the ballet. He is considered to be one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century. He is widely known for co-founding the Cubist movement and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), a cubist painting of five Barcelona prostitutes with distorted and mask like faces and Guernica (1937), a portrayal of the German bombing of Guernica by the “volunteer aviators” from the “Legion Condor group” during the Spanish Civil War.

He was very fortunate in that his art became highly desired and very valuable early in his career. Picasso was certainly one of the few painters who retained a great many of his very valuable art pieces and became a very wealthy man. At his death, he owned and had in his possession over 50,000 works of his own art, in many different media forms. He indeed was a collector and hoarder of his own work and of many disassociated objects that he considered he could use in his art work. He superstitiously believed that as long as he could continue to produce and retain his own work, he would never die.

I had never been a real fan or aficionado of Picasso. I did not comprehend Picasso’s unique message to the world, a message that simply says that nothing in real life is a perfect replication of a similar object in nature; no two eyes are the same, no two oranges are the same, so why should art or an artist mirror nature exactly? However, after seeing this excellent production by Mr. Siquenza, I have become very fascinated with Picasso and find myself now seeking more information on this artist.

Herbert Siguenza is an artist in his own right, demonstrably so in this production, as he actually creates works before the audience, right on stage during the show. Mr. Siquenza certainly has written this play with great understanding, knowledge and admiration of Pablo Picasso. Siguenza truly brings this character into our century, bringing with his work an admiration for the artist and an acquaintance with the controversial passion so pervasive in Picasso the individual, and as well as in Picasso, the artist.

This is an excellent production, with scenic design well imagined by Giulio Cesare Perrone, very artfully and well directed lighting by Ross Glanc, and truly outstanding multimedia projection design by multimedia visionary, Victoria Petrovich.

This very exciting and well-paced production, “A Weekend with Pablo Picasso”, plays Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m., Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Sunday performances at 2:30 p.m., closing on November 19th, with the 8 p.m. performance. Tickets are a very reasonable $19 to $43 each. For ticket ordering, you may call 943-SHOW (7469) or visit the Center Repertory Company web site at http://www.centerrep.org/. The Margaret Lesher theater is located in the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts at 1601 Civic Center Drive, Walnut Creek.

"The Unstoppable Rain" opens at Zio Fraedo's and "Little Shop of Horrors" opens at the Dean Lesher Regional Center in Walnut Creek.

2011-10-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

Emily (Siobhan O'Brien) and Cee-Cee (Alexis Crawford)
share hopes and dreams in a Route 66 Diner!

Doc (Bill Clemente) is tormented by his personal deamons and the presence of the Mysterious Man (David J. Suhl)

Photos by Charles Jarrett

The Contra Costa Musical Theater Company has just opened a terrific musical in the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, a musical that is now the third longest running musical in off-Broadway history, “Little Shop of Horrors”. Then in Pleasant Hill, a new theater company, by the name of WTM Productions, is delivering a thought-provoking murder mystery that is written by local writer Christopher Bee, entitled “The Unstoppable Rain”. This new work in progress is being staged in Zio Fraedo’s beautiful Italian restaurant on Gregory Lane. This week you have two totally different options; both are rewarding.

John Steinbeck once wrote about the great “Mother road, the road of flight”, that provided hope to over 250,000 dust storm and drought refugees in the mid 1930’s, searching for new life “way out west” in California. U. S. Route 66 is the highway that wouldn’t die. The last stretch of Route 66 was decommissioned by the Federal government in 1985, and the historic road was officially replaced by Interstate 40. Almost twenty years later, Route 66 lives on in books, songs and in the American imagination. Today, “Historic Route 66” signs have sprung up along the route, historic buildings and even their neon signs are being restored and preserved. I pulled off Interstate 40 in Seligman, Arizona a couple of years ago and stepped back into time, walking down the main street of Seligman, a delightful little tourist stop on Route 66, a tourist centered locale that still resonates with the sights and sounds of old fashioned motels. Seligman provides a home for “fine” eating establishments with romantic names such as Road Kill Steak House and soft ice cream parlors such as the Snow Cap Drive Inn, as well as a number of little gift shops that overflow with both memories and memorabilia.

The Unstoppable Rain is a story about one of the those initially profitable little roadside towns constructed to provide stopping off places for those many travelers who needed a place to sleep, a place to eat and even a place to start a new life. It is a story about Doc (Bill Clemente) and Emily (Siobhan O’Brien) who found each other in another part of the country and set off on that famous highway of dreams seeking their future. They pulled off the road in Providence, discovered a little restaurant for sale, bought it and settled down. For the first few years of their new life in Providence, their business did well, very well, that is, until in the mid- 70’s. It was about this time when Route 66 towns were gradually being bypassed by a newer national freeway system, a system with more limited access, fewer places to stop, all in an effort to make interstate travel more rapid and profitable for the automobile transportation businesses and to augment the National Interstate and Defense Highways act of 1956. The more efficient freeway system meant less gas usage, faster travel and fewer stops for travelers looking to get to their destinations as quickly as possible. As travelers began to bypass their little towns, businesses began to fail all along Route 66, and the town of Providence, which was built on the same financial model, was suffering the same fate. Now with only a few businesses left operating in this town, tensions are high at the time of this story. But Doc and Emily and their little restaurant are still hanging in, refusing to give up.

As the show opens, Emily is reading a discouraging letter from their dairy product delivery service provider, which has just put them on notice that it just isn’t profitable for them to continue delivery to this little town any more. The letter continues, telling Doc and Emily that they can still have their normal products delivered, but the cost will effectively double. Just another very difficult little bump in their financial road, and even though Emily is extremely upset by this terrible news, her partner, Doc, suggests that she not get too upset, telling her, we will figure a way to work it out, we always have, we always will! On the surface, Doc still exudes a positive mental attitude, but there are dark clouds gathering over the horizon.

A mysterious stranger comes into the restaurant out of a gathering rain storm. He doesn’t say much, but engages them in conversation, telling them that he is having a problem with his vehicle. Doc, who is very knowledgeable about cars, checks out the problem and tells him that parts will have to be ordered and the stranger (who has little money) can stay in their back room for a few days.

Shortly thereafter, a very attractive young lady by the name of Cee-Cee (Alexis Crawford) enters the restaurant and orders a hamburger. This lovely black girl is traveling west and is discovering new opportunities and freedoms every day as she continues to move further and further away from her home state of “whites only” Alabama. Perhaps not so fortunate, is the fact she is very naive, and is now on her way to Hollywood, after being told by a talent scout in Alabama, that he can get her a role in the moving picture business, if she will just meet him in California.

Other locals drop in for their daily coffee or lunch, including a local mine owner, Baxter Wills (played by Rob Brown), who is seeking new investors for his mine, an enterprise which has not operated profitably for some time. Joining him in the restaurant is a prospective mine investor, Bob (David Suhl), a retired Texas Ranger, who is thinking of investing in the mine, if a promising new mining process can re-vitalize the ore removal. The one and only local motel still in operation in this town is owned and run by George (Greg Souza), who, like the others, has made his regular stop at the restaurant.

That same afternoon ends with both a tragedy and a mystery, when the young movie starlet wanna-be, Cee-Cee, is found violated and dead in the restaurant’s bathroom. The citizens of the town are extremely upset over her murder, not only for her loss, but also fearing what potential damage such a socially reprehensible story (in the early 70”s) about a young black girl being raped and murdered in their dying town, could do to their already desperate financial picture. More importantly, because they no longer have a police presence in their town, they decide to take matters into their own hands. It is out of these self-serving acts that the town folk are led down a pathway shrouded in fear, and they rediscover how fear, guilt and prejudice can lead anyone and everyone over a deep dark precipice, to total corruption and eventual destruction!

The acting of the lead actors is very good, with Siobhan O’Brien (as Emily) and Bill Clemente (as Doc) basically leading and at the same time, stealing the show. There is a huge disparity in acting skill between some of the more novice actors in the company and the lead actors, but never the less, the overall story is captivating and the overall performance is worthwhile.

While the story is definitely intriguing, this pilot production will lead to more analysis of their story line and undoubtedly prescribe more rewrites. How often do you actually get to meet a play’s author, and perhaps even contribute to the process. It is a very promising play, certainly worth the reasonable price of admission of $25 each. If you purchase your tickets on line at Brown Paper Tickets (listed on their web-site) at http://www.theunstoppablerain.com/ you will get an attractive discount. This very engaging play continues Fridays and Saturdays, October 21st, 22nd , November 4th and 5th, at 7 p.m., with Sunday matinees on October 23rd at 3 p.m., and on November 6th, at 7 p.m., closing on that date.

Also, by all means, while you are going to be in one of the best Italian restaurants in the area to see this show, you must attend the dining room and enjoy the most excellent cuisine. Tony’s Chicken Parmigiana and Filet Marsala are legendary! I’m the kind of guy who loves Calimari and there is no better Calamari Steak in Contra Costa. Everything is superb on their menu, especially their desserts, according to another theater critic friend of mine, Sally Hogarty. Sally told me today that Tony’s cheese cake, which she enjoyed last night when she saw this show, is simply to die for! Zio Fraedo’s owner and host, Anthony F. Lo Forte, Sr. demands the epitome of cordial customer service from each of his employees, and he often stops by your table to make sure his promise to you for great service and terrific food is carried out to perfection. Call the restaurant at (925) 933-9091 for reservations or for any other information you might need. The restaurant and theater is located at 611 Gregory Lane in Pleasant Hill. Their website can be found at http://www.ziofraedos.com/.

The second show, “Little Shop of Horrors”, a Contra Costa Musical Theater production, which just opened in the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, should hardly need any introduction as it has played in so many theaters so many times, all over the world, that if you are someone interested in live theater, it would seem nearly impossible to me that you would not be familiar with this marvelous and at the same time, outrageous musical.

The original story came from a 1960’s low budget, comedy horror film by Roger Corman. It was re-envisioned by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman as a musical and stormed onto the Off-Broadway stage scene in 1982 and became an instant success. My first introduction to the musical was through the 1986 film version by the same name, directed by Frank Oz (of Muppets fame), a film that cost a hefty 30 million to produce, at least when you compare that to Corman’s original film cost, which he says only cost $30,000.

"On the twenty-third day of the month of September,
in an early year of a decade not too long before our own,
the human race suddenly encountered a deadly threat to its very existence.
And this terrifying enemy surfaced, as such enemies often do, in the seemingly most innocent and unlikely of places..."

Would you believe, in a New York florist shop on skid row, where an unlikely hero, a nerdy young floral assistant, Seymour (played by Robert Brewer), has discovered an unusual looking plant (which slightly resembles a Venus Flytrap). He actually discovered it in a Chinese floral merchant’s street side display during a total eclipse of the sun. Infatuated with it, he buys it, brings it back to the basement of Mushnik’s floral shop where he works, and tries to figure out what it is and what food and nourishment it needs. The floral shop is barely surviving and Seymour suggests to his boss that putting this unusual plant in the widow might draw attention to their shop and help their business. His co-worker, Audrey (Nicle Helfer), agrees.

It isn’t until Seymour accidentally discovers after pricking his finger on a thorny rose stem that the plant, now named “Audrey II”, really needs human blood to thrive! The rapidly growing, healthy looking plant in the window display, does gather attention, including television and radio. The shop begins to thrive, but poor Seymour is looking a bit more peaked and he has bandages on every finger. He simply tells Audrey, the girl he secretly wants to date, that he just keeps having accidents with the pruning shears.

Audrey is at this time dating a dentist by the name of Orin (Matthew Davis), who love to inflict pain and Audrey is obviously his main target for his love of Sadism. The comedy surrounding this character (and Davis’s terrific portrayal) is uproariously funny, worth a ticket to the show by itself!

The real magic of this musical is in the incorporation of the exciting Motown “DooWop” music, composed by Menken in the style of early 1960s rock and roll, including the title song “Little Shop of Horrors”, "Skid Row (Downtown)", "Somewhere That's Green", and "Suddenly, Seymour". In this production three fantastic and dynamic ladies with absolutely beautiful voices deliver the music with an energy and choreography seldom seen on community theater stages. The ladies, Christina Eskridge, Taylor Jones and Elizabeth Jones really wow the audience. The entire cast including Mr. Mushnik (Derek Travis Collard), is sterling silver!

"Little Shop of Horrors" is brilliantly directed by Jason Jeffrey, with music under the direction of Joan Cifarelli, and with outstanding choreography by Suzanne Brandt. At intermission, a group of people standing behind my wife and I were praising this production, extoling it as “far beyond community theater”, absolutely on a “professional level with anything they had seen in New York”, which, from their conversation, they apparently visited quite often. I agree wholeheartedly as to this show’s magnetism and praiseworthy attributes. It is absolutely “Wow” from the word “Go”. Do not miss this one, it is pure gold! Gold and silver, what more could you ask for!

This production continues Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, with Sunday performances at 2 pm, closing on November 13th.. Call 943-SHOW (7469) for tickets or reservations or check out the website for the Lesher Center for the Arts at http://www.lesherartscenter.org/ . The CCMT production is in the Hoffmann Theater in the Lesher Center for the Arts at 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek. Tickets range in price between $40 to $45 each.

Tim Rice and ABBA's Cold War Love Story, "CHESS",arrives triumphantly at the Willows Main Stage in Concord!

2011-10-11T20:47:00.000-07:00

The Willows Theater Concord in the Willows shopping center in Concord is hosting Tim Rice’s musical “Chess”, a musical that proved to be a huge success in London in 1986. Under the direction of Eric Inman this intriguing musical takes us back to the Cold War scenario in the 1950s and 60s when the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, competed for political prominence. The two main socio-economic systems in the world at that time, communism and capitalism (in a democratic setting) played out against each other on every stage, every venue in the world. Each and every opportunity that arose to pit one system against the other, or to play one-upmanship against the other system, was explored. Wide-ranging competition existed in every facet of each economic system’s demonstrate able aspect of life's experience, including ballet, theater, agriculture, manufacturing, space exploration, military power, ping-pong, chess, and sports competition. Each system was crying out for affirmation that its system was the best for its own populace, its own people.

The story revolves around two chess players, an American by the name of Freddie Trumper (Joseph Brunicardi), and a Russian by the name of Anatoly Sergievsky (Zachary Franczak). In addition, the American’s lover and chess “second”, Florence Vassy (Lena Hart), traveled with Trumper. A romantic triangle ensued between the three. The two Americans and the Russian encounter each other for the first time at a world chess championship event in a city described simply as Merano. The Russian has secret plans to defect to the West, which eventually occurs with the assistance of Florence Vassy.

The musical has very heavy political overtones in addition to the subliminal love stories. The sub-story of the political consequences put on Anatoly’s Russian wife, Svetlana, and his family who remained in his home town in Russia, mirrored the often tragic sub-text of social pressures laid on the families of defectors who were left behind and remained in Communist countries after defectors managed to escape.

Lyricist Sir Tim Rice, who has co-authored many award-winning musicals, including "Jesus Christ Superstar", "Aida", "The Lion King", and "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", began work on a musical about how the “Cold War” affected the lives of each country's citizens. Rice used international chess as a metaphor for the competition and game playing between the super powers and it was in this arena that the story’s lead characters struggle with love and personal freedom. He had previously been fascinated by the political machinations of the 1972 "Match of the Century" between American Bobby Fischer and Russian Boris Spassky and perhaps in some ways modeled his characters, especially that of Freddie Trumper, on the volatile Bobby Fischer. Rice had sought to engage his former partner, Andrew Lloyd Webber, in his creative efforts, but when Webber refused, due in large part to his many ongoing projects, including his work on “Cats”, Rice turned to two musicians who were seeking an opportunity to expand their music writing talents into the world of musical theater. The two men, Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, of ABBA fame, were anxious to take part in Rice’s project.

The team immediately set about creating a concept album, as Rice had done previously with “Superstar” and “Joseph”. Two numbers from the album did exceptionally well in the charts. "One Night in Bangkok" first appeared on the UK charts on November 10, 1984 and stayed there for 13 weeks, at one point reaching the #12 spot. In the US, it jumped to #9 in April of 1985 and topped the charts around the world as well. Another single, "I Know Him So Well," followed, eventually reaching #1 on the UK charts during its 16 week run. With Chess already a worldwide phenomenon before it had even opened, expectations were very high, perhaps too high. The London production opened in the West End on May 14, 1986 and ran for three years, but the high tech spectacle barely recouped its original ₤4 million cost according to Tim Rice. The subsequent Broadway production basically fell flat on its face and was closed 8 weeks into its run.

The Willows production has an excellent cast who delivers a very exciting production. My sense is that this production incorporates elements of both the Broadway production and the British production. The first act is somewhat less than exciting as it attempts to set up the storyline and to develop the characters’ personalities. It is complex and it was not until the second act that I could really get into the story. The lead performers are very good with the voices of Lena Hart (Florence) and Rebecca Pingree (Svetlana) providing the most exciting performances. While the male leads, Zachary Franczack (Anatoly) and Joseph Brunicardi (Freddie) have very nice voices, there were songs which seemed a bit out of their range when they had to hit certain high notes. Jessie Caldwell was quite excellent as Anatoly’s Russian “handler”, Ivan Molotov, as was John R. Lewis, who played Freddie’s American “handler”, Walter Anderson. Lewis is not only an excellent actor, but commands a terrific singing voice as well. The choreography by Staci Arriaga worked very well and the dancers and ensemble actors contributed in large part to a very successful opening production. As with many opening performances, there were some minor problems, primarily with the sound system. This production also incorporates a 6 piece orchestra to provide the full scope of this beautiful music by Andersson and Ulvaeus. The musical numbers I loved best were “One Night in Bangkok”, “Pity the Child”, “I Know Him so Well”, “Heaven Help the Heart”, “Winning” and “Anthem”. Several songs are still raging around in my brain and I went on the internet this morning to find and listen to a couple of YouTube versions by different performers, just because I wanted to hear the music again!

“Chess” is a complicated and memory stirring trip back to the days of nuclear standoff, bomb shelters and the Cuban Missile Crisis. It is also a complicated love story as well and the Willows does a good job bringing back an operatic style musical that is one you do not get a chance to see performed a great deal.
This outstanding, thought-provoking musical, “Chess”, continues Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinees on Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m., now through October 30th . The Theater is located in the Willows Shopping Center, next door to the REI outfitting store, at 1975 Diamond Boulevard, in Concord, California. To purchase tickets, call 798-1300 or visit the Willows Website at http://www.willowstheatre.org/ for more information.

"A Few Good Men" brings Sorkin's powerhouse play about military honor, dedication and retribution to a stunning climax at Diablo Actor's Ensemble!

2011-09-22T03:36:00.000-07:00

The Diablo Actor’s Ensemble in Walnut Creek has just stormed the theatrical Bay Area beachheads with a stunning production of Aaron Sorkin’s powerhouse play about military honor, dedication and retribution, “A Few Good Men”. Under the direction of Scott Fryer this play comes vividly to life on a small stage in your immediate presence, almost as if you were in the same room at the same time this series of events takes place. You may remember the 1992 movie of the same name which starred Tom Cruise, Demi Moore and Jack Nicholson. Following this staged production, several people who had previously seen the movie commented that in some ways, this production is even more believable, with a cast that is for the most part, quite exceptional.

Having served with my US Navy outfit, Beach Jumper Unit 1, stationed primarily in Yokosuka Japan in 1958 through 1960 and having been attached to the combat marine division assigned to Taiwan during Operation Blue Star (the defensive action called under President Eisenhower when the Chinese mainland was shelling the Formosa/Taiwan claimed islands of Quimoy and Matsu), I know well the depth of loyalty, fervor of honor entrenched in the mindset of the marines that I had the good fortune to work with. This powerful play is a powerful re-statement of those values and demonstrates how that depth of loyalty can be misunderstood and misapplied in overzealous practice.

The story begins with preparations being made for the defense of two U.S. Marines charged with the murder of a fellow marine at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base on the Southeastern coast of Cuba. A young and relatively inexperienced Naval attorney, Lt. Junior Grade, Daniel “Danny” Kaffee (Nick Childress) is assigned to defend Lance Corporal Harold Dawson (Bryan Quinn) and Private First Class Louden Downey (Nate Bogner), who are accused of murdering a fellow marine in a violent “extrajudicial punishment”, a common event often known as a “Code Red”. This type of retribution is one in which fellow marines or sailors (for that matter of fact) punish a member of their platoon or detachment for failing to live up to the high standards of their unit. As an example, a common punishment often takes the form of a bunch of guys hauling the offending member into the showers and scrubbing him raw with heavy duty scrub brushes, hoping he gets “the message”, the message that his teammates don’t want to receive demerits as a group for this one person’s slovenly habits or undisciplined actions.

In this story, two marines took Private First Class William Santiago under their control, tying him up and gagging him in order to shave his head. In the midst of the punishment, something went terribly wrong and private Santiago started bleeding, gagging, and died. Santiago’s perceived offense was tied to his complaints of health problems connected with the demanding and rigorous training exercises given all marines. He could not get a fair evaluation of his health problems and he went outside the chain of command and wrote his congressman requesting a transfer to another unit. This action so inflamed his superiors that an internal Code Red punishment was ordered by his commanding officer and direct superiors. When the private died unexpectedly, a cover-up process ensued and a Navy medical examiner was forced to lie about the cause of death and declare that the death was not an accident, but a murder instigated by these two fellow marines. All superiors from this camp, including commanding officer Colonel Nathan Jessup (Jerry Motta) on down, denied from that point forward that any “Code Red” order was ever given in order to protect their own actions, leaving the two accused marines at the mercy of the courts.

When the two men are arrested, naval investigator and attorney Lieutenant Commander Joanne Galloway (Samantha Fryer), is suspicious of the circumstances surrounding the death and suspects that a “Code Red” order had been given. Galloway requests being assigned as the defense attorney, but is overruled and the case is assigned to an attorney, Kaffee, known for his penchant to work out plea bargains rather than risk testing his prowess or lack thereof as a courtroom attorney. An additional attorney is also assigned to the defense team, Lieutenant Sam Weinberg (Vince Faso).
There are more actors than I have the space to detail, filling important roles that help portray the mentality of the military establishment, but none in this production more important than lead attorney Lieutenant Kaffee (Nick Childress ) with his excellent portrayal; Colonel Jessup is played incredibly well by Jerry Motta and Santiago’s immediate officer, Lieutenant Jonathan Kendrick (a evangelistic purveyor of biblical passages and military euphemisms), is played superbly by Henry Perkins. Samantha Fryer plays Lieutenant Commander Galloway, but is not as effective as she should have been. Her acting and delivery of lines was at times quite good, but she needs a deeper, more mature, more powerful sounding voice. One of Kaffee’s lines states something to the effect that “you’re the kind of girl guys like me used to torture in the 6th grade!” Sam really needs to work on lowering the tone of her "6th grade voice! "

This production of “A Few Good Men” is certainly on a very professional level, very memorable, certainly worthy of Sorkin’s powerful script. Just when you think a little theater such as this cannot get any better, it does! “A Few Good Men” runs now through October 1st in the DAE (Diablo Actor's Ensemble) Theater located at 1345 Locust Street in downtown Walnut Creek, right next door to Peet’s Coffee. You may call (925) 826-5216 for ticket information or reservations or you may visit their website at http://www.diabloactors.com/ for more information. There is a large public parking garage directly across the street from the theater. Get there early as sometimes the garage fills up early in this very busy part of town.

Finian's Rainbow brings musical magic to Woodminster!

2011-09-04T17:10:00.000-07:00

Finian McLonegan (Gene Brundage) points toward their journey's end, Rainbow Valley, to his daughter, Susan (Juliet Heller). Photos by Kathy Kahn & Stephen Woo

The Woodminster Summer Musicals program has just resurrected “Finian’s Rainbow”, a seldom done vintage gem of whimsical musical theater. The musical was originally produced in 1947 on Broadway, and remounted three times for Broadway revivals in 1955, 1960 and again in 1967. Jack Warner had purchased the movie rights to the musical 20 years earlier, put it on a back burner and failed to do anything with it until he saw Petula Clark perform on her opening night at the Coconut Grove in Los Angeles. Suddenly, he felt he had found the perfect Finian’s daughter. Then, when he was able to sign Fred Astaire as Finian, Finian’s Rainbow was in the process of being revived again in 1968, this time as a Warner Brother’s film. The big question mark for everyone was money, as Warner Brothers had huge cost overruns with “Camelot”, which had not been released yet. Warner took another risk, this time in hiring a virtual unknown “Hippie” director from the Bay Area, Francis Ford Coppola. To keep costs down and to re-create the scene where the lead characters arrive in “Rainbow Valley”, the “realism driven” Coppola opted for a portion of the film to be shot “off lot”, in a natural setting in the Napa Valley, near Coppola’s home. Coppola even demanded that a portion of the film was to be shot with a very nervous Fred Astaire dancing in a field, a field filled with cow dung and rabbit holes!

In the Woodminster musical production, the fairy tale story concept revolves around Irish immigrant Finian McLonergan (Gene Brundage) and his lovely daughter, Sharon (Juliet Heller) who have moved from their home in Glocca Morra, Ireland to resettle in the southern state of Missituckey, near the famous American Gold depository of Fort Knox. It seems that Finian, while he was still residing in Ireland, had had the good fortune to discover a real pot of gold, had stolen it from the Leprechauns, and fled to America with the mistaken belief that gold buried near where the American government keeps its gold, will rapidly multiply! He really doesn’t consider the taking of the gold as thievery, he regards the process as merely borrowing it, intending to return it to his Irish benefactors (the leprechauns) with interest as soon as he can. When he arrives in Rainbow Valley, a corrupt politician, Senator Rawkins (Greg Carlson) and his aid, Buzz Collins (Brian Dauglash), are buying up huge strips of land at public tax auction. Landowner Woody Mahoney (Tom Reardon) has gotten behind in paying his land taxes while in the US Navy. As the auction is about to begin, he returns home with his mustering out pay, thinking he has enough to save his land from the greedy land grabbers, only to discover at the last moment that the government has attached certain costs and surcharges on top of his taxes. Unable to pay the enhanced tax assessment, he is about to lose his land to the sheriff’s auction gavel when an unlikely hero emerges from the gathering crowd, Finian and his daughter. Finian makes a quick proposal to help Mahoney save his land by loaning him the extra money, in exchange for a bit of the property for himself. After all, he needs a secure place to bury his secret pot of gold, a piece of land he actually owns!

Of course, a musical would not be a musical without romance and of course, Finan’s daughter, Sharon, and landowner Woody Mahoney dutifully fall in love for us. Since this is a fairy tale, of sorts, the Mc Lonergans have been followed from Ireland by an Irish leprechaun by the name of Og (Tyler Kent). The leprechaun is bent on returning the stolen gold to his homeland. To hear him tell it, the loss of the magical gold and its pot, has turned the fortunes of Ireland to dire misfortune, and Og is in a big hurry to find where Finian has hidden the gold. In addition, every day that Og is away from his magical homeland, he is gradually turning mortal, which is not exactly what he wants to be. That’s right, what would a fairy tale be without a bit of magic, and like the magic lanterns of old, there are three wishes attached to this pot of gold. Abused or overused, the pot of gold becomes worthless and loses its magical power.

On the surface you might think this is a dated story, as it dwells heavily on the social issues of the black community in the south, especially in the early 60’s. Many of those issues are still just below the surface of social equity today. It has not been so long ago that the memories of blacks being forced to eat, sleep and live segregated lives, are still fresh in our minds. The sharecroppers on Mahoney’s tobacco growing farmland make up the predominant local citizenry. They add southern rhythm and blues and a gospel musical tapestry to the Irish musical backdrop.

Songs with rich eloquent lyrics and beautiful melodies come flooding back now in my memory as I mentally relive the musical aspects of the show as I write this article. Songs such as “How are Things in Glocca Morra?”, the “Old Devil Moon” in your eyes, “If This Isn’t Love” and the absolutely wonderful quartet rendition of “The Begat” song, sung by the Gospeleers, prove a delightful mix of musical textures. It is such a delight to hear lyrics that are really clever, fun and even beautiful when mixed with such lovely music. The orchestra (yes, a full orchestra, an outstanding orchestra) is directed by Richard Vetterli, one of my favorite directors. In addition, a bit of country mood setting musical accompaniment is provided by the sultry and rhythmic harmonica sounds of soloist Steve Webster.

The voices are really outstanding from not only the leads, but even the ensemble members. Michelle Ianiro delivers a delightful and important contribution to a number called “Necessity”, a song number that was left out of the movie version because the show was running too long. This is a song about the evil that happens when the “idle poor become the idle rich”. Michelle is terrific and the song is richly rewarding as well.

The lead actors are superb, with Gene Brundage, practically stealing the spotlight with his excellent portrayal of the old Irish gentleman, Finian. Then, add to this, the incredible and beautiful voice of Juliet Heller (Sharon McLonergan) as she fills the air above the amphitheater with exquisite, rich and unrivalled vocal beauty. Michael LeRoy Brown, who plays the white Senator after he magically is converted into a black person, joins with the Gospeleers to deliver some truly exciting “down home Sunday go to meetin’ music”. Greg Carlson is very good as the insensitive, big mouthed and bigoted white southern Senator. Tom Reardon does a great job as Woody Mahoney and the real plus for the evening was the superbly talented Tyler Kent, who plays the Leprechaun at large. There is a wee bit of musical magic in his voice, his most excellent acting skills, playfulness and comic touch.

All together, this is a delightful musical production in a beautiful outdoor theater facility. I highly recommend the drive down Highway 13 to Joaquin Miller Park, above the Mormon Temple, at 3300 Joaquin Miller Road, in the Oakland Hills to take in “Finian’s Rainbow”, Theatre under the stars can be a bit chilly, even this late in September, so dress in layers and very important, bring a tush and/or back cushion if you do not have ample cushioning of your own as the old style seating is not very comfortable. This is a great place to come early, bring a picnic basket and eat dinner in the park before the theatre performs in the evening. You can also purchase food in theater compound and I highly recommend the hotdog vender (especially separate from the refreshment stand) whose polish dogs are outstanding! All shows begin at 8 p.m., Thursday, Friday, Saturday and closing this coming Sunday (September12th ). Ticket prices range between $26 and $42 each, with a $2 discount for children and seniors. Call (510) 531-9597 or go online to Ticketweb.com or contact http://www.woodminster.com/ for additional information or ordering tickets.

Lois Grandi delivers a super "Chicago" in the Pleasanton Firehouse Theater!

2011-08-22T22:57:00.000-07:00

Roxie Hart (Joy Sherratt), Billy Flynn (David Judson) and Velma (Nicole Frydman) appear to have their act together, but the photo doesn't begin to tell the story, at least not the truth, - - the whole truth and nothing but the truth!!
Photo by Wally Allert

As if you didn’t have enough theaters to provide you with entertainment opportunities, this week I am introducing you to a relatively new, reasonably comfortable and beautiful theater facility and a new theater company in nearby Pleasanton with my review of Pacific Coast Repertory Theatre’s truly exhilarating production of Kander, Fosse and Ebb’s brazenly upbeat and delightfully funny, “Chicago”.

For all of you Lois Grandi fans, you now have something to cheer about. Lois Grandi is back, back in her best element, musical theater, and once again demonstrating her highly acclaimed directing skills as she directs this stellar production. After Lois Grandi closed down her Walnut Creek 49 seat “pocket” theater on Locust Street, Playhouse West, I have had many enquires as to what Lois would be doing next, and now the wraps are off and I can tell you.

The city of “Chicago” in the 1920’s was considered one of the nation’s most notorious crime gang syndicate centers, with the likes of celebrity murderers Al Capone, Frank “Tight Lips” Gusenberg, Hymie Weiss, Dan O’Banion, George “Bugs” Moran and many others engaged in all out war for mob control of liquor, drugs, loan sharking and prostitution. The 20’s came to a close with the violent St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. It was a terribly corrupt and violent time in American history, the fodder for many movies, books, stories, plays and even musicals. As we look back now, we can inject humor into our memories of that sordid time in our history, a time when political and police corruption and gangland control of society was rampant.

This musical is a satire focusing on the concept of the “celebrity criminal” and the corruption rampant in the political and criminal justice system of the day. “Chicago” is based on a 1926 play of the same name, written by Chicago Tribune reporter Maurine Watkins about actual criminals and events of that time period, characters she knew and reported on. If you do a Google search, the Wikipedia reference to the musical reveals a detailed and very interesting story behind the story on how the original play finally evolved through two different movie versions and into a musical through the hands of famed dancer Gwen Verdon and her husband Bob Fosse. Chicago became the fifth longest running musical in Broadway history with more than 5,900 performances.

The story has two principal criminal characters, one woman by the name of Roxie Hart (played by Joy Sherratt) and Velma (Nicole Frydman). Both women are in jail, accused of murder. The story chronicles their relationship with celebrity attorney, Billy Flynn (David Judson) , the jail matron, Mama “I can get you anything” Morton (Karon Strempke), and Amos (Sebastian Romeo), Roxie’s “milk toast” adoring and subservient husband. A young man by the name of Robert Coverdell, plays the Mary Sunshine, “celebrity reporter”, again spoofing a character in real life, the original charismatic reporter Maurine Watkins. Cloverdale is outrageously funny and excellent in his portrayal. Nicole Frydman (Velma) has a powerful, beautiful voice, is a superb dancer, and one heck of an actress. While Joy Sherratt is superb in her role as Roxie, equally attractive and talented, it is Frydman who really steals the show. Karol Strempke is a powerhouse as the prison matron and David Judson, the attorney, is absolutely brilliant, professional in every respect as the flamboyant, headline seeking attorney. The courtroom marionette/ ventriloquist scene between Billy Flynn and Roxie Hart is brilliant!

Songs and music are so clever and melodious that you will find them rumbling around in your head for days after seeing the show. With lyrics such as “he had it coming - -“ from the Cell Block Tango, and “whatever happened to class” from “Class”, a duet by Velma and Roxie are bringing back effervescent memories to me now. Granted, had the theater had the kind of lighting of a major theater facility, where more spot lighting and separations were possible, it could have been even more powerful. In addition, a major part of the stage is a mass mountain of stairs and risers, a performance pyramid that had to make performing both difficult and precarious. It is really quite amazing what the company was able to do with the “community theater level stage” they had to work with. I loved this show and the audience seemed much of the same mind.

The cast selected for this musical is certainly on a professional level (Actor’s Equity Assn.) and/or long time experienced actors and dancers. Lois Grandi is known for her demand for acting perfection and attention to detail and the results definitely pay off in what has to be one of the best productions of this musical my wife and I have seen locally. Wow! Don’t miss this one!

“Chicago” will continue with Thursday and Saturday evening performances at 8 p.m., but the Friday shows on August 26th and September 2nd, will not perform until late in the evening at 9 p.m., for the “after-dinner crowd”, due to the playhouse facilities pre-commitment on those dates to another program. Evening performances on Sundays are at 7:30 p.m., with matinees at 2 p.m., on August 28th and September 4th. Tickets range in price between $18 and $33 each and may be purchased online at http://www.firehousearts.org/ or by phone (925) 931-4848, or in person at the Firehouse box office, located in the theater which is situated at 4444 Railroad Avenue (at the corner of Division Street) in downtown Pleasanton. There is plenty of free city provided parking adjacent to the theater. This show closes on September 4th.
The Willows Theatre is in the second week of their production of “The Fantasticks”, another historically popular musical that ran for 42 years and a total of 17,162 performances off-Broadway. This is a musical that I personally never ever cared for, not until I saw this production in the Willows Main Stage Theater in Concord.

The New Willows Mainstage Theater brings back "The Fantasticks", the first musical production this theater ever produced, many years ago, when it was origianlly known as City Arts Theater.

The Fantasticks is an allegorical story of two manipulative neighbors, fathers who have become close friends who fantasize that the world would be perfect if only their two children, a son and daughter, were to fall in love, marry and meld their families together, forever. The fathers have learned that whatever you tell your children not to do, is what they always seem to want to do most. Consequentially, they devise a plan where they will appear to become feuding neighbors, so much so that they will build a fence between their properties to separate themselves and their children, making communication more difficult between all parties. Their attempt to keep their children apart of course appears to backfire but it actually facilitates their plan to get their children together, as their alienated children find ways to communicate and relate secretly. The young couple do fall in love but now the fathers have the problem of how do they reconcile our “make-believe differences” in such a fashion that they can become “friends” again in order to support the children’s plans to wed. A plan is conceived by which the fathers hire a traveling troupe of actors to stage a mock abduction, so that the son, Matt (Zach Piser), can heroically save Luisa (Ginny Wehrmeister), thereby bringing the feuding fathers back together.

The Boy’s Father/ Hucklebee (Stu Klitsner) and the Girl’s Father/Bellomy (Tom Farris), are very well known to local audiences, drawing positive reviews for many years. The mock abduction orchestrator, known as the Narrator and El Gallo, is played to perfection by the ruby throated Ryan Drummond. Drummond is a popular actor and singer appearing in many productions by the Willows Theater. The actors, identified as The Old Actor and The Man Who Dies are played by father and son acting team, Pat and Sam Craig. Yes, this is the same Pat Craig that we have known and loved and read as the theater reviewer for the Contra Costa Times for many years. Ginny Wehrmeister is a beautiful woman with a lovely voice and an amazing vibrancy mixed with superb talent. I always look forward to her performances. This is the first time I have had the pleasure of getting to know Zach Piser, another very talented young actor. I look forward to getting to know him better as an actor, as well. The Mute who plays many supportive roles (including the “Wall”) is performed well by Meryn Macdougall.

The story takes many allegorical twists and turns and very nearly turns disastrous, with bruised egos, and young people taking several wrong turns before its happy conclusion. It is a parable type story about people messing around with fate and human nature, somewhat humorous, with an unexciting storyline, made very entertaining in this production and even palatable by some truly excellent acting and beautiful voices. There are a number of songs with good messages, but only one that I can ever remember, only one that stays with me and you probably will remember it when I mention its absolutely apropos title, “Try to Remember”!

The Fantasticks plays Wednesdays through Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., with other performances Fridays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinee performances on Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m. and o The Fantasticks Sundays at 3 p.m., closing on September 4th. Tickets range in price between $22 and $32. With discounts for seniors (65+) and students (6-18) and can be obtained by calling 798-1300 or by contacting the Willows Theater on line at http://www.willowstheatre.com/ . This production is in their main stage theater located in the Willows Shopping Center (next door to REI Sporting goods) at 1975 Diamond Boulevard Avenue in Concord.

Someting old, something new, Donald Hardy's adaptation of Austen's Pride and Prejudice is sure to delight everyone, even you!

2011-08-22T21:55:00.000-07:00

Something old, something new. This week I have two reviews of shows that were terrific experiences for me, and I hope they will be for you too. The marvelous little Butterfield 8 Theater in Concord has taken a big leap of faith with an entirely new adaptation of a very famous book (Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice), by a local author (Donald L. Hardy). into a two part play that does require two completely separate shows to present the full richness and beauty crafted by Jane Austen in her world renowned work.

Writer and story adaptor Donald L. Hardy, struggled for nearly a year trying to abbreviate and reduce the eloquence and complexity of the story encapsulated in Pride and Prejudice down into a manageable two hour format. The encapsulated version just did not work, so he went back to a process of converting this remarkable book into a theatrical format, but this time, using both first person and third person narration lifted directly from Austen’s own masterful work. As David Hardy reveals, he did not want to “create a one night romp through the most basic plotlines – (which was ) tempting to do, since so many people already knew the story”. The adaptation is a melded work of translational genius. The final play is carried out in two separate performances, part I and part II. It is intriguing, engaging and thought-provoking, and apparently from the post-performance discussions between audience members who remained for a rather lengthy time on opening night, the final result was truly appreciated.

Austin wrote romantic novels with acute realism, articulate richness, understated simplicity, endearing qualities, and most unique of all, she wrote in the “Third Person format”. In 1813 the world became enamored with this story of romance among the landed gentry. “Pride and Prejudice” is so rich in historical perspective, so representative of the social norms of the times, that to cut away any of her rich and rewarding writing would be a travesty. Its principal characters are so diverse in personality, for many, it was considered remarkable that they could ever engage in meaningful relationships.

The story revolves around the unique family situation of the Bennet family, wherein the family lives on an estate which can only be passed in title to a male heir. Since the Bennett family consists of a husband and wife and five daughters, they stand in the precarious position of losing the property should the head of the household, Mr. Bennet (Alan Cameron), become deceased. This creates great anxiety for Mrs. Bennet (Maureen-Theresa Williams) who is eagerly seeking any opportunity to find appropriate husbands for her daughters.

When a very wealthy young gentleman, Mr. Bingley (Alexander Murphy), acquires the neighboring property called Netherfield, and arrives with his sisters and a good friend, Mr. Darcy (Edwin Peabody) in tow, they become acquainted with the Bennet family through a community dance assemblage. Mr. Bingley is well received by everyone and he becomes enamored with the oldest Bennet daughter, Jane (Amy Liebert). Mr. Darcy on the other hand, shows contempt and disdain for the locals and rejects the Bennet family and all those of similar social ilk. The next oldest daughter, Elizabeth (Becky Potter), is not kindly disposed to Mr. Darcy’s rejection of her family, and demonstrates cunning wit and resolve in meeting each sarcastic remark by Mr. Darcy with equally biting retorts, setting off what would appear, at first, to be the center of the conflict in this novel. But no, as Mr. Bingley and Miss Jane Bennet become closer, there are many more interwoven stories of conflict that arise between these families, in laws, out laws and acquaintances. Miss Caroline Bingley, who is Mr. Bingley’s sister, and a very snobbish girl, becomes increasingly spiteful toward the Bennet family as she discovers that Mr. Darcy (the wealthy gentlemen she has cast her eyes upon) is becoming more and more intrigued with the uncommonly outspoken and strong spirited Elizabeth Bennet.

Within this same time frame, Mr. Bennet’s unmarried cousin, Mr. Collins (David Hardie), arrives at the Bennet estate (Longbourn). Under the current title laws, Mr. Collins would be the logical nearest male who would inherit the Bennet estate due to their lack of sons. He is employed by a wealthy patron as the local parish rector. His appointment to this position has also given rise to his self importance and ego-centered behavior. He expresses the desire to marry one of the Bennet daughters, to keep the estate in the family by virtue of marriage. He is rejected by the two older daughters he prefers, Jane and Elizabeth, as Jane has great hopes that Mr. Bingley will eventually ask for her hand, and Miss Elizabeth has cast her eyes on a very handsome, personable and gregarious military officer, a Mr. George Wickham (Carter Chastain). The intrigues continue to multiply as lies, jealousies, conflicts and misunderstandings arise and prevail.
The story never becomes boring or weighty and it moves along surprisingly well under the expert and excellent guidance and direction of John Butterfield. There are 16 actors employed in this stellar endeavor, most of whom I do not have space to appropriately recognize in this article. All of the acting is superb, with very few missed lines or ques. The remainder of the cast not previously mentioned include: Ali Arman, Jake Breckinridge, Jessamy Collier, Terry Downward, Deborah Doyle, Gary Mutz, Molly Kaye Taylor, and the delightful, squealing younger Bennet daughter, Lydia, played by Annie Potter.

Scenic design, lighting design and choreography, all by John Butterfield, is simple but effective, designed to allow this very complicated play to move forward without time consuming set or scenery changes. The costumes created and orchestrated by Liz Martin and her co-costume creators at the Pink Depford Dressing Studio in Martinez, are all expertly conceived and executed, to the great enhancement of this time relevant script. Lynda Wenzelberger has lent her expertise to the excellent wig creations.

While I knew before we attended the show that it was a play to be produced in two parts, I also had other local show openings the following weekend that I felt were important to see as soon as they opened. I had thought that I would come back to see “Part II” later in the run, but I was informed by my wife and daughter who attended with me, that they didn’t care what shows I was going to see next weekend, but they were coming back to see part II next weekend, with or without me! Well, I now will be returning next Friday to see “Pride and Prejudice”.

These performances are very reasonably priced community theater productions at $12 for seniors and students, $18 for adults and $10 for TBA (members of Theater Bay Area) and Actors Equity members. “Pride and Prejudice” continues Thursday (8/18), Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Saturday matinees at 2 p.m. and Sunday afternoon performances at 3 p.m., now through August 26th. For those of you who want to see the entire production in one day, there will be one consolidated Saturday afternoon performance beginning at 2 pm, to be followed in the evening with the second installment at 8 p.m., allowing time for a comfortable dinner at one of the nearby Santos Park dining establishments and perhaps even browsing other local business establishments. The Butterfield 8 Theater Company uses the Cue Productions Live performance space at 1835 Colfax Street in Concord, only one and a half blocks East of Todos Santos square in downtown Concord. Tickets may be selected and purchased by calling Brown Paper Tickets at (800) 838-3006 or by purchasing tickets at the door. You can also gather more information by going online to http://www.b8company.com and click on “Events” for more information about the company and the show. This is a very informal theater with casual seating in a cabaret type of venue. I always bring an extra tush cushion for my bony derriere. On-street parking can be tight on Friday and Saturday nights due to a number of restaurants and clubs nearby, so come a little early. Seating is open, so come first and be first seated!

My Fair Lady is a rousing success at the Woodminster Amphitheater in the Oakland Hills!

Lerner and Lowe’s “My Fair Lady” opened this past weekend and drew a huge crowd to the Woodminster Amphitheater in Joaquin Miller Park in the Oakland Hills, right above the LDS “Mormon” Temple, on Joaquin Miler Road. This perennial favorite is always popular with community theaters and audiences alike. The upbeat, romantic, fun-filled music and the powerful message about male chauvinism that plagued Europe from the Victorian age through 1912 when the original play was written by its author, George Bernard Shaw, is just plain hard to resist.

Shaw says in his preface to the play, “ - - - The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. They spell it so abominably that no man can teach himself what it sounds like. It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth without making some other Englishman hate or despise him. German and Spanish are accessible to foreigners: English is not accessible even to Englishmen. The reformer England needs today is an energetic phonetic enthusiast: that is why I have made such a one, the hero of a popular play.”

The original play was written in large part due to Shaw’s infatuation with the beautiful British actress, Mrs. Patrick Campbell, and his frustration with her exaggerations and affectations layered on over her natural speech and diction, an artificial elitism that he considered a detriment to her true potential as an actress. In other words, she was adding a phony suburban social exaggeration meant to make her sound like many in high society were desirous to sound.

This Woodminster “My Fair Lady” production is a delightfully witty musical adaptation of the original story about Professor Henry Higgins (played by Robert Moorhead), who overhears a Cockney flower girl, a Miss Eliza Doolittle (Susan Himes Powers, soliciting funds for her flowers from the London elite. Her cockney drawl is so unique, whining and offensive to the ear, at least to Higgins ( a professor of language and phonetics), that he begins taking notes on her regionalized vernacular. In the process he encounters Colonel Pickering (Gene Brundage), another speech expert, to whom he boasts that he (Higgins) is so knowledgeable and disciplined in his practice, that with 6 months of hard work and instruction, he could take this “catawallering” flower girl and transform her from an unrefined street person into a proper speaking and acting well bred lady. Further, he makes a bet with Pickering, that at the end of this instructional time, he could even go so far as to take her to a Grand Embassy Ball and fool everyone in attendance into thinking that she really is a well bred, genteel lady!

To make a long story short, he succeeds. Eliza’s painful and arduous education under the tyrannical Higgins works and she is successful in the “big test” at the ball, after all.

This is an exceptionally well done production in almost all aspects. The cast selection is very good especially for Community Theater, with leads who have professional credentials as Equity Association Actors. In fact, it is quite unusual where a community theater can afford to engage 8 Equity Actors for one show! The choreography (by Peggy Nixon) and the musical direction (by Brandon Adams) also work very well. This is a very long play but the company moves it along quite well. Director Joel Schlader pulled together many divergent elements for a very enjoyable evening of entertainment. This is the company’s 45th year and they are pulling out all stops for your enjoyment.

I highly recommend the drive down highway 13 to Joaquin Miller Park, above the Mormon Temple, at 3300 Joaquin Miller Road, in the Oakland Hills to take in “My Fair Lady”. Theatre under the stars can be a bit chilly, even this late in August, so dress in layers and bring a tush cushion if you do not have ample cushioning of your own. This is a great place to come early, bring a picnic basket and eat dinner in the park before the theatre performs in the evening. You can also purchase food in theater compound and I highly recommend the hotdog vender (a fairly recent addition, separate from the refreshment stand) whose polish dogs are outstanding. All shows begin at 8 p.m., Thursday, Friday, Saturday and closing this coming Sunday (August 14th). Ticket prices range between $26 and $42 each, with a $2 discount for children and seniors. Call (510) 531-9597 or go online to Ticketweb.com or contact www.woodminster.com for additional information or ordering tickets.

This week I have two reviews of shows that were terrific experiences for me, and I hope they will be for you too.

2011-08-22T21:24:00.000-07:00

Elizabeth Bennett (Becky Potter) discloses some disturbing information to Mr. Darcey (Edwin Peabody) in Butterfield 8's "Pride and Prejudice" Photo by: Judy Potter

How many times have I reviewed and praised the many colorful and thought-provoking theatrical works of famed Irishman and author, George Bernard Shaw? Over the past 30 years, I cannot begin to remember all of his plays I have had the good fortune to bear witness to. This week I was fortunate to attend the outstanding California Shakespeare Theater’s production of “Candida”, directed by Cal Shakes’ innovative directing visionary, Jonathan Moscone.

Shaw’s parents were not wealthy people. He was a very bright young man, attended the Methodist Wesley College for a short time and as a result of his voracious reading, he became most angered by what he saw as the exploitation of the working class. He gravitated to a very popular social group at the time, known as the Fabian Society, a group dedicated to socialism through a democratic transition, rather than the revolutionary template followed by the communist party. Shaw went on to become an accomplished orator with an incredible talent for writing drama with humor. Most of his plays focus on social mores, class privilege and women’s rights at the time of their writing. It was these controversial messages that drove to the heart of his literary work.

“Candida” is set entirely within the London residential rectory office of the right Reverend James Mavor Morell (Anthony Fusco), a firebrand Christian Socialist clergyman. Eugene Marchbanks (Nick Gabriel) is a romantic young poet (18 years of age) who chooses to see the world through his own somewhat colored, distorted and unrealistic lenses. He is a guest in the Morell home. Candida (Julie Eccles), Morell’s wife, is in reality, the reverend’s rudder and stabilizer, in large part responsible (behind the scenes) for her husband’s strength, encouragement and success at the pulpit and in his public speaking. The poet Marchbanks is an idealistic, immature (almost childlike), cowardly, and at the same time, flamboyant and painfully honest. He is the product of a very wealthy family of many children, with many servants. He has been allowed by his family to steer his own ship of fate upon the rocky shoals of reality, unable to earn a respectable living, undisciplined as a student, resorting to a life depending on others who feel sorry for him. While he is a somewhat talented artist, it is his romantic poetry that motivates and propels him into the arms of “mothering” types who take pity and rescue him.

Marchbanks believes that he is madly in love with the very beautiful Candida (Julie Eccles) (15 years his senior) and wants to rescue her from what he perceives is a dull, unfulfilling life as the wife of a “windbag” minister husband. Marchbanks perceives Candida as divine, an angel incarnate, above any and all menial household chores and deserving of being lavished with love and waited on constantly. He believes his love for Candida transcends the bounds of mere mortality, and that she in turn loves him and would chose Marchbanks over her husband, if given the opportunity to make that choice. During a somewhat bizarre evening of vacillating rhetorical challenges, Marchbanks and the minister, Morell, spar and spat roundabout and nearly come to blows as they debate the challenges laid down by the poet as to Candida’s love and loyalty to her husband.

In the midst of this madness, Candida’s entrepreneurial capitalistic and somewhat estranged father, Mr. Burgess (Jarion Monroe), unexpectedly shows up at the Morell rectory to engage his son-in-law in the renewal of an old dispute, pretending an attempt at reconciliation, but admittedly confessing otherwise, as the evening wears on. This old controversy further raises the level of anxiety and frustration already poisoning the heavy household atmosphere.
Two other delightful support characters, the reverend’s secretary and stenographer, Miss Proserpine Garnett (Alexandra Henrikson), and another associate minister, Reverand Lexy Mill (normally played by Nicholas Pelczar but played this evening by the very capable Liam Vincent), bring a wonderful sense of comic relief and even more romantic conflict pulling into the fabric of this very unique comedy!

When Candida finally gets the opportunity to respond to the unchallenged assumptions and accusations, she will air her feelings, clear the air and make a resolute choice. What will the lady decide? You will have to see the play to find out the very clever and thought provoking ending. This production is outrageously funny and the acting by all is simply superb.
The set designed by Annie Smart is really quite beautiful, functional and elegantly “smart”. The Lighting Design by York Kennedy works exceedingly well and the costumes designed by Anna Oliver could not have been more apropos, more perfect. Once again, California Shakespeare Theater in the Bruns Memorial Amphitheater in Orinda has mounted and delivered a true work of art, a labor of love by all concerned.

“Candida” continues Tuesdays through Thursdays at 7:30 pm, with Friday and Saturday performances at 8 p.m., with matinees on Saturday at 3 p.m., and Sunday performances at 4 p.m., now through September 4th. Tickets vary in price depending on dates and seating location, they range between $35 and $66 with discounts available for seniors, students, persons age 30 and under by going on line at http://www.calshakes.org/ or by visiting the box office at 701 Heinz Avenue in Berkeley, CA. You may call (510) 548-9666 for more information. The Bruins Amphitheater is located at 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way (formerly 100 Gateway Blvd.) just off highway 23 at the California Shakespeare Theater Way/Wilder Road, one mile east of the Caldecott Tunnel. There is a complementary shuttle from the Orinda Bart Station beginning 90 minutes prior to opening curtain and there is complementary parking on the premises. The grounds open two hours before show time.

Last week, I am sure you remember my rave review of Pride and Prejudice in the Butterfield 8 Theatre in Concord. Well, as promised, my wife, daughter and I returned for part two, the final chapter in this brilliant adaptation of Jane Austen’s widely acclaimed romantic novel, re-written as an entirely new play! This is a stunning production, especially from a community level theater!

In order to bring my readers up to date, who did not read last week’s column, let me begin by telling you about local author and adaptor Donald L. Hardy. He expended great effort to abbreviate and reduce the eloquence and complexity of the original story of Pride and Prejudice down to a manageable two hour common stage production format, but the process just did not work. Donald Hardy preferred the author’s original storytelling format to the modern script writers’ process of transferring text into verbal context that never actually existed previously (putting their own words in her mouth). He decided to go back to her original writings. Hardy began a process of converting this remarkable book into a unique play format, by cleverly using both first person and third person narration, for the most part, lifted directly from Austen’s own masterful work. As David Hardy reveals, he did not want to “create a one night romp through the most basic plotlines” – which was very tempting to do, since so many people already knew the story. This new adaptation is a melded work of translational genius. The complete play is carried out in two separate performances, part I and part II. Last week I covered the story development as it involved the complex story surrounding the Bennet Family, the Bingley Family and their relationships to each other, all taking place in the English countryside.

In the first part of this two part play, the older of the Bennet daughters, Jane (Amy Liebert), became enamored with a young, wealthy gentleman, who had recently leased an adjoining estate, a Mr. Bingley (Alexander Murphey). Mr. Bingley likewise enjoyed the company of Miss Bennet. Unfortunately, while both families are landed gentry, there is a rather large class chasm between the two families, a social barrier which leads to Bingley’s friends and family members doing everything in their power to break up the budding romance between the couple.

One of Bingley’s closest friends, another very wealthy young gentleman by the name of Mr. Darcey (Edwin Peabody), has likewise become acquainted with the Bennet family and their five daughters. Darcy’s opinion of the Bennet family is decidedly negative and is against his friend Mr. Bingley, becoming involved with the Bennet family because of the obvious class, financial and social distinctions between the two families. He also is put off by the overt unrestrained actions of Mrs. Bennet (Maureen-Theresa Williams), who is desperately and obviously seeking her daughters’ future securities through marriages to wealthy families.

It is through Darcey’s first encounters with the Bennet family that he meets Elizabeth Bennet (Beckey Potter), a decidedly independent and headstrong younger sister of Jane Bennet. Even though he remains distant but courteous to the Bennet family, he has little use for them and basically comes off as far above them, almost to the point of being rude.
It is not until the second half of the play, part two, that we discover that Darcy is enamored with Elizabeth. Something about the very lovely, but “socially inferior” Elizabeth Bennet sticks with him and to his great dismay, he finds himself falling in love with her. At the same time, Elizabeth cannot stand the arrogant Mr. Darcy, primarily for what she perceives as his financial mistreatment of a cousin, George Wickham (Carter Chastain), and Darcy’s meddling in her sister’s promising love affair with Mr. Bigley. Then, quite unexpectedly, Darcy arrives and asks to see Elizabeth. After a few nervous pleasantries, Darcy approaches her and proclaims, “In vain have I struggled. It will not do. My feelings will not be repressed. You must allow me to tell you how ardently I admire and love you!” The astonished Elizabeth chokes back her emotions, but remains sensitive to the tenderness and warmth with which he has delivered his heart-felt admission. She strives to find a civil manner in which to explain that she certainly had no similar feelings for him and why she could not, would not, acquiesce to his proposal of marriage. Finally, she sums up her feelings by saying, “You could not have made me the offer of your hand in any possible way that would have tempted me to accept it!” She continued to chide him for his “arrogance, conceit, selfish disdain for the feelings of others, and elaborating further in telling him that she felt that “ you were the last man in the world to whom I could ever be prevailed to marry.” The now astonished Darcy could never imagine that any woman would reject a man of his position, especially in such a strong and convincing manner. He abruptly but cordially leaves the premises immediately.

The play engages in other situations, including an intrigue between Elizabeth’s younger sister, Lydia (Annie Potter) and the controversial militiaman, George Wickham. There is an elopement by the pair which could even cause far greater disdain for the Bennet family from the community as a whole. The complexities continue to multiply as lies, jealousies, conflicts and misunderstandings arise and prevail. The story eventually comes full circle, back to focus once again on the love interest by Mr. Darcy for Elizabeth Bennet.

The story never becomes boring or weighty and it moves along surprisingly well under the expert and excellent guidance and direction of John Butterfield. There are 16 actors employed in this stellar endeavor, most of whom I do not have space to appropriately recognize in this article. All of the acting is superb, with very few missed lines or cues.

These performances are very reasonably priced community theater productions at $12 for seniors and students, $18 for adults and $10 for TBA (members of Theater Bay Area) and Actors Equity members. “Pride and Prejudice” continues Thursday (8/18), Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Saturday matinees at 2 p.m. and Sunday afternoon performances at 3 p.m., now through August 26th. For those of you who want to see the entire production in one day, On Saturday, August 27, there will be one consolidated Saturday afternoon performance beginning at 2 pm, to be followed in the evening with the second installment at 8 p.m. The Butterfield 8 Theater Company uses the Cue Productions Live performance space at 1835 Colfax Street in Concord, only one and a half blocks East of Todos Santos square in downtown Concord. Tickets may be selected and purchased by calling Brown Paper Tickets at (800) 838-3006 or by purchasing tickets at the door. You can also gather more information by going online to http://www.b8company.com/ and click on “Events” for more information about the company and the show. This is a very informal theater with casual seating in a cabaret type of venue. I always bring an extra tush cushion for my bony derriere. On-street parking can be tight on Friday and Saturday nights due to a number of restaurants and clubs nearby, so come a little early. Seating is open, so come first and be first seated!

British playwright Ayckbourn chronicles a path to terror, through his "Communicating Doors" in Berkeley's Live Oak Theater!

2011-08-02T10:09:00.000-07:00

Photo: Harold (Bill Chessman), hotel security chief, tersely interrogates unauthorized room occupant, Poopay Dayseer (Claire Stevenson) in "Communicating Doors" Photo by: Anna Kaminska

Do you like murder mysteries, detective stories, crime stories, even if they are slightly spooky, unnerving, perhaps even a little outer-worldly bizarre, or slightly psycho, such as those in the Twilight-Zone style? What about complicated, multilayered, thought-provoking criminal jig-saw puzzles? Well, I’ve got one for you that pretty well meets all of the above criteria and even has a three dimensional time plot with a comedic twist and a surprising happy ending?

BACKGROUND: In June 1993, Alan Ayckbourn provided the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, in Scarborough, England, with information on a new and as yet unwritten play to be entitled, “Private Fears In Public Places.” His description in his promotional brochure for the play was: "At the airport, Jessica waves a fond farewell to her husband. Then a chance encounter changes her life. How well does she know the man she married? How much can she trust him? How well does she know, how well can she trust herself?" As Ayckbourn had discovered previously, the path to any promising plot is often torturous and difficult to navigate. But this time, the plot simply fell apart at every juncture. It was a shock when just weeks before the production staff was to meet to begin coordinating the play readings, Ayckbourn turned up at the theatre advising them that they were probably going to have to do a revival of one of his earlier plays because his writer’s block had completely thwarted the “airport-set play”.

Unexpectedly, he had an idea for a time-traveling comedy thriller, so he notified the theater that there would be a new play after all, a new play called “Communicating Doors”. Then, in one week’s time, he wrote this newly conceived play, a play which would go on to become one of his most successful and frequently restaged plays, both at home and abroad. The only thing similar to his previously promised play was that his main character in the new play was still named Jessica.

“Communicating Doors” starts off as a light and unexpectedly optimistic play which asks the question, what is behind the communicating doors in hotels? You know, the locked door that if unlocked, would should allow ingress and egress to the adjoining suite. Alan's answer was not simply an “entrance to the adjoining suite”, but a “doorway through time!” In Ayckbourn’s clever, multilayered murder mystery comedy, three women find themselves traveling back and forth through time to save each other’s lives from a sadistic murderer.

Starting in the year 2014, a young prostitute, Poopay Dayseer (Claire Stevenson), is ushered into the hotel room of an ailing Mr. Reese by his long time business partner, Julian (Mark Holobetz), purportedly to service the 70 year old Reese (Lee Vogt). She soon discovers that she has actually been tricked into being summoned to Reese’s room for a whole other purpose, that of being a witness to a murder confession, and not to engage in any sexual activity. When she discovers that Mr. Reese is actually confessing in a secret hand written document he shows her, that “his partner, Julian”, has murdered numerous people to perpetuate their business prosperity, wealth and lavish lifestyles, Poopay freaks out, wanting out of this room, now! Realizing that knowing these details could make her expendable, she makes several unsuccessful attempts to escape through the front door, and finally succeeds by going through the communicating door between hotel rooms, where she simply disappears, - - - without the signed confession.

As the door closes behind her, Poopay now finds herself in what appears to be an identical room (which she thinks is the room next door). The occupant of this room, Ruella (Carol Reyes), is startled to now find a provocatively dressed young woman in her presence and demands to know what she is doing there. Thinking the young woman is a nut-case or a thief, Ruella reluctantly decides to hear her out, and what she hears is a shocking tale with an all too familiar ring. As Poopay continues spilling out the details of her previous encounter with Reese and Julian, and the detailed confession, Ruella realizes that the man she is talking about is actually her husband, Reese, who is supposed to be out of the country at the moment. Ruella, it turns out, is the second wife of the aforementioned Mr. Reese, a wife who was supposedly (according to the confession Poopay had read only a short time before) murdered by Julian, in 1994 in this very hotel suite. It turns out that the hotel in which this suite is located is one of Mr. Reese’s many property holdings, so he and his former wives and business associates have stayed in this luxurious suite whenever they have been in town. The fear becomes even greater as Poopay reads a newspaper and discovers that this day’s date is actually 20 years earlier (1994), than it was when she went through that communicating door a few minutes earlier! Poopay has actually arrived on the eve of the second Mrs. Reese’s murder, in the very room where it was to have occured!

Puzzled and curious, Ruella, still not believing Poopay’s bizarre story, decides to go though the communication door herself. Not knowing what she will find, she too is shocked to find that she is back in the same room, but now it is 1974, where her husband, a now much younger Reese, is on his honeymoon with his first wife, Jessica. Her husband is asleep in the bedroom of the suite, but Ruella encounters the very young, first wife!

Realizing that by some strange occurrence, this communicating door is actually a time portal, she manages to leave the room and its stunned occupant and returns to her own time, in the same room, through the same communicating door. She and Poopay (whom we learn has a real name of Phoebe), discuss their options and quickly decide to attempt to retrieve the signed and witnessed murder confession (still hidden in the same bedroom, forward in Poopay’s original time, in 2014). But they soon discover that Poopay can only go back and forth in time from 2014 to 1994 and Ruella can only go back and forth from 1994 to 1974, a 20 year span for each of them. This means that they can never travel together or share the same time period, except for 1994, making their plans to help and protect each other more difficult. The play continues with more time travel and numerous frightening moments occurring for both. But, with the help of a rather confused hotel security officer, Harold (Bill Chessman), they manage to survive some close calls and solve some of the evening’s mysteries.

Knowing that this was another one of Alan Ayckbourn’s cleverly written plays, I decided to take the trip over to the Live Oak Theater at 1301 Shattuck Avenue (at Berryman) in Berkeley. This production is performed by the Actors Ensemble Theater of Berkeley, under the direction of Suzan Lorraine.

Each of these actors did a very believable job of acting and were well cast for their parts. My main criticism is that some important lines were muffled or difficult to hear without appropriate projection, particularly those of Mr. Reese, but otherwise he did a fine acting job, as did everyone else. My only other criticism was that of the balcony scene where Julian arrives to kill Ruella, which should have been harrowing, but turned out to be simply comedic, with nothing more exciting than a lot of flailing female limbs and undulating derrieres, that went on much too long! I am sure that with a couple of minor changes and a little more direction this excellent play will be totally back on track. It is a play that is really quite unique, well worth the trip to Berkeley. This theater is a very comfortable little theater that has been around for over 50 years. There is ample street parking (as long as you don’t come late). This play continues Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm. Tickets range in price between $12 for Seniors and Students and $15 for general admission. Better yet, there is a Sunday matinee on August 14th at 2 p.m., with the show closing on August 20th. Call (510) 649-5999 for reservations or you may visit their website at http://www.aeofberkeley.org/ for more information.

Two old comedic chestnuts are delighting audiences with Mary Chase's "Harvey" and Norman Barasch and Carroll Moore's "Send Me No Flowers"!

2011-07-25T21:15:00.000-07:00

With all the dramatic heat that is available on the theater beat this week, I thought this would the perfect time to kick back and review a couple of old chestnuts, a couple of lighthearted comedies that are just plain fun, nothing that requires a great deal of deep thought, nothing that speaks to fear or controversy, just plain dumb fun. The Orinda Starlight Village Theater is producing a play I have not seen in a long time, “Send Me N Flowers”, written by Norman Barasch and Carroll Moore. Then, in Castro Valley, the Chanticleers Theatre is producing Mary Chase’s perennial favorite, “Harvey”.

Orinda’s little community theater in the park, The Orinda Starlight Theatre opened a couple of weeks ago with their fun-filled production of “Send Me No Flowers”, a play probably best remembered as the 1964 movie by the same name that teamed Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and Tony Randall in its celluloid début. Director Norman Jewison saw this play, re-scripted as a movie, as another perfect vehicle for Hudson, Randall and Day, their third and final romantic movie grouping. Many people thought it was the best of the three movie series that included Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1962) and Send Me No Flowers (1964). Others thought it was light and full of fun lines, but not as memorable as Pillow Talk or Lover Come Back. The original stage production of Send Me No Flowers opened in December of 1960, received only lukewarm reviews and lasted for 40 performances (approximately one month). Certainly the play was not a flop, but at the same time not considered a resounding success.

It’s hard to know what turns audiences on. I have always enjoyed this “don’t cry wolf” comedy about hypochondriac George (played by Shawn Bonnington), who is constantly suffering from one imaginary illness or another. George just recently had a complete physical that pronounced him perfectly and certifiably healthy, but he woke up this morning with a pain in his chest, or perhaps it’s his upper abdomen, well, certainly somewhere in that general area. Why the uncertainty, well, he only notices the pain when he presses his hand or index finger against his body. Out of fear he might have contracted some potentially fatal disease or illness (one can never be too sure) he has called is family doctor, Ralph Morrissey (Mark Barry), asking him to immediately come by his home to investigate his new affliction. George’s lovely and patient wife, Judy (Jill Gelster) tries to assure him that it is probably nothing more than indigestion, but George is resolute in his concerns.

Dr. Morrissey does arrive at the Kimball residence and examines George Kimball and tells him that he is not ill, basically echoing Judy’s diagnosis that George probably only has indigestion. The doctor hands George a container with some medication in it and tells him to take two pills now and two more in the morning, assuring him everything will be fine. George goes off into the other room to get a glass of water and as he returns he overhears the Doctor talking to his lab on George’s telephone about a terminally ill patient’s lab tests (the same type of test George took a week earlier) that did not have a happy outcome. What is most disturbing is that the doctor concludes the conversation by telling the party on the phone that he is not going to tell the patient the bad news, voicing the opinion that since the patient’s financial affairs are all in order, the bad news would probably be more detrimental than disclosing the truth.

George assumes that he is the terminally ill patient the doctor is talking about and now believes that he has less than two weeks to live. With this disclosure fresh in his mind, George becomes greatly concerned for his wife and her future happiness, since he has always handled all of the financial matters, never even allowing her to pay a bill. In his wild imagination, he foresees his wife eventually on the street selling pencils to survive. When his neighbor Arnold (Chris Constantouros) drops by the house, George reveals this devastating news to him and they momentarily wallow in despair, until George decides the only sensible solution is to find a responsible replacement spouse for his wife, to replace him when he is gone. It just so happens that Judy’s old college beau, Bert Powers (Ken Sollazzo), is in town and has called hoping to stop by just to touch base and renew an old friendship. Over the years, Bert has become a very successful oil investor, is very wealthy, not married and as far as George is concerned, the perfect candidate.

George’s obvious prodding and promotion of activities that will keep Bert and his wife in each other’s company (without him along as he is much “too ill”) a lot, makes his wife very suspicious and she comes to the conclusion that her husband must be covering up an extramarital affair of his own. The mix up just gets funnier and funnier especially as George meets with funeral director Mr. Atkins (Barry Hunau) of the “Eternal Gardens” to purchase his final resting place, and even buys a future plot for his wife and for her “future” husband in the deal!

Director Geotty Chapple has done an excellent job of direction and selecting the cast for this show, Actors Jill Gelster (Judy) and Shawn Bonnington (George) are thoroughly delightful in their lead roles. Special kudos must go to Barry Hunau (the jovial funeral director) and Christopher Constantouros (the concerned neighbor) who practically stole the show! The cast also includes Josette Canilao as “the other woman”, Charles Guitron as “Vito” a suave pursuer of Mrs. Kimball, and Jim Fritz in a minor support role. The Sound design by Dave Dierks is really quite remarkable as well. This is a very enjoyable production, basically inexpensive ($8 for seniors and children and $16 for all others)! “Send Me No Flowers” runs Fridays and Saturdays now through August 6th, with a Thursday evening performance at 8 p.m. on August 4th.

The Orinda Starlight Village Players perform in the Orinda Community Center Park Amphitheater located at #26 Orinda Way, across the street from the Rite Aid Pharmacy and the Orinda Post Office and adjacent to the Orinda Library and Community Park. Call (925) 528-9225 or drop a line to Geotty Chapple at P.O. Box 204, Orinda, CA 94556 for additional information. Tickets can be purchased at the theater entrance. This is an amphitheater in the park, so be sure to dress in layers because it can get very chilly in Orinda if the fog bank comes over the Oakland hills into Orinda. I also recommend a folding chair or stadium seating portable cushions as the rock seating is not comfortable. The theater company provides cushions, but I prefer my own “tush” cushions.

Break out your dictionary, encyclopedia or wickipidia and look up the word "Pooka" before you read my next show review to find out what these Celtic/Irish/Welsh/Scottish fantasy spirits are all about and you will better understand one of the underlying mysteries about who and what the large white rabbit with powers to foresee the future is, in Mary Chase's "Harvey". There are many different definitions, look for the ones about the friendly shape shifters.

Another one of my favorite “old chestnut” plays is the 1940 play by Mary Chase about a six foot three inch “Pooka” called "Harvey". I will never forget the original movie version of "Harvey" in the 50’s with Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd, the easy going, affable gentleman who hangs out with an apparently imaginary six foot tall white rabbit named Harvey. The Chanticleers Theater in Castro Valley opened with their production of this comic tale of eccentricity and family frustration this past weekend. This is a thoroughly delightful production that I am sure you will enjoy if you make the little drive to Castro Valley.

Elwood P. Dowd (played very well by Keith Jefferds) is a very friendly, slightly eccentric gentleman who lives with his sister, Veta Louise Simmons (Loralee Windsor) and her daughter Myrtle Mae Simmons (Dawn Cates) in a family home and is financially secure in large part do to a substantial family inheritance. Elwood wanders around town, playing cards with friends at the local fire stations, or sipping suds with friends in the local bars. Whenever he makes a new acquaintance, he hands them his personal card and introduces them to an apparently invisible friend, whom he calls Harvey. In that the imaginary friend is nothing more than a six foot, three inch rabbit, most folks have decided that Elwood is harmless, good natured, and not to be concerned about. His family, however, is quite concerned with his unusual actions and they are embarrassed by his bizarre behavior. His sister, Veta Louise and niece, Myrtle May are afraid to socialize at home and of being embarrassed again and again. Following a recent social event held by Veta Louise for her club members in her home, where Elwood wandered in and broke up the party, Veta has decided to get her family attorney , Judge Gaffney (Jerry Telfer), to assist her in having Elwood committed permanently to Chumley’s Rest Sanitarium.

However, when Vita Louise arrives at the Sanitarium with Elwood in tow, a comedy of errors ensues, with Doctor Sanderson (Charles Woodson Parker), Dr. Chumley (Peter Richman), staff assistant Duane Wilson (Bill Clemente) and nurse Ruth Kelly (Vanessa Comfort) committing Veta instead of Elwood. The mild mannered Elwood comes off as the sane one and he and his rabbit companion escape the sanitarium before the staff discovers their unfortunate mistake.

The remainder of the story revolves around everybody’s pursuit of Elwood as he makes his rounds about town. In the end, he voluntarily returns to the sanitarium where he is to be given a treatment that will change him forever. At the last minute, the taxi driver (Bill Clemente) who has been patiently waiting for his fare, barges in the sanitarium office demanding immediate payment. When he hears that “that nice man” is going to be given an “elixir of normality” by the hospital staff, his dire warning to Veta of how others have changed following the “treatment”, shakes up Vita and she begins to wonder if the “cure” will affect them more adversely, than living with Elwood in his present affable but slightly wacky condition.

The acting is really delightful all around, there are a myriad of rich characters, and the nonstop subtle humor will keep young and old alike laughing. I have always loved this play and I have to say that Loralee Windsor (Veta Louise) is really quite outstanding in her portrayal. Marsha Howard rounds out the cast as she plays Mrs. Ethyl Chauvenet and Betty Chumley. Director Eric Fraisher Hayes has done a great job with this excellent production.

"Harvey" continues Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinee performances at 6 p.m. (timed specifically to avoid the hottest time of the day) through August 14th. General admission tickets are only $18 each and $15 for seniors and students. You can order tickets on line at http://chanticleers.org/tickets.html or call (510) 733-5483 for reservations and more information. The Chanticleers Theatre is located at 3683 Quail Avenue in Castro Valley Park. Check out the company website at http://chanticleers.org/ where you will find a very good map and directions.

"Assisted Living, the Musical" is a rousing success in San Francisco!

2011-07-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

Zoe Conner (front) and Bob Greene (back) in "Assisted Living, The Musical"

Photos by David Allen

My life has been one great big joke,
A dance that's walked,

A song that's spoke,

I laugh so hard I almost choke,
When I think about myself.
~Maya Angelou

“Assisted Living: The Musical”, a very, very funny musical comedy, has just opened in the Imperial Palace in San Francisco to “test the West” in a National Tour orchestrated by its authors, Rick Compton and Betsy Bennett, and national production and musical director Skip Brevis, a New York based musical director, composer and arranger.

In an interview this past week, Rick Compton and Betsey Bennett let me in on some of the hilarious insights that unfolded as they began collaboration on this new musical. They have written and created a dozen musicals together over the past 15 years that they have lived and worked in Naples, Florida. Rick has served as a musical director and pianist in orchestras for years and Betsy has performed as an actress and singer, with both of them performing their shows as a team before they began to cast aspirations towards a national musical comedy tour.

This delightfully funny show pokes fun at ourselves and the senior situations that seem to constantly bombard us. I cannot tell you how many times a day that I am certain that I have done something or put something away in a certain place, only to find I haven’t. What is even worse is walking from one part of my house to another, with some objective in mind, only to find myself standing in front of a cupboard asking myself, what the “H” did I come here to do, what am I looking for, why am I here? Frustration seems to be our constant companion as we get older, and even though it is not that attractive a companion, it seems to accompany us everyplace, a blind date with a real memory problem.

We have to laugh at ourselves about the frailties of growing older, or we may become very angry people. “Assisted Living: The Musical”, celebrates in a humorous way the many little anomalies of joining the “senior set”. This wonderful little comedy pokes fun at growing older gracefully (and perhaps even a little disgracefully), shedding light and laughter on senior romance, internet dating, memory glitches and the pain and joy and unique aspects of moving to senior communities. I have asked myself if there is ever real retirement after years of work-place regimen, or does one simply find different work routines and obligations to take our former working regimen’s place? Why do we feel we need to “step up to the plate” to assist our neighbors or our community or the many clubs and groups proliferating where senior activities are paramount? Why would anyone agree to become the Homeowners Association President? Believe me, being a good citizen can become a big pain in the derriere as well as shackle you to a lot of thankless civic work. And if you’re really stupid or losing it, you might even agree to allow yourself to be re-elected or re-drafted into that insane obligation three times in a row, as I have done. What good opportunities and advantages does living in a senior community or assisted living facility provide you might ask? Well one of the characters in the fictional retirement community in which this comedy takes place describes her new as “sort of like a journey on a cruise ship - - except the final destination is not Catalina!”

When you infuse clever humor with outstanding talented actors, you come up with a show that garners a lot of attention very quickly and that is exactly what we have in “Assisted Living: The Musical”. Compton & Bennett's musical comedy opened in Naples to immediate kudos in June, 2009 at Fred's Diner. Within days, it was sold out for weeks in advance and had attracted the attention of The Associated Press, The BBC and numerous regional publications. From Fred's, the show moved north to a nine-month sold-out run in Central Florida, and performances along Florida's East Coast and as far north as Philadelphia. Through March of this year, the show has played to thousands at country clubs throughout the Southwest Florida, winning standing ovations at each performance. After playing to packed houses - " to the limits of the fire code" according to co-author, Betsy Bennett, the show came to the attention of New York producers and has been in development for a national tour for more than a year.

The San Francisco show is a terrific show and again, the selection of lead actors is paramount to a successful run, with Bob Greene (Actor’s Equity Assn. member) and Zoe Conner in the lead roles, accompanied by the young and very talented Robbie Cowan on keyboard. This show is bound to draw audiences from every nook and cranny, all around the Bay Area, entertaining a broad spectrum of audiences. I laughed, I cried, I almost died! It is so outrageously funny that I immediately went to the show’s director after the performance and asked if I could purchase a DVD of the show. Unfortunately, they did not have one available yet, but I left my card and told them that if and when they do put one together, I want to purchase it.. A DVD is nothing like the real live show, but I, myself, would love to see this one over and over again. It is so funny and so well done!

The songs’ words are all originals, written by the show’s authors and they cover a panoply of topics and subject matter, from the upbeat “Everything is Swell At Pelican Roost” where Greene and Conner expound on the virtues advantages of living in such a fine senior community as Pelican Roost to the poignant song, “My Hide” (as in “saggin’, saggin’, saggin’ - - they can fix my wagon”) sung delightfully to the Frankie Lane theme melody of the 50’s TV series “Rawhide”. There are many other numbers including “The AARP”, “Goin’Mobile”, “Golf Cart Seduction”, and “The Battle of Room 109” are equally hilarious. There are many adult themed numbers, as this is intended for an adult audience. There was an entire family (from high school age to seniors) at the table with us and they absolutely loved the show! Most of all, it is the splendid singing and comedic talent of Greene and Conner that make the songs really resonate. As long time Bay Area performing favorites, Greene and Conner will capture your attention and I am sure you will absolutely love this terrific entertainment team.

It may seem strange to host a musical comedy in a Chinese Restaurant, but the Imperial Palace is not new to San Francisco theatrical audiences. “Tony and Tina’s Wedding”, an interactive audience participation comedy, played in this venue very successfully for a very long time, and that is probably true for several reasons. First, the second floor entertainment room is well established enough to provide a dinner theater crowd with good food, good viewing, comfortable seating and second, and very important, is its ease of accessibility (only one block from the Portsmith Square Parking Garage) in the high tourist traffic, Chinatown area. A complete Chinese dinner is included in the package price of $79.59 (or $99.50 for VIP seating). Every ticket includes a Dim Sum Banquet. The Imperial Palace is located at 818 Washington Street and the parking garage is located at 733 Kearny Street. “Assisted Living: The Musical” is an open ended production, and the performances are on Saturdays and Sundays at 12 noon, with a 5 p.m. performance on Sundays (which means you are out of the show when it is still daylight outside). The food was great and there was plenty of it! Call 1(888) 88LAUGH (885-2844) for information or reservations or visit their web site at http://www.assistedlivingthemusical.com/ on the internet!

King O' the Moon shuttles us back in time to 1969, as we visit the people, their lives and times as the Apollo Astronauts first set foot on the moon!

2011-07-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

L-R Georgie Pazinski (Eric Inman), Ellen Pazinski (Barbara Grant*), Rudy Pazinski (David Beale), Annie Pazinski (Andrea Snow), Eddie Pazinski (Seth Thygesen), Maureen (Meryn MacDougal)
(*Actors Equity Assn.) gathered around the picnic table in the family's back yard!

Photo by Judy Potter

The Willows Theatre’s Mainstage facility has made a triumphant return to the Willows Shopping Center in Concord this year, beginning with Broadway Star David Burnham’s performance for the opening Gala on March 12th. I know that a lot of Rossmoor residents are actually excited about this marvelous medium sized theatrical venue being saved from extinction by the Willow’s Theatre’s new management team, David P. Faustina and Eric Inman. Last night I dropped in at the Starlight Amphitheater Theater in Orinda to catch the closing performance of “The Mousetrap”, when I ran into several staunch local theater aficionados and we talked about the state of local theater. When the subject of the Willows Theater came up, several people chimed in that they were thrilled to hear that the company had been able to reorganize and find the means to raise sufficient funds to re-open a local theater that they had long enjoyed and really missed. When I told them how terrific the new show, “King O’ The Moon” was, they said they would defiantly purchase tickets and go to see this production.

“King O’ the Moon” is a sequel to the very warmly received earlier play by Tom Dudzick, “Over the Tavern”, which played in this same theater several years ago. When I reviewed “Over the Tavern”, I remarked that Dudzick had truly captured many of the trials and tribulations of middle American family values as reflected by a hard-working and close-knit Polish-Catholic family in Buffalo, New York. I discovered that I was not the first theater reviewer who found himself comparing Dudzick to another favorite of many, Neil Simon.

Life’s experiences teach us that many families that fight frequently are in reality, very close and caring families, they just express themselves and their love and frustrations with their family members siblings in a very straight forward, no–holds-barred way. In fact, it is often the family that expresses their frustrations very openly that turn out to be the most supportive when someone or something threatens that family unity or its core values.

The time frame has moved forward with this family from the Eisenhower late 1950’s to 1969, on the eve of the Apollo moon landing, a very historical day for mankind, and a very heartwarming and historical day for the Pazinski family as well. This earthy family has gathered on the anniversary of the Pazinski patriarch’s passing to have a back yard dinner and to remember, celebrate and honor their father’s memory.

The eldest son, Eddie (Seth Thygesen), has joined the Army and is preparing to embark for active duty in Vietnam, while at the same time he is torn by the conflict of balancing the realities of war against his love for his country and his love for his young expectant wife, Maureen (Meryn MacDougall) and their first baby. His younger brother, Rudy (David Beal), is attending seminary and is still seriously considering joining the Priesthood, all while thinking long and hard as to what his joining the Priesthood will mean on the most personal of levels to him and his family. On one hand, as a staunch Catholic, he firmly believes that to commit murder, even in the act of killing an enemy, is one of the greatest of mortal sins. He cannot envision his patriotic brother joining his high school friends and buddies in the killing fields of Asia, but he knows his brother and believes that Eddie’s motivations are highly honorable. Their sister, Annie (Andrea Snow), is trying to repress her anger and frustration with a marriage that has not turned out anything at all as she envisioned it. Secretly, she wants another chance at love but in large part, is trapped by the religious doctrines and edicts of Catholicism. Young Maureen (Eddie’s wife) is a sexual being, much in love and much in lust, and certainly not ashamed to express it. Her happiness with Eddie is a thorn in Annie’s side, but no one knows exactly why Maureen is so unhappy with Annie. The widow, Ellen Pazinski (Barbara Grant), still runs the tavern in the same building below the apartment where she and her children have lived for years. Her husband’s former business partner, Walter (Morgan Mackay), has continued to work in the bar, working with Mrs. Pazinski, to assure continuity and stability and income for the family. Walter, we learn, is also a widower, and perhaps his relationship with Mrs. Pazinski might even be maturing into something more than just an ongoing business partnership. Last, but not least, is the youngest son, Georgie (Eric Inman), who has developmental abnormalities and intellectual disabilities, but is loved and cared for by the entire family.

As the family prepares for a family memorial dinner, the family and the world are following closely on the television and radio, the progress of the men in the Apollo spacecraft as it hurtles through space, orbiting the moon and preparing to place mankind on the lunar surface for the first time. Equally important, the collective decisions made by this family this evening in this simple family back yard gathering, will also break new ground for this family. It is a time of great triumph, of progress and a time for a leap of faith, for both the Pazinskis and the whole world around them.

You may remember the director’s name, Richard Elliott, from somewhere in the archipelago of offshore theatrical directors, as Mr. Elliott, the former theatrical director of the Willows Theatre, has floated back to the main land, to the main stage, to once again tease and please us with his excellent directing skills. Richard is currently a teacher at Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona. Guest Director Elliott has pulled together a terrific cast and has mined every nuance of gold from this little family gold mine. Dudzick has delivered an excellent sequel as rich, if not more rich than the original.

This outstanding, thought-provoking play, “King O’ the Moon” , continues Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., with performances on Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinees on Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m., and Sundays at 3 p.m., now through July 17th. The Theater is located in the Willows Shopping Center, next door to the REI outfitting store, at 1975 Diamond Boulevard, in Concord, California. To purchase tickets, call 798-1300 or visit the Willows Website at http://www.willowstheatre.org/ for more information.

Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap" captured everyone's attention in the Starlight Theater in Orinda this past weekend!

Earlier in the article I mentioned in passing that the Starlight Theater in Orinda closed this weekend with their lively production of “The Mousetrap” by Agatha Christie. Under the direction of Geotty Chapple, this long time theatrical jewel as found new heights of fun, silliness and suspense. I was unable to attend this show when it first opened due to my having to make a trip to Southern California to see a long time friend who is very ill. This is a great little outdoor community theater that puts on some very entertaining theater and this production was no exception.

Even though this production has completed its run, I wish to mention several aspects just to show my appreciation to a cast who worked very hard to deliver a show that was obviously enjoyed by all (from the applause and handshakes with actors after the show). The story takes place in a rural English community north of London, where a recently married couple take an inherited country home, Monkswell Manor, and courageously convert it into a guest inn. The Ralstons, Mollie (Babette Bilger) and Giles (Mark Barry), find themselves up to their elbows in highly suspect if not intriguing and interesting guests on their very first night as guest house keepers. Sergeant Trotter (Malcolm Cowler), a local constable; Miss Casewell (Kelly Hansen); Mr. Paravincini (Al Guaraglia); Mrs. Boyle (Marian Simpson), Major Metcalf (David Weiner) and last but not least, Ken Sollazzo plays the highly excitable, eccentric, slightly loony, artistic but loveable architect, Christopher Wren. Everyone was fun, except Mrs. Boyle, who was intended by the author to be the worst pain in the derriere ever created, and Marian Simpson played the part perfectly. One of the guests is a murderer and to the tune of Three Blind Mice, the victims start falling, one by one. It’s lots of fun!

This Agatha Christie play began life as a radio show in 1952 and before the year was out, it had been converted by Christie into what was to become the longest running play in theatrical history, having now completed over 23,074 consecutive performances in the West End of London alone. If you have never seen this excellent play, keep it in mind, because it is constantly being redone in someone’s theater near you.

I will keep you posted as I receive information on future productions in this little theater, hopefully, before the last act!!! The Orinda Starlight Village Players perform in the Orinda Community Center outside Amphitheater located at #26 Orinda Way, across the street from the Rite Aid Pharmacy and the Orinda Post Office and adjacent to the Orinda Library and Community Park. Call 528-9225 or drop a line to Geotty Chapple at P.O. Box 204, Orinda, CA 94556 for additional information.

Top Shelf Theatre Company, a new theater has just opened in Walnut Creek and receives a standing ovation!

2011-06-20T22:09:00.000-07:00

Top Shelf Theatre Company, a relatively new local theater company, has just unveiled their first major dramatic effort in Walnut Creek and is renting the Diablo Actor’s Ensemble Theater on Locust Street for the opening of “Never the Sinner”. This play is about one of the first major criminal trial spectacles to be dubbed “a crime of the century” by the news media, a play in which author John Logan addresses the famous 1924 “Loeb and Leopold” murder trial in Chicago. The trial was one of the most notorious criminal events of its time, for both its senselessness and horrific overtones in addition to the stirring summations by attorneys Clarence Darrow & Robert Crowe. Two exceptionally brilliant young men, Nathan Leopold Jr. and Richard Loeb, schemed, plotted and planned for 9 months to commit what they felt would be the “perfect” crime. Their motivation was totally unusual, not for money, not for revenge, but that of simply committing murder and getting away with it, to prove themselves the Nietzschian supermen they thought they were.

Author John Logan is a successful playwright and screenwriter whose play “Red”, won 6 Tony Awards last year on Broadway in addition to his critically acclaimed Academy Award nomination success for authoring the movie script, “Gladiator” in 2000, and the “Aviator” script (starring Leonardo DiCaprio), in 2004. “Never the Sinner” was spurned by Logan’s interest in murder stories. He found that the story behind the story of this sensational trial and its singularly unique trial strategy was as important to the annuls of history as the trial’s final outcome. This trial has been considered by many as Clarence Darrow’s greatest and most significant victory. To understand the uniqueness of the trial, one has to understand the very complex character of its principal subjects, why they killed, and why the defendants’ skilled attorney did something never done before in a US courtroom; he pleaded his defendants “guilty”, but not by reason of insanity!

Nathan Leopold was considered a “child prodigy”. He spoke his first words at four months, and by age 19 was capable of speaking 27 different languages fluently, was an expert ornithologist, had already graduated from the university of Michigan and was preparing to enroll in Harvard’s law school. Leopold was the youngest graduate in the history of the University of Michigan. He excelled in every task given him.

Richard Loeb was also exceptionally gifted, exceedingly bright and much advanced scholarly for his age (perhaps due in large part to an overzealous tutoring nanny). He was able to skip several class grades and entered the University of Michigan at age 14, where he and Leopold became acquainted. However, his studies floundered in the college arena when his tutor was no longer there to oversee his study regimen. Loeb was handsome, outgoing and admired by his peers.

While at the University of Michigan, Loeb and Leopold embraced the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), a philosopher whose writings have had great intellectual and political influence around the world. Nietzsche was a fervent philosopher who was anti-democracy, anti-Christianity, anti-Judaism, anti-socialist and self-acclaimed Anti-Christ. He expressed his belief in a “master race” and the coming of a superman in many of his works. Nietzsche’s philosophy, evocative style and outrageous claims set him apart from other philosophers, gathering many followers who were estranged from mainstream society.

Leopold and Loeb were an excellent match psychologically.The brilliant but socially inept Leopold was enthralled by the handsome and vivacious Loeb; and Loeb found an excellent alter ego for his fantasy world in his relationship with Leopold, a relationship in which he was supreme. By the summer of 1921 they were inseparable, and it is likely they began a sexual relationship. Leopold graduated with honors in March 1923; Loeb barely graduated from the University of Michigan in June 1923.

Both men returned to Chicago and pursued post-graduate studies at the University of Chicago while living at home. Loeb continued to embroil Leopold in a number of different criminal pursuits, using the promise of sexual favors as an enticement, and became increasingly obsessed with the development and commission of a “perfect crime”.

Leopold, age 19 at the time of the murder, and Loeb, 18, were head and shoulders above most of their college classmates. They believed themselves to be Nietzschean supermen who could commit a "perfect crime" (in this case a kidnapping and murder). Before the murder, Leopold had quoted Nietzsche to Loeb: "A superman ... is, on account of certain superior qualities inherent in him, exempted from the ordinary laws which govern men. He is not liable for anything he may do. Whether as a result of rebellion towards the repressive educational regime, or some deep-seated psychological flaw, Loeb began to show a distinct Jekyll/Hyde personality from a very early age. The carefully planned kidnapping and murder did take place, setting in motion this unique trial.

Director Matt Davis was indeed fortunate to find such a fine selection of actors capable of delivering these complex characters and their personalities in such perfect harmony with the true life characters. Chris Dewey (as Nathan Leopold) and Brian Mattthews (as Richard Loeb) delivered a performance that I felt was at near perfection. Attorneys Clarence Darrow and Robert Crowe were played equally at a level of outstanding perfection, by Kennet Jeffress and Randy Anger. Three remaining actors, Dean Creighton, Caitie McNamara and Greg Asdourian played a plethora of other characters, ranging from newspaper reporters, medical doctors, psychologists, girl friends and police officers. While Dean Creighton and Caitie McNamara were stellar in their characterizations and deliveries, actor Greg Asdourian seemed to have some difficulty in projecting and enunciating clearly enough for the audience to grasp the full import of his verbal contributions. With a little more actual stage time in this production under his belt, and a little more specific encouragement from director Matt Davis, Greg should be able to contribute as fully as the other actors have done.

“Never the Sinner” is a very powerful play but one that seems quite choppy in the first half, due to the many, many set changes (re-positioning of chairs primarily). The production is handicapped by the fact that this small theater does not have enough floor space and directional lighting to isolate elements on the stage, which would have allowed scene changes to move more expeditiously. All of this minor stuff aside, the play is very engaging, very thought provoking and even though history has told us that these two young men probably would have been sent to the gallows had they not had attorney (Clarence Darrow) and the privileges that wealth can afford, you may find your own opinion swayed by Darrow’s brilliant tactics and superlative summation. I strongly suggest that his is a piece of theater that should not be missed.

The “Top Shelf Theater Company” is presenting this piece in the Diablo Actor’s Ensemble Theater space at 1345 Locust Street in Walnut Creek, next door to Peet’s Coffee and Tea. General admission is $20. The remaining performance dates are June 24th ,25th and July 1st and 2nd at 8p.m., with matinees on June 25th and 26th, July 2nd and 3rd, at 2 p.m., closing on the 3rd of July. For tickets, call (866) 811-4111 or visit this link on line to purchase tickets: http://www.facebook.com/l/2d486Y2NQirtX5Z4kJlRuTDKiYQ/www.ovationtix.com/trs/pr/843425
There is a city garage directly across the street from the theater that usually has lots of parking space at a very reasonable price.

From Will Shakespeare, 12th Night something delightful and light, and from Armistead Maupin :Wrong and Right, is not Black or White!"

2011-06-14T21:34:00.000-07:00

Shakespeares' 12th Night revelers: Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Justin DuPuis) and Sir Toby Belch (Paul Plain)

Photo by: Jay Yamada

Shakespeare has and always been the “test” of regional theaters to prove their professionalism and ability to engage and draw return audiences, at least audiences who are passionate about the highest level of entertainment through the mastery of the greatest in theatrical skill. William Shakespeare was a master of this process of clever word play and many of his aficionados relish his imagery and his little literary gems. For example, from Henry VIII, this phrase, “Men's evil manners live in brass; their virtues we write in water.” In other words, the things men do wrong are long remembered, as if they were written in brass, but their virtues and good deeds, are less permanent in our memories. Then, in another often done play by Shakespeare, “Twelfth Night”, Malvolio reads a phony letter of admiration and responds “In my stars I am above thee (a man in love with himself); but (he tells himself) be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon 'em.” Later in the same play, Viola asks the Fool (or Clown), Feste, if he is not Lady Olivia’s “fool” and he responds wisely, “No, indeed Sir (thinking Viola is a he): the Lady Olivia has not folly: She will keep no fool till she be married; and fools are as like husbands - - as like Pilchards (fish) are to herrings (same type of fish); (but) the husband’s are the bigger (fools): I am indeed not her fool, but her corrupter of words.” Indeed, Shakespeare had a way with words, perhaps more difficult to understand than similar phrases in modern English, but never-the-less a marvelous way with words.

This past week, a truly superb production of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night opened in Lafayette, in the historic Town Hall Theatre, a production that I strongly encourage you to attend. Director Soren Oliver has gathered together an outstanding cast for this production that made it a most memorable occasion for me.

Two fraternal twins born into privilege, Viola and Sebastian, are aboard a ship when it is overtaken by a terrific storm. Their ship breaks apart and they are dumped into the sea. Viola and the ship’s captain cling to a piece of the ship’s wreckage until they find themselves washed ashore on the coast of “Illyria”. Viola (Kate Jopson) comes to believe her brother has been lost at sea and she asks the sea captain (who was born and raised on this part of the coast) to assist her to find a job. Women were not employable, so she takes on the guise of a young man, Cesario by name), and through the sea captain’s assistance, becomes employed by the single and handsome Duke Orsino. Viola is well educated, speaks intelligently and has the gift of romantic verse in communicating skills. The Duke (Dennis Markham) thinks he is in love with the very beautiful Lady Olivia (Kendra Lee Oberhausen), and employs Viola (in her guise as a young man) as his arbiter of love, his messenger in his pursuit of Lady Olivia. Unfortunately, Lady Olivia has lost both father and brother in recent deaths and is not interested in romance of any kind as the play unfolds. While Viola faithfully discharges her duty to her employer, she discovers that she is falling in love with the Duke, herself, making her job very difficult, if not impossible.

At the same time, her brother Sebastian (Daniel Petzold), was not claimed by the sea, but had been rescued by a fisherman, Antonio (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), and they became fast friends. Sebastian comes to believe that his missing sister must have been claimed by the sea and he and Antionio set out for the Duke’s fiefdom. Sebastian believes that Duke Orsino knew his father and will help him to return to his homeland. Unbeknownst to each other, the twins end up in the same community at the same time, creating case after case of mistaken identity situations and crisis. Viola’s efforts to woo Olivia for her master, the Duke, backfires when Olivia falls in love with the very handsome young messenger (Cesario/Viola), thinking that he is a very intelligent young man of good breeding, not realizing he is a she. When the various characters encounter each of the twins at different times and in different places, not realizing that there are twins in their territory, all kinds of hilarious and not so hilarious situations come to pass.

As with all Shakespearean plays, there are plots within plots, within plots and the most important is the subplot is where-in Olivia’s poor Uncle, Sir Toby Belch (played by Paul Plain), has recruited another suitor for his niece, Olivia, in the person of a simple minded country gentleman by the name of Sir Andrew Aguecheek (Justin DuPuis). Sir Andrew fancies marrying the wealthy Lady Olivia and seeks to get some inside help from Sir Toby, who happens to be his drinking buddy. Sir Toby, a poor relative of minor royalty, likes to drink a great deal, but finds living off a wealthy niece, who does not want to support his drinking habit, a very bitter pill to chew. Sir Toby is thus eager to keep his friend, Sir Andrew, hopefully engaged in a profitable but hopeless romantic endeavor. Lady Olivia also has a steward, Malvolio (David Abad),who is a self-centered, self-serving, puritanical and hard hearted individual that nobody seems to like very much, especially Lady Olivia’s personal assistant, Maria (Alexandra Creighton). In another sub-plot, Maria, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew set out to get even with Malvolio, which proves to be delightfully funny. Lady Olivia’s licensed comedian, her clown Feste (Clive Worsley) provides words of wisdom and light comedy throughout the play.

The set design and scenic artist Sarah Spero, has done an excellent job with the design and stage illustration and Ann R. Oliver has outdone herself in costume design. The costumes cover a unique compilation of cultures in the mysterious land of Illyria, but they are fun and definitely unique!

The acting is definitely professional level, first rate and exciting, providing a fun-filled evening that passed much too quickly on the night that I was there. Many of the actors are newer acquaintances to me but several, Dennis Markham and Clive Worsley are long time favorites. This is the first time I have seen Paul Plain performing in a Shakespearean role, and from his sterling performance, he should have attempted this long ago. I wish to complement all of the actors here for their excellent work, and I highly recommend that you should attend “Twelfth Night”. The show continues Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Sunday matinee performances at 2p.m., now through June 25th. Tickets range in price between $15 and $32 each. Call 283-1557 for ticket sales or information or visit their website at http://www.townhalltheatre.com/ or pickup tickets at the ticket booth in the theater at 3535 School Street, which is at the corner of School Street and Moraga Avenue in Lafayette.

Wrong and right, is not black or white!

Shifting gears now from dramatic comedy to musical drama with ACT’s highly acclaimed new musical visiting the haunts and history of San Francisco in the 70’s, I will now take you on a little guided tour of Armistead Maupin’s “Tales of the City”. Spectacular! Exciting! Mesmerizing! Adjective after adjective in review after review, for the most part, everyone seems to agree that this great new musical was born in San Francisco but is now bound for Broadway!

Armistead Maupin came to San Francisco in 1971, a writer in search of himself, his real self, in search of a place where he could be himself, his real self. You see, Armistead knew he was gay and knew he wasn’t comfortable in his own skin. Even though he didn’t understand or comprehend what his life might be like in San Francisco, he was drawn by the undercurrent, the whisperings of a place where men like himself could find freedom to express themselves in their need for love and sexual freedom. His secret had been closely guarded and the topics had been carefully avoided. While in Charleston, North Carolina, where Maupin attended the College of North Carolina, someone told him that there were at least “50 gay bars in San Francisco” and he righteously declared that he would never go into “one of those”. And where did he go on his first night is San Francisco? You are correct, a gay bar called The Rendezvous on Sutter Street. It was all new, it was scary, but it was exciting. Could it be true, a place where he could share his reality with other people who had lived most of their lives with the same secrets and the same fears? During the day he was a straight freelance writer struggling and juggling between writing and fighting for financial survival, but at night the neon lights followed him through the blur of bathhouses and backstreet bars.

Following a short stint of writing a column called “The Serial”, that gave birth to fictitious characters Mary Ann and Connie, who met at the “social Safeway”, the Marina Safeway, Chronicle columnist Charles McCabe found “The Serial” refreshing and declared that it belonged under the Chronicle banner. In short order, “Can you produce five columns a week”? Charles Thieriot, the Chronicle’s publisher asked.a “Five columns a week, well, a - - sure, - - sure, I can do that - -“. Maupin recalls the frightening prospect of the publishers incredible request. NOBODY writes 5 columns a week he thought, but he had a job, not much of a life because of the work and creation demands, but he had a job! On May 24th, 1976, the first column appeared under the title, “Tales of the City”. As the weeks passed he found himself inundated with stories, characters, and plots supplied and volunteered by a growing army of readers, friends and associates. And there it began, “The Tales of the City”, the newspaper column read by millions of Bay Area readers. Now it is reaching out again, reborn as a wonderful, believable, heartwarming and funny musical narrative of the people and lives that made San Francisco the marvelous and unique place that it is today.

Inexorably intertwined; gay, straight and all the world in between the South San Francisco area and the Golden Gate Bridge became a new Mecca, a new tapestry for a new pallet of rainbow colors. The characters were all made up, inventions of Maupin’s mind. Now through the magic of theater, you too, can meet the maddeningly unconventional and mysterious landlady, Anna Madrigal (Judy Kaye), of the Barbary Lane apartment building. Now you can connect with the mother hen who opened up her coop to all those who were willing to become her extended family in and upon this strange landscape. The apartment building provided a launching pad for many different social experimental rockets destined to defy gravity. In this space, people found their space and grew, even if some grew great and some grew less than great.

Like a multi-level freeway interchange, people from all walks of life, all social and economic paths crossed there; drugs, sex, love, larceny, like a mini-metropolis, a city within a city. Yes, like many living now in the Bay Area, I too moved into the East Bay in the early 70’s. Likewise, I tasted some of the wild and wicked fruits of this new utopia, the EST and Actualization self-improvement workshops, the free and more open lifestyles, even the artist houseboat community hot tubs in Sausalito. Yes, as science fiction author Robert Rimmer (The Harrad Experiment author) and Marin sex talk radio show therapist Stan Dale once declared, ”everyone taking part in this evolution were indeed, Strangers in a Strange Land.”

The stories, the characters, the music, the stunning and powerful voices and the positive exhilaration is all there, and you don’t even need a joint or magic brownies to fully enjoy it. The music is created and directed by the same genius team Jeff Whitty and Jason Moore, (the Tony award winning creators of “Avenue Q”), and Jake Shears and John Garden (the musical minds behind the Scissor Sisters, the Glam Rock group.

The simple but brilliantly creative set design, visuals and costumes turned this musical theater experience into a super spectacular experience. Principle actors, Betsy Wolfe, Mary Birdsong, Wesley Taylor, Brian Hawkins, Richard Poe, Josh Breckenridge, Andrew Samonsky and the ever vivacious Kathleen Elizabeth Monteleone were spellbinding as actors and singers. As they brought the show to a close, the audience rose to their feet in a standing ovation just as if someone had come on stage and yelled out “Attention”, popping us up out of our chairs in one fell swoop. Wow, what a show! Even though it is a fairly long show, I was so enthralled by the upbeat extravaganza, I didn’t even notice that it was after 11 pm when I entered the Powell Street BART station to return home.

“Tales of the City” has just been extended by unprecedented demand for tickets, through July 24th. The American Conservatory Theater (ACT) is located at 415 Geary Street in downtown San Francisco. There are 8 p.m. performances Tuesdays through Sundays with 2 p.m. matinees on selected dates. Consult the website at http://www.act-sf.org/ or by calling the box office at (415) 749-2228 for more information.

Funny, bloody, and bloody well perceptive, are words that fairly well describe this week's three show collection!

2011-06-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

(Bottom photo) Lady Windermere stares in disbelievement as the gossipy Dutchess of Berwick himts that the Lady's husband has been investing a lot of time and money in the notorious and mysterious Mrs. Erlynne!

(middle photo)Young Windermere sits in bewilderment following the news that her husband is suspected of being unfaithful!

(Top photo) Lord Lorton looks aghast at the demands being thrust on him by the infamous and mysterious Mrs. Erlynne.

All photos by Judy Potter

I have suggested to my readers many times that they expand their entertainment options by trying little “black box” type theaters that may not be very well known or well advertised or the most conveniently situated. Two of my reviews this week will be shows at theaters that everyone who enjoys live theater will be quite familiar with, and one, in my first review, will attempt to re-acquaint you with a little theater that is being frequented more and more by my Rossmoor readers, the Butterfield 8 Theater in downtown Concord.

Jon Butterfield’s little theater is growing in stature, recognition and quality, and as the company’s reputation grows, so does its ability to draw more seasoned actors and more knowledgeable and demanding audiences. Struggling financially and for respectability for the past 5 years, Butterfield 8 is finally beginning to turn the corner as its audience base finds many repeat customers. This current production of “Lady Windermere’s Fan” by Oscar Wilde has to be its most ambitious and successful to date. Granted, this company is still a training ground for neophyte and emerging actors, but it is starting to draw actors with many years of stage experience to its roster to raise your experience to even higher levels of enjoyment.

Oscar Wilde has long been one of my favorite Irish writers, along with O’Neil and George Bernard Shaw. His unfettered tongue, clever wit and astute powers of observation has both pegged him as a perceptive chronicler of social issues, and at the same time, made him a social firebrand. Similar to Shaw and Ibsen, Wilde tackled traditional social issues, practices, and established narrow minded mores, that in great part, held women to subservient and often degrading societal roles and treated them less favorably than men in the same set of circumstances. “Lady Windermere’s Fan”, aka “A Play About a Good Woman”, is a case in point. This play, first published in 1892, deftly satirizes the morals of the Victorian society.

The story concerns one Lady Windermere (Becky Potter), who at the play’s opening is preparing for her 21st birthday gathering and social dance party. An overly friendly acquaintance, Lord Darlington (Edwin Peabody), who is perpetually showering her with affectionate affirmations to the point of total embarrassment, engages her in conversation about the good and bad people in society and asks her if she thinks society rules or laws should apply to men and women equally? She responds “certainly”. He in turn responds, “I think life is too complex a thing to be settled by these hard and fast rules!” Later in a conversation with the gossipy Duchess of Berwick (Beth Chastain) before the party begins, it is hinted to Lady Windermere that her husband, Lord Windermere (Matthew Gardiner) is having an affair with Mrs. Erlynne (Kerry Gudjohnsen), a notorious woman of mysterious position, wealth and income! When Windermere’s husband comes home a short time later, before the birthday party, and insists that his wife formally invite the ill-famed Mrs. Erlynne to her birthday party to ostensibly help Mrs. Erlynne regain a position of respectability in society, Lady Windermere is shocked, assuming the recently divulged gossip must be true. Before the party is over, the marriage very nearly is also, until the woman of ill repute proves to be a white knight, late at night.

While Wilde pokes fun at the upper society into which he was born and bred, he sews the seeds of social revolution! It is a brilliant play, one of his best, delightfully funny, light hearted and at the same time profound and thought provoking. The play resonates again and again with Wilde’s wonderful witticisms and what have been described as profoundly accurate criticisms:

“If a woman wants to hold a man, she has merely to appeal to the worst in him.”
“Men become old, but they never become good.”
“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing”
“If a woman really repents, she has to go to a bad dressmaker, otherwise no one believes in her.”

Director John Butterfield has selected a superb cast for this production, far more outstanding talent than I have space to properly applaud in this article. Young Becky Potter has certainly matured as an actress and exhibits a very skilled understanding of timing and emotional control in this role. It is a pleasure to see Kerry Gudjohnsen in the role of Mrs. Erlynne and Beth Chastain as the Dutchess of Berwick as they both bring their mature professional level skills to play in very important parts, delivering performances that add measurably to this production. Edwin Peabody, Matthew Gardner and Alan Cameron, perform equally well in their assigned roles bringing a profound grasp of their masculine characters. In addition, the costumes produced for this production by Liz Martin (Pink Depford Design Studio) are brilliantly conceived and executed. You would not expect to see this quality and workmanship at this level of Community Theater. This is a show well worth a little drive to downtown Concord, to Cue Productions.

These fun filled performances are very reasonably priced community theater productions at $12 for seniors and students and $18 for adults, delivered for the most part with casts consisting of both amateur and near professional level actors. “Lady Windermere’s Fan” continues Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Sunday performances at 3 p.m., now through June 26th. The Butterfield 8 Theater Company uses the Cue Productions Live performance space at 1835 Colfax Street in Concord, only one and a half blocks East of Todos Santos square in downtown Concord. Tickets may be selected and purchased by calling Brown Paper Tickets at (800) 838-3006 or by purchasing tickets at the door. You can also gather more information by going online to http://www.b8company.com/ and click on “Events” for more information about the company and the show. This is a very informal theater with casual seating in a cabaret type of venue. I always bring a tush cushion for my bony derriere. On street parking can be tight on Friday and Saturday nights due to a number of restaurants and clubs nearby, so come a little early. Seating is open, so come first and be first seated!

“Titus Adronicus”, which just opened in the Bruin Amphitheater in Orinda, is a blood bath, a remarkabl example of the Victorian's infatuation with murder and mayhem!

“Titus Adronicus” is perhaps one of Shakespeare’s’ most sanguinary stories of revenge upon revenge, revenge on steroids, revenge gone rampant! It was his first tragedy, penned between 1590 and 1591. It was in this powerful and bloody play that this novice playwright laid the groundwork for many of his following works of tragic consequence. Titus, himself, much like Coriolanus; Aaron, the evil Moor, can be compared to Iago in Othello and perhaps even the devil incarnate; the ruthless Queen of the Goths, Tamora, perhaps a forerunner to Lady Macbeth, and similarly we find a stage frequently littered with blood and bodies, even more so than Hamlet.

The emperor of Rome has just died and his two sons, Saturninus (Rob Campbell) and Bassianus (Liam Vincent), vie for the right to succeed him. As they appeal to the Tribunes and the Senate, chiding each other in bitter terms. Titus (James Carpenter), a conquering Roman warrior hero who has served Rome for 40+ years, returns home from the Goth Wars with booty and captives, including Tamora (Stacy Ross), Queen of the Goths and her three sons. Titus’ first act, publicly, as he is welcomed by the Roman citizens, is to sentence the eldest son of the captive Queen to death, over her pleadings and protestations, as a religious sacrifice and tribute to the shadows of death. Thus the revenge cycle begins.

Titus is offered the position of Emperor of Rome as a reward for his many years of military expertise by the Tribunes and a popular vote, but he declines the offer, declaring that he has fought long and hard for the Empire and now simply wants to settle down. He nominates the eldest son, Saturninus, to bear the role, much to the dismay of younger brother Bassianus. True to the predictions of the younger brother, as soon as Saturninus is confirmed Emperor, his evil nature and lack of wisdom become blatantly obvious with his first act as Emperor, as he first attempts to steal his brother’s betrothed bride, Lavinia (Anna Bullard), away from him by declaration (the emperor cannot be denied). An uproar follows by Titus’ family and everyone else politically minded. Saturninus recants when he sees how beautiful the captive Queen of Goth is, and instead, takes her for is wife. By this foolish declaration, the captive queen is instantly elevated from prisoner, a possession of the state, into the powerful position of Emperor’s wife. This instant role change automatically spares her uncertain future as well as protects her two remaining sons, Demetrius and Chiron, from just about any consequences they might incur for any evil they might engage in hereafter. Within days, Demetrius and Chiron follow their mother’s vengeful urgings and kill Bassianus, the emperor’s brother, and cleverly set the blame on two of Titus’s sons for the elder statesman’s murder. They then rape and torture and disfigure Lavinia (Titus’s daughter), the only witness to their murderous and duplicitous adventure, abandoning her in the woods to die.

Titus’s brother, Marcus (Dan Hiatt), finds Lavinia and takes her home to her father’s house. When this horrificdeed is revealed to him, Titus vows to revenge his daughter’s rape. Before he can even find out who did it and set a plan in motion, he is once again deceived, this time by Aaron (Shawn Hamilton), the moor, the black body guard and aid to Saturninus (and unbeknownst to all, Aaron is the illicit and secret lover of Tamora, the emperor’s wife). Aaron delivers a message to Titus that if Titus will surrender something of great value to Saturninus, the Emperor will free Titus’s two imprisoned sons. After promising to return them to Titus, alive, in exchange for a particular ransom, this second horrific deception tears Titus apart. As you can see, the evil and deceit just keeps compounding the quest for revenge, the hatred grows, the anger goes on and on, and this is just the first half, with much more to come!

Other than the overwhelming and foreboding aura of evil hanging over the entire theater, the play, the acting the direction, the set design, the incredible costumes and masks, are all part and parcel of one of William Shakespeare’s early works of genius. If you think back to the time in which this play was written, this is what audiences were clamoring for. Plays ran for hours, stories became historical chronicles. Joel Sass has designed a tightly wound, superbly produced show on a very difficult subject, certainly very difficult in that it is so sanguinary!

I personally loved the acting and the artful subliminal moments of humor mercifully interjected throughout to provide a balance and a few lighter moments in all the darkness. This is the first time ever, in the entire history of California Shakespeare Theater Company, that they have mounted this seldom done tragedy! I would certainly go and see “Titus Adronicus” again and I urge you, if you are a fan of this great playwright, to find a way to see this, his first tragedy ever written.

The Set Design by Emily Greene is simple and powerful and the lighting by Russell H. Champa works wonders with the simple set and staging. The costumes are contemporary enough to veil any specific time period but evocative and frightening, especially the Goth Warriors costumes and makeup. There were a series of cleverly designed masks to make certain servants anonymous and it all worked very well. Tickets vary in price depending on dates and seating location, they range between $35 and $66 with discounts available for seniors, students, persons age 30 and under by going on line at http://www.calshakes.org/ or by visiting the box office at 701 Heinz Avenue in Berkeley, CA. You may call (510) 548-9666 for more information. The Bruins Amphitheater is located at 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way (formerly 100 Gateway Blvd.) just off highway 23 at the California Shakespeare Theater Way/Wilder Road, one mile east of the Caldecott Tunnel. There is a complementary shuttle from the Orinda Bart Station beginning 90 minutes prior to opening curtain and there is complementary parking on the premises.

Anna Deavere Smith tackles health care issues through her theatrical microscope in "Let Me Down Easy!"

Miss Smith, the barefoot orator, entranced audience members this past week in the Berkeley Repertory “Roda” Theater as she parlayed insights and impressions extracted from her personal interviews with hundreds of survivors, victims, family and friends into a staged production, intent on creating a platform for open discussion on healthcare issues and social change in our country. The title of this production is called “Let Me Down Easy”. Smith conducted 320 interviews on three continents over a 10+ year period, traveling to the affluent areas, to the shanty shadows and back roads and to hospital rooms, mining the collective consciousness and wisdom garnered from a national and international health care experience, to gather impressions, thoughts and feelings for our edification and stimulation. What is right, what is wrong, what do we need and want, what she gleaned from some pretty heroic personal stories of vulnerability, resilience of spirit and the multifaceted price of care.

Miss Smith has transformed her interviews into lifelike actual dialogue, taking on the mannerisms, the verbal patterns, the actual opinions and heartfelt ruminations of a broad base of affected individuals. She introduces you to Michael Bentt, a heavy weight champion boxer: Lauren Hutton, a supermodel; Brent Williams, a beer drinking rodeo bull rider; Eve Ensler- writer and playwright; Lance Armstrong, bicyclist; Ann Richards, the late Governor of Texas; Physician Kiersta Kurtze Burke with Charity Hospital in New Orleans, and many others.

Anna Deavere Smith is an incredible actress and story teller, bringing each interviewee’s personality, hopes, wishes and dreams to life. With a few simple props and some minor costume changes, Smith steps into each character’s shoes. She tells their story in their words, all while she moves seamlessly from character to character, story to story, from the painful, frightening non-evacuated poor in a hospital in New Orleans (seemingly forgotten by the establishment during Katrina) to a lighter moment with George Burns still smoking and working his act on a stage in Las Vegas.

This very human theatrical experience is well worth the trip to the Berkeley Repertory Theater at 2015 Addison Street in Berkeley, California. Tickets for “Let Me Down Easy” range between $34 and $73 each, depending on the performance date, time of day and location of seating. There are discounts for seniors and students and any one under 30 years of age. Call (510) 647-2949 for more information or you may order tickets on line by going to http://www.berkeleyrep.org/ or by calling toll free to (888) 4 BRT-Tix. This remarkable production runs Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinees on Wednesdays at 7p.m., with matinees on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sunday at 2 p.m., and the show has been extended due to popular demand until July 10th.

Blues in the Night is a fun-filled and sentimental delight!

2011-05-27T20:13:00.000-07:00

Armelia McQueen, Amanda Folena and Debbie Decoudreaux (L to R) sing their hearts out in Blues in the Night!

Photos by Kevin Berne

The Center Repertory Company in Walnut Creek has just opened “Blues in the Night”, a delightful evening of heart, soul and blues music strikingly reminiscent of the classic female blues era (1920’s -1940’s) that brought us such great recording artists as Ma Rainey, Ida Mae Cox, Bessie Smith, Helen Humes and Billy Holiday. Blues in the Night first opened in the Rialto Theater on Broadway in 1982 and included in their cast of three very talented female performers, a young lady by the name of Leslie Uggams. The show was even nominated for the Tony best musical of the year award. After show ran very successfully on Broadway, it was moved first across “the pond” to a West End production house known as the Donmar Warehouse for a couple of months in 1987, until it moved to the more prestigious Piccadilly Theater in Westminster, England, later that year. It continued there until mid 1988 and was nominated for two Laurence Olivier Awards.

Sheldon Epps, the man who conceived this musical journey, has also created and orchestrated other musicals, bringing back the wonderful heart-felt and soulful sounds of this time period with productions such as the Count Basie musical, “Play On” which is remarkably similar to this production, in that it centers on the lives of three women and their laments of love gone wrong stories. In this production, we meet three women, each residing in their own apartments (the stage is divided into three minor sets, each one representing a room in their apertment), in which they each sing their songs reminding us of their romantic encounters gone wrong, of wasted and reckless lives, of love lost and dreams evaporated. First we meet a “Woman of the World” (played by Debbie de Coudreaux), who for all her wealth and opportunities, only found love intermittently. Her neighbor, a “Lady from the Road” (Armelia McQueen), is a traveler a bit further down the road of life than her counterparts. A third, a younger lady, “The Girl with a Date” (Amanda Folena), waits in vain for the phone to ring, expressing her heartache in touching musical memoirs, such as “Reckless Blues”, a song previously made famous by Bessie Smith. Joining the ladies on the stage is one male singer representative of all the ego-centered, underemployed and masculine disappointments they have had to deal with in their lives, “The Man in the Saloon”, played well C.R. Lewis. All actors in this production are members of Actors’ Equity Association, professionals with long resumes of highly successful performing endeavors.

All performers deliver outstanding performances for an evening that is over far too soon, that leaves you wanting more! Spinning song after song, each character shares little vignettes of their lives in various stages of joy and lament. We are treated to great songs such as Benny Goodman and Chick Webb’s famous “Stompin at the Savoy”, Duke Ellington’s “I’m Just a Lucky-So-and-So”, a Billie Holiday’s like rendition of Jimmy Davis’s poignant “Lover Man” and even an excellent Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer’s “Blues in the Night”, from which this musical takes its name. Sometimes they sing duets and sometimes they all join together in song!

The great bands of Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, James P. Johnson, Joe Smith, Charlie Green, Jack Teagarden and Bennie Goodman helped us shake away the blues of the great depression and ushered in the swing era and gave us something to sang and dance to. This musical is brought to life with a terrific band consisting of Brandon Adams on piano, Alan Close playing tenor sax and clarinet, alongside Mark Wright on trumpet, Joe McKinley on acoustic base and Mark Lee on drums. Even though it is predominantly a show about the power and poignancy of the “Blues” in our musical culture, it is upbeat with fun music such as Armelia McQueen’s delightfully funny “Take Me For a Buggy Ride”, Debbie De Coudreaux’s terrific fan dance interpretation of “Rough and Ready Man” and Amanda Folena’s heartfelt “Reckless Blues”. These entertainers are just that, terrific entertainers that will make you want to cry, laugh, clap your hands and dance before the evening’s over. This finely honed show is directed and choreographed by Robert Barry Fleming with the music directed by Brandon Adams.

"Blues in the Night" continues Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m., Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinees on Saturdays and Sundays at 2:30 pm through Saturday, June 25th, in the Margaret Lesher Theater in the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts at 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek. Tickets may be purchased at the LCA (Lesher Center for the Arts) box office or at the Barnes and Noble ticket desk in their store in downtown Walnut Creek and even in the Downtown Walnut Creek Library! If you wish to purchase over the internet, you can visit their online ticket link at CenterRep.org or call 943-SHOW (7469) for more information and reservations.

This music brings back a lot of memories for me as both of my parents were professional entertainers in Las Vegas, Nevada, back when it was not much more than a watering hole and stop over for the Union Railroad, with a few little casinos on Main Street, catering to and entertaining the travelers passing through.
My mother’s singing career began and ended with bands in nightclubs in Las Vegas before I was born, so I don’t remember actually seeing her perform with Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey (so I was told) on the Vegas strip. I have been told by friends of hers that she had a great local following before she retired (at age 24) to help my father in his struggling new insurance and real estate business in Las Vegas. I do vaguely remember my father performing and singing in the old Cinnabar Club and the old Eldorado Hotel dining room lounge on Main Street in Las Vegas in the late 40’s. My father, Rex Jarrett Sr., used his performing career as a springboard to launch his insurance business by selling auto and fire insurance to the barmaids, bartenders and patrons of the various clubs in which he worked. He played guitar and trombone with local bands and when he was in-between performance shifts (while waiting in the bar for other bands to finish up their gigs), he would often ask his friends, acquaintances and fellow performers if he could interest them in his insurance products.

When I went to work for my father’s insurance office in the early 60’s, while I was working my way through college, he showed me an original “auto insurance application”, one of his first, that he kept just as a reminder as to how simple his insurance business start was. It consisted of nothing more than a customer’s name, address, age, phone number and the description of her car, scribbled down on a casino cocktail napkin. If you did that today, submitted a cocktail napkin to an insurance company with the applicant’s information on it, the company not only would not accept it, they would probably cancel your agency agreement out of concern as to what kind of business you were trying to drum up! Prospecting bar patrons for insurance clientele??? My father’s insurance agency went on to become, at one time (in the 50’s and 60’s), the 2nd largest insurance brokerage firm in the City of Las Vegas, as his office wrote most of the hotel business insurance in existence at that time in Las Vegas. Yes, those were very interesting days - - for all of us!

San Jose Rep is your best bet this week, with their World Premier of Philip Kan Gotanda's "Love in American Times"!

2011-05-24T16:46:00.000-07:00

J. Michael Flynn confronts Gabriel Marin with deadly response!

Photo by Kevin Berne

This past week, I had the pleasure of catching the world premier of another Phillip Kan Gotanda play, “Love in American Times”, in the San Jose Repertory Theater in San Jose. Once again Gotanda explores another side of the Asian experience in America. Mr. Gotanda’s “Love in American Times” incorporates the concept of matchmaking into his play, a story about two high profile individuals who are introduced through that process.

Let me introduce Jack Heller (played by Michael J. Flynn), a wealthy, self-made, 70 year old Caucasian business owner and corporate executive, who, as the show opens, is in a cocktail lounge anticipating a prearranged meeting with a smart, highly accomplished and very attractive 35 year old woman of Asian heritage, Scarlett Mori-Yang (Linda Park). This meeting has been negotiated through the services of a professional matchmaker, Mrs. Green (Rosina Reynolds).

Instead of a first date evolving as one might expect it to, these two self-centered individuals immediately go on the attack and spar caustically with each other, delivering verbal barbs demonstrating their intellectual prowess and independence. The power positioning of these two articulate adults immediately generates sparks and electricity in the air. Heller and Mori-Yang spare no time maneuvering each other in the process of setting the ground rules of this “first date” encounter. Very quickly, the “I win, you lose” mantra turns into a near stalemate. It doesn’t take long before it is clear that neither party is more powerful than the other and they carefully reevaluate their quarry. They momentarily back off and think about whether their objectives are worth the chess-like game and maneuvering they are employing. In a moment of frustration, they almost abort the date, but change their minds and re-engage each other on a more civil basis.

Through this highly combative getting acquainted process, they discover that there probably is something of great value in their respective prospective date, something that they each ultimately want and need. We can immediately see that this is no ordinary game of dating gamesmanship or exploitation. The stakes are very high, financially and psychologically and far more important than just the immediate desire for the gratification of sex and or a desire for love and reproduction. The need by each party for some level of control and for earned respect is a very important ingredient in any merger formula they may put together.

The two individuals have the appearance of being fairly forthright individuals who reveal a great deal about themselves at the very onset, and for the most part, they express what they want and what they expect. At the same time, they are not completely honest (as we discover in the second act), nor would one really expect them to be, especially on the first date.

Heller readily admits to Scarlett that he wants her as a sex partner and a trophy wife but he wants more than what is typically expected of this type of arrangement (an older man and a younger wife). He also wants a woman who is more or less on the same intellectual level as himself, a power partner he can value and respect. Scarlett is a very accomplished head of a large not-for profit foundation, is an very accomplished negotiator, and is quite capable of dealing with very greedy, wealthy people. She wants to marry a man of substantial wealth for the leverage opportunities it will provide her in building her own personal wealth and personal esteem. The only drawback is that she wants children and a family now. Heller is a man in the process of divorcing his wife of many years, from whom he has been estranged for at least the past 10 years. He also has grown children including a son who serves on the board of his own company. He emphatically does not want any more children at this time and he will agree to marry Scarlett on his terms. More specifically, he wants her entirely to himself, when he wants her, for at least the first 5 years of their marriage. After that, if she wants children, he reluctantly agrees she may have them. He also says upfront that he has one major caveat, one absolute, that all Christmas holidays are exclusively reserved for his children, his soon to be ex-wife and for himself,. He tells Scarlett that she can spend Christmas anywhere she wants. She can have carte blanche to go and do whatever she wants at this time each year, as long as she does not interfere with Jack’s exclusive Christmas time with his family.

The tempo of the first act moves along at a steady pace until an angry patron of the cocktail lounge where the couple are meeting, Mr. Stein (Gabriel Marin), confronts Jack, threatening to fight with him, raising the specter of a catastrophic game-changer. A gun is pulled, two men face off and suddenly an element of dire adversity changes the entire momentum of the play. Knowing Gotanda as well is we do, Karen and I were now excited and alert as the mood had shifted and we were now looking forward to an even greater surprise in the second act.

The second act brings even more brilliantly orchestrated surprises as Jack Heller, his ex-wife, Abby (Rosnia Reyolds), Jack’s son, Edward (Craig Marker), his daughter Sophie (Arwin Anderson), his son’s wife (Zarah Mahler), find their private family Christmas party on their yacht thrown into an uproar.

Director Rick Lombardo has selected an outstanding cast and pulls together an excellent production. In addition, his team of collaborators, including Robin Roberts (Scenic Design), Cathleen Edwards (Costume Design), and David Lee Cuthbert (Lighting and Media Design), have created a very exciting visual experience.

“Love in American Times” is another building block in the exciting foundation of work that will someday prove Philip Kan Gotanda to be one of our most exciting contemporary American writers. This very powerful play continues Tuesday evenings at 7:30 p.m., Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., and with Sunday Matinees at 2 p.m., now through June 5th. Tickets may be purchased on line at http://www.sjrep.com/ or by calling (408) 367.7255. Tickets range in price between $29 and $74 each, with a $6 discount for all senior tickets. The San Jose Repertory Theatre is a beautiful facility, easy to reach and always rewarding. The San Jose Repertory Company Theatre is located at 101 Paseo de San Antonio, between 2nd and 3rd Streets, one block north of East San Carlos Street in San Jose. There is multi-storied public parking structure at the corner of East San Carlos Street, between 2nd and 3rd streets.

Jesus Christ Superstar rocks the Fetterly Playhouse in Vallejo!

2011-05-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

Jesus Christ Superstar and the end of the world come together this evening in the Fetterly Playhouse in Vallejo at 8 p.m.!

No, I am not talking about the fact, that in about 4 hours from the time I sat down to write this blog today, the world as we know it, is supposed to be the end, - - - at least according to Mr. Harold Camping, the evangelical head of Family Radio Broadcasting Network. While I personally am not too concerned about this review not circulating here on earth after 6 p.m., never the less, I thought that this delightful production was so unique and entertaining I felt compelled to get this story out of my brain and launched into the cyber-world of internet reporting. Granted, this show which closes tomorrow, Sunday the 22nd of May, will probably be over before you read this review, anyway! Never-the-less, it is a very good production that deserves recognition for their hard work.

For those of you who are not old enough to remember “Jesus Christ Superstar”, the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock opera which rocked Broadway in 1971, had very mixed reviews, was very controversial and even banned by many religious groups. This musical is a retelling of the story of last weeks of Jesus Christ’s life, highlighting the political and interpersonal struggles between he and his followers. More specifically, the story focuses on Jesus’ betrayal at the hands of one of his trusted apostles, Judas Iscariot.

The original Broadway musical theatrical production and this Vallejo production are indeed anachronistic retellings of the biblical tale. Anachronistic in the sense that while the “Superstar” story was staged in a biblical era stage setting, it was told in the modern vernacular, in “hip” modern language, as if it was in a in the midst’s of the 1970’s free love and peace era, utilizing modern verbal colloquialisms.

The Vallejo production is even more anachronistic as it introduces an element of Armageddon-ism, an apocalyptic stage and background setting, in a modern day world that had recently been torn asunder by a nuclear war and destruction, a world that is even further ruptured by a battle between those surviving members of society that represent the forces of good and evil, Christ, his followers and the followers of a latter-day Herod and Caesar. This production goes a step further than the Broadway show which ended with the crucifixion scene, as this production hints at the resurrection of Jesus in its closing scene.

While I have enjoyed the rock musical many times over the years, I found certain elements of this production worthy of special praise and creativity. It is always exciting to experience new twists on old material and Directory Jeff Lowe has piloted his theatrical craft over stormy seas and demanding squalls to bring this extremely complicated visual tableau to full fruition. Creating sets and backdrops on a budget is always a challenge, but when you introduce another theatrical element, motion picture imagery in the form of moving movie compilations in what amounts to moving and integrated backdrops, you are stepping into another world, another dimension, another universe. From falling atomic bombs, to nuclear explosions, to war torn cityscapes vibrating with a kaleidoscope-like color collages, to peaceful mist filled forest glens, Lowe and his hard working creative crew have immersed his audiences in a 4th dimensional audio-visual experience. The result is a combination of sound, light, music and voices, live action and moving, artistic backgrounds all inclusive that saturate the senses.

Granted many of the actors are purely amateur thespians, but there also were many very talented aspiring-to-become-professional level actors and in their joint effort, they all contributed equally to a most enjoyable evening’s experience. Director Lowe selected a very diverse cast that includes Nick Thompson as Judas, Kyle Stoner, as Jesus, Casey Ellis as the very beautiful and caring Mary Magdalene, and Jeff Lowe, the director playing the part of Pilate. I was very pleased by the excellent voices delivering the very difficult to sing, complicated work of Webber and Rice. There were many general ensemble members who also contributed a great deal to the show, including some that I sought out after the show, including the very talented Julianna Kohley. King Herod was played by Dan Monez, accompanied Calaphas, played by Obdulio Butler, Jr., and Annas by Courtney McAllister, Simon by Sydnee Ortiz and Peter by Kiernan Donleavy. This is a huge cast and a big production for a community theatre with far more hardworking personnel than I can adequately express my kudos to in this short review.

In addition to the cast, the technical support team’s roll was paramount in this shows overall success. The costume design endeavors of Stacey Lowe were significant as the costumes were numerous (80 costumes overall), all well conceived and executed. Stacey was assisted with costumes by Robin Speer, Barbara McFadden, and Ramona Sampayan. Prop acquisition was assisted by Angel Whitebird from her little “Innovations” shop in Cotati (from where this dedicated volunteer drives for every show to assist at whatever she is asked to do). Lighting design was put together by volunteers and staff members, Barbara Van Sickle, David Dierks and Jeff Lowe. Technical Direction and sound design was at the very capable hands of David Dierks. The Multi-Media Projection staff consisted of Sven Olson, Hannah Rokni and Angel Whitebird stayed on top of many very, very complicated cuts and cues. Hair and Makeup were equally important and carried out under the direction of Mikkel Simons and Meghan Pence and Rachel Quinonez. This show just proves that there are a lot of wonderful, dedicated people who undertake these very time consuming support activities out of their shear love of theater.

If you get a chance to take this show in, it is only a 30 to 40 minute drive from Walnut Creek to the theater’s location at space #10, at 3467 Sonoma Boulevard, located at the corner of Redwood Street, at the rear of and behind the shopping center at this location. This has to be one of the most challenging theater’s to find in the entire bay area, but I have to say that it is a surprising find, a real little theatrical jewel that is very comfortable, with a well lighted parking lot that provides free parking within very close proximity to the venue. Let me describe for you the best directions I can to find the theater in this shopping center complex. I suggest that you take highway 80 north through Vallejo, until you come to the Redwood Street off ramp, where you will exit and travel west until you cross Sonoma Boulevard. Continue west and you will see the very large shopping center on your right. Drive almost to the west end of the shopping center complex, past Seafood City, and when you pull into the shopping center, point your car at the end of the buildings, the south west corner of the parking lot and you will find a little almost hidden driveway that takes you around and behind the shopping center buildings, where you will find another little sign that directs you back east to the theater entrance. It is almost as if they expect you to be looking for the back doors to all of the shops in the shopping center. There is a pretty large sign in the walkway between the buildings that points to the theater entrance. Bay Area Stage Productions phone number is (707) 649-1053.

Tickets are a very reasonable $15 for students and seniors and $18 for general admission. If you go to the web site for the Bay Area Stage Productions organization at http://www.bayareastage.org/ you will find a link that allows you to purchase tickets over the internet, or you may purchase them at the door. "Jesus Christ Superstar" is a very inventive, clever, thought provoking production. This is proof that there are many, many great little community theaters well worthy of your entertainment dollar. Try it, you may very well like it!

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!

2011-05-16T16:54:00.000-07:00

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).

This week's two local productions are terrific shows, well directed and superbly acted!

2011-05-07T10:06:00.000-07:00

Two local theatrical productions provided great entertainment this weekend, with inspiring, thought provoking and moving subject matter, well worth the price of admission. The Diablo Actor’s Ensemble at 1345 Locust Street in Walnut Creek, next door to Peet’s Coffee, is currently presenting a very powerful story of discovery and growth, with Jeff Baron’s outstanding play, ”Visiting Mr. Green”!

This was Baron’s first play and it opened in New York in 1996 with Eli Wallach playing the part of Mr. Green, an 86 year old widower living in a dingy, unkempt little apartment on the lower east side of New York. The play found an exceedingly receptive audience with this hauntingly humorous and heartwarming story of two people thrown together by circumstances, (angry and resentful at first), who eventually learn to communicate and care about each other. The play has been translated into 22 languages and has been produced around the world in over 300 separate productions, winning numerous “best play” awards, everywhere.

The 29 year old Ross Gardiner (played by Dennis Markham) is an American Express Card executive who very nearly runs over the senior Mr. Green (John Hutchinson) with his car, causing him to fall, to hit his head and injure himself. Gardiner is cited for reckless driving and is judged negligent, and subsequently has been ordered by the court to perform community service for the next 6 months. More specifically, the court has ordered him to call on Mr. Green every week for that period, to help him take care of his needs. Neither man really wants to fulfill the court’s decision, but even after Mr. Green tells the court he doesn’t want or need this stranger coming into his life, the judge’s decision stands firm.

When Gardiner makes his first evening call on Mr. Green, he discovers a very lonely, withdrawn and resentful older gentleman, whose wife of 59 years, Yetta, had passed away a couple of months earlier. Mr. Green had depended on his wife for all chores normally associated with that of a devout and loving wife; the home cleaning, the grocery shopping, the food preparation, the laundry service and in fact, his entire social world. Green cannot understand how a wife who was 8 years younger, could die suddenly and leave him alone. He is totally unprepared for this new role so late in life.

At first, the two men’s meetings are barely communicative, restrained, and resentful, that is until Mr. Green discovers that, like himself, the younger Gardiner comes from a Jewish background. While Mr. Gardiner is not a devout Jew and cannot speak any Yiddish, their Jewishness does provide a basis for some opening dialogue. And a wonderful, colorful dialogue it is. Humorous, acrimonious, and stimulating, the clever insights and deep dark secrets born and nursed by both men, bring many levels of food for thought, many delicacies to this verbal banquet.

While there is a great deal more to this story that I would love to reveal, to do so would be a disservice to my readers who will want go to the theater and have this story revealed in its own time, in the proper manner. Believe me, it is a superb play with equally articulate and superb acting by the two man cast as these two gentlemen and with equally astute direction by Scott Fryer. This is a play that I have seen previously, many years ago, was eager to see again and I cannot recommend it enough. It is a brilliantly written little gem. Markham and Hutchinson are wonderful, pluperfect in their roles as they truly become Mr. Green and Mr. Gardiner.

“Visiting Mr. Green” will continue Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Sunday performances at 2 p.m., and one Saturday matinee this coming Saturday, May 7th, at 2 p.m., closing on May 21st . Tickets range in cost between $10 and $25 each, with seniors only paying $22 each. Tickets can be secured by visiting https://www.ovationtix.com/trs/pe/8213805 To purchase tickets by phone, please call 866-811-4111

The second show this week is a highly entertaining and superbly acted one-woman show, performed by Kerri Shawn and directed by Scott Denison, about a woman known very well by most Americans, as the unabashed columnist who wrote under the pen name of Ann Landers. Playwright David Rambo wrote a play with well documented excerpts from the second Ann Landers’ very public life, long running columns and her private letters. She was a woman who in real life, was a lady by the name of Ester “Eppie” Ledderer. The play is entitled, “The Lady with all the Answers”.

The first Chicago-Sun Times columnist of the “Ann Landers” advice column was penned by a nurse by the name of Ruth Crowley for 9 of the next 12 years. Crowley kept her real name under wraps for the entire time that she wrote the column, but when she died in 1955, a writing contest was held by the newspaper and Ester “Eppie” Pauline Friedman Lederer was given the column. Eppie was a very controversial, bold, direct and often critical adviser. She upset many people with her stand on legalizing prostitution, gay rights. pro-choice and even a controversial description of Pope John Paul II and Polish men, describing the Pope as a “kindly Polack” and going on to say that “Polacks are anti-women”! Boy did that bring a huge uproar from the Polish-American community!

Her advice was sometimes deemed inappropriate and incorrect and she was occasionally derided for her insight, insults and misinformation and failure to do proper research. She even advised people as late as 1996 not to throw rice at weddings in that if birds ate it, they might explode, which was totally incorrect. Milled rice is not harmful to birds. She was a funny, perceptive and very intelligent Jewish woman who spoke her mind and spoke it openly and often, continuing to write the column until her death in 2002, after 46 years.

She was considered a heroine by many soldiers when she visited Vietnam and personally conveyed messages for them from the front to their relatives back home by making over 2,500 personal phone calls to soldiers’ families when she returned home from her tour in Vietnam. She visited thousands of troops on front lines and in hospitals, with the backing of Lyndon Johnston. She was one of the first columnists to recommend that people connect with Alcoholics Anonymous for drinking problems.

This story is also about her sibling rivalry and estrangement from her twin sister “Popo”, who had gotten her start as a journalist by helping Eppie in organizing her material, who then broke away and started her very own column. Yes, it was her twin sister, Pauline Esther “Popo” Friedman Phillips, who wrote the competing advice column, well known as “Dear Abby”, between 1955-95.

Kerri Shawn is a very talented actress who (according to my wife, who has heard Eppie Lederer speak and read her column for many years) pretty well nailed her character. I personally have only been familiar with Ann Lander’s column as fed to me by my wife, after she read and reread the column to me occasionally. I have long admired Kerri Shawn as one of the better local actresses, consistent and accurate in her diverse portrayals. I don’t think I have ever found any of her work less than perfect.

The time is 1975 and this is a very entertaining and candid look at a famous lady who graciously invites us into her living room in her home in Chicago, while she is attempting to ferret out and write what will turn out to be the most difficult column of her entire career. I will have to let you wait to see the show to figure out what this is all about. As it turns out, this lady, certainly did not have all the answers after all!

In fact, if you are not a great Ann Landers fan, you might have a little difficulty with the first act, which seems so scattered as she tries to get to the main point of this evening’s quandary. She has a very strong and abrasive personality and until you get to know her, you might find it a little difficult to hang in there. But do hang around until the second act, where you will begin to understand the depth of the real person.

The set designed by Kelly Tighe is perhaps the best designed set ever to adorn that unique little space. The way it is laid out, it makes just about every seat in this little theater, a reasonably comfortable seat. I did end up with a slightly sore neck from having to loot to my right all evening, but it was not a major problem. Lighting by John Earls and Sound by Jeff Collister are equally excellent in design and effectiveness.

“The Lady with all the Answers” continues in the Knight Stage III Theater, downstairs in the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8:15 p.m., with Sunday performances at 2:15 p.m., through May 15th. You can order tickets by calling the box office at 943-SHOW (7469) or by visiting the box office at 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek, or by visiting the Barnes and Noble book store ticket outlet in Walnut Creek. Tickets are a flat $25 each.

2011-05-01T21:22:00.000-07:00

Ballymore Eustace residents gathering at the "Thatch Pub".

Cathal Hollad performing in Gogarty's Temple Bar in Dublin!

Another lovely couple sharing a table in the "Thatch Pub"

Claire and Paul O'Kelly at their
Hazel House B&B

The Celtic Tigre has all but died, but the land of Eire is still vibrant, thrilling, romantic and alive; greeting all who come to its emerald shores with hearty handshakes, brotherly love, a glass of Guinness, a song or two, a touch of humor and so much more!

For the past 25 years, every time I would experience some truly moving theater written by one of the many great Irish authors, I thought about taking a flight to Dublin to visit the birthplace of some of the finest theatrical works ever written. Finally, in large part due to my step-son William finding a fantastic airfare that was under $600 round trip for each of us, Karen and William and I found ourselves in Ireland enjoying one of the best holidays of our lives.

The weather, normally very wet this time of year, typically raining every other day, was only moderately damp. In fact, everyone kept asking us if we brought the unusual spring-like weather with us from California. Such was not the case as you may remember. Iat had been pouring in Walnut Creek for two weeks prior to our departure date on the 27th of March.

On our first day in Dublin, we visited the downtown area and were rudely awakened to the fact that parking on the street and in the public garages is very difficult to find and very expensive, typically 2 to 3 Euros an hour, which at the current rate of exchange equals about $2.80 to $4.20 an hour. If you want to make the rounds of the Guinness Brewery, or the infamous Kilmainham Gaol (Jail) or just the Temple Bar area, you could easily shell out $20 to $30 in parking meters in a short day. That was when we decided to make our escape from the city in search of the castles, abbeys, historic sites and quaint little towns that were also on our agenda.

With no set plans, just a very abundant wish list compiled in part with the gracious help of our friend Nancy, who had attended Trinity College a number of years ago, and our Irish friend Fred Williams, who lives in Tuam (pronounced Choom) near Galway, we found ourselves in a rented motorcar flying down the N7 towards Naas and the delightful rural community of Ballymore Eustace. Fred had told us that it is never difficult to find a hospitable and reasonable bed and breakfast in or around just about every town in Ireland, so “no worries”, just press the pedal to the metal and when the evening shadows start to fall, slow down and look for those welcoming Bed and Breakfast signs hanging repetitiously at driveway entrances all along the motorways.

We did just that and after pulling off the main motorway at the little rural town of Naas, we took the second exit on the second round-about and headed off south towards the farms and little villages south in the direction of the beautiful Wicklow Mountains and the Wicklow National Park. Having no idea of where we really were (the road signs indicating what road you are on are practically none existent until you arrive at a major road junction), we decided it was time to seek some help. As we drove down an ever narrowing one lane road, we saw a lady pruning her trees along her beautifully landscaped driveway, pulled up, introduced ourselves as strangers in a strange land and asked her where in general we were and did she know of any local B&B’s. This delightfully friendly lady told us where we were, which didn’t really register as our map was much to general, showing the entire island with very little local detail.

Then she informed us that there was a very nice B&B just about a quarter of a mile straight down the road we were already on, make a right when the road dead ends and look for the B&B sign, third house on the left. We did as instructed and within 15 minutes we popped out of the car at the driveway of the Hazel House B&B, introduced ourselves to Paul and Claire O’Kelly and were invited in. We loved them and their house so much, that we stayed there for four nights in a row as we crisscrossed the local countryside in search of the many treasures of Eastern Ireland and even returned to stay with them the last two nights before our departure back to Dublin to fly home.

This was our continuing experience all over Ireland for the two weeks we were there; delightful people, gracious B&B hosts in both towns and in the country. The real value of staying in the local B&B’s is the valuable insights the homeowners will share with you about how to get around safely and at a reasonable cost. Thanks to Paul and Claire, our second day had us headed back towards Dublin to see the sights we wanted to see our first day there, but now we were headed towards a mid-point local commuter train station at “Red Cow” on the outskirts of Dublin, where we parked our car in a large “Park and Ride” parking lot for three euros for a 24 hour day, boarded the train and were able to spend the entire day in Dublin for just 3 Euros each plus daily parking (ie: about $15 for all three of us). We took the electric train and found we could get on or off again at whatever exit we wished, covering the entire downtown area and coming back to our car at “Red Cow” late in the evening. Perhaps the greatest value of taking the daily commuter train was that it freed us from having to worry about returning to pay a meter. In Dublin, if you miss renewing your parking tickets and placing them inside your car, they “boot” your car and signage in Dublin indicates it will cost $80 Euros to get the boot off. At the end of the day it was just a quick little jaunt back to our B&B for the night.

That first evening in Dublin, we visited the world famous Abbey Theater to enjoy the world premier of a new play by award winning playwright and director, Paul Mercier, entitled, “The Passing”. Mercier is a highly recognized Irish playwright, having written 12 plays for his own theater company, The Passion Machine Theatre Company, written and directed four films and won numerous awards for his work keyed for both English and Irish language audiences.
“The Passing” was an exciting one act play that focused quickly on a family whose past communication problems are brought to a head, following death of their father, the head of their somewhat dysfunctional family. Daughter Catherine (Catherine Walsh) has returned to the family home after changing her mind about the family home being put up for sale.

She returns to the empty but not vacant house earlier in the day, bringing groceries, flowers, and a ton of memories. The security alarm is set off by accident, making her entry a significant neighborhood event, with a neighbor, Stephen (Andrew Connolly), coming to investigate the intrusion. Her brother, Liam (Peter Hanly), arrives later in the day, surprised and angry to find that Catherine now wishes to contest and stop the sale of the home, which she had agreed to in writing as purchasers began the sale and title transfer process a few days earlier. The day passes quickly as other family members come by to investigate this change of heart by a sister who had pretty much abandoned the family unit when she and her husband divorced, seeming to have no family ties or desire to connect with them. Now that the home is about to be sold, old wounds are opened. Old accusations, familial fractures, heart-aches and memories pour out in this memory play that takes place over one evening, a play that brings finality to a myriad of assorted painful shortcomings and some unfinished family business.

The casting has brought together a pluperfect cast including previously mentioned Catherine Walsh and Andrew Connolly, Peter Hanley as brother Liam, Roxanna Nie Liam as Catherine’s daughter, Rachel; Kathy Rose O’Brien as her sister Fiona; Ali White as her brother’s wife, Trudy, Nick Lee as her daughter’s friend, Aidan; and finally, her ex-husband, Andrew Bennett as Patrick.

Obviously, this play will have had its run by the time you make up your mind to take that long talked about trip to Ireland. This historic theatre, considered the National Theatre of Ireland, the theatre that has been home to works of the likes of William B. Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, Hugh Leonard, Tom Murphy and Brian Friel will always have provocative theatrical opportunities to engage you in the future. The Abbey Theatre itself has had a much checkered history demonstrating both great promise and at times, wallowed near death. In fact, the present facility which includes three theaters, the Peacock, the Gate and the Abbey is currently supported financially by the Irish Free State and has been promised entirely new facilities in the Docklands entertainment center that will consist in the future of three venues, a 700 seat theater, a 350 seat theater and a 150 seat theatre. Plans call for the construction on the new Abbey Theatre to break ground in the near future.

Ireland is really an island of entertainers and entertainment just about everywhere and anywhere you go. In Dublin, you can sign up for a literary pub crawl that crawls from pub to pub with professional actors performing the works of Joyce, Beckett, Oscar Wilde, Brendan Behan and many more. In addition there are musical pub crawls that wend their way from pub to pub engaging Irish musicians that provide a wonderful cross section of Irish music. While in Dublin, on our last visit the day before we flew home, we spent the afternoon walking the “Temple Bar” area and had lunch in the Oliver St. John Gogarty’s Temple Bar where we became enthralled by the music of a couple of guitarists Ed Valentine and Cathal (Charles) Holland, who sang as the “Temple Bards” performers. We supped and sipped and listened and sang along with them as they lightened up our afternoon with a mixture folk songs both old and new. We even purchased one of their CD’s entitled “Stone! Cold! Sober!” that is a wonderful selection of folk music emanating primarily from well known local musicians and balladeers (plus even a piece or two from London and the American southern states). The CD includes the marvelous fiddle accompaniment by Brendon Lynch, with vocal accompanyment by Cathal's daughter, Aine Holland, who were both absent from the live performance. In fact, as I am writing this article, I am listening to this wonderful CD, my foot is tapping while I’m typing, and I am wishing that I were once again back in Ireland!

Our travels took us from one marvelous adventure to another, day after day, without one single day of regrets. We visited Fred William’s daughter’s home in Ballyjamesduff, north of Dublin in County Cavan where they conduct their Irish Arms Historical Reproductions business. Lynne Williams and her partner, Boyd Rankin, make and supply the armament, costumes and horses for historical dramas, productions and movies such as Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart” and the new HBO mini-movie-series that premiered this past week, entitled “The Game of Thrones”. My son, William was offered the opportunity to actually hold the “claymore” sword (Scottish Gaelic claidheamh mòr), or two handed "great sword" that Mr. Gibson brandished throughout the Braveheart movie.

Even in the wonderful little country town of Ballymore Eustace, the heart and warmth of Ireland is worn on its sleeve. Our friends (Paul and Claire who are quickly becoming extended family), told us to drop in at the “Thatch” pub in their little town about10 pm on our last Sunday evening. They assured us that William and I were sure to enjoy the music and dancing and (for William’s benefit I’m sure) all the lovely ladies. Well, “The Thatch” consists of both a bar, where the younger people hang out and the separate pub lounge where the town’s seniors gather every Sunday evening to dance and to listen to Jack Mc Donald sing their favorite songs while accompanied by John Kelly on accordion. The O’Kelly’s were absolutely correct, we truly enjoyed the evening. The fun-loving seniors in the lounge invited, - - no - - - insisted that we join in. We found ourselves holding hands and dancing with them and all their friends, dancing the evening away to an old fashioned country dance similar to a very simple round dance. This turned out to be one of our best experiences of the whole trip - - an Irish Ho-down!

Every bend in the road provided new wonders to behold, from the Irish National Stud Farm, to the posh upscale Ashford Castle (which hosts presidents, royalty and movie dignitaries alike) in County Mayo, to the beautifully restored Bunratty Castle and Folk Village (and its wonderful story teller, Jack McBride), to the Ring of Kerry, to the Cliffs of Moher, to the Rock of Cashel, to the Mukrose House and Gardens, to the grand Torc Waterfall, and on to County Clare and the Poulnabrone Dolmen portal tomb on the rocky limestone Burren, plus the beautiful Corcomroe Abbey and of course, no visit to Ireland would be complete without a visit to Johnnie Fox’s incredible indescribable world famous pub and restaurant at Glencullen, in County Dublin, touted as the “Highest Pub in Ireland”. These are only a small sampling of the many, many wonderful sites we visited in Ireland. I am planning to write a ten part article about our adventures in Ireland and am looking for a blog site where I can post it for you.

Right now is a great time to visit Ireland. Sure the exchange rate is not the best at approximately 1.45. In other words, each Euro will cost you $1.45 American. However, that is due in large part to the weakness of the American dollar. The British pound is less of a value at a 1.65 exchange rate at this time. The Irish love American tourists and go out of their way to make your stay, a very pleasant stay!

This is a great time to take a magic carpet (or at least an airplane) to Ireland to see and save some real green (as in emerald isle). Further, Ireland is currently considered among the ten safest destinations for American travelers in the world right now. While there have been some instances of terrorist activity in Northern Ireland recently, none have been targeted against Americans. While my wife and I always fly by the seat of our pants when we travel and shop for bargains several months ahead of time, we usually travel very reasonably. It looks as if our 14 day excursion ended up costing us only about $1,600 each, including airfare, meals, car rental, gas and everything. Happy travelling my friends!

Willows Main Stage Theatre reborn in Concord Willows shopping center and Concord's Butterfield 8 bends gender in Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night"!

2011-03-17T00:02:00.000-07:00

Photo #1: Cesario (Jon Butterfield) pleads his master's love lorn case to Olivia (Billy Higgins) in Twelfth Night!
Photo by: Judy Potter

Photo #2: David Burnham woo's his audience at the Willows Theater's re-opening in Concord!
Photo by: Charlie Jarrett

The Butterfield 8 Theatre in Concord has just opened with a delightful production of Shakespeare’s wonderful comedy, "Twelfth Night" or "What You Will". What is very unique about this company is that they often tackle plays in ways that are not what you might normally expect. For example, this play is being produced with two entirely different casts, one, all male and the other, all female, a real gender bender if “You Will”.

When William Shakespeare’s company performed these productions, only men played all the characters. We often smile when we think what it might have been like to go to one of those all male productions, but now you can actually go and see either an all male cast or an all female cast, on separate nights.

Actually this concept is quite apropos because when Shakespeare wrote many of his comedies, the plots were often based on mistaken identities, where men and women assumed opposite gender roles and cross dressed in order to fool the other characters. I saw the all-male version on opening night. The play centers around a brother by the name of Sebastian (Josh Travierso) and his sister, Viola (John Butterfield). Viola quickly assumes the role of a male to protect herself as a stranger in a strange land. Sebastian and Viola were both well educated as children, as they were royalty in their home country. While on a journey together, their ship was lost as it encountered a terrific storm. The fraternal twins were washed overboard into the briny sea and were separated in the midst of the storm. Viola assumed her brother was lost at sea. She was subsequently rescued by another ship in the same area off the coast of Illyria, an area which is generally considered today to be modern day Albania or Croatia.

When the ship docked in Illyria, Viola disguised herself as a young man and assumed the name of Cesario. The ship’s captain guided the very bright young woman to a job as a page for a local Duke, Duke Orsino. He was quite impressed with the well educated and well versed “page” and pressed “him” into his service as an intermediary in his romantic pursuit of the very lovely Lady Olivia (Billy Higgins). Olivia is in mourning as her father and brother have both recently died and frankly is not even interested in courting anyone. But Viola, in the disguise of young Cesario, is quite persuasive as a romantic emissary and is quite believable as a very handsome young man. In fact, Cesario speaks so sweetly and romantically of love, that before long, Olivia finds herself falling in love with Cesario, believing her to be a man.

In the meantime, Viola’s brother, Sebastian had also been rescued from death at sea (unbeknownst to his sister) and with the help of Antonio (Charlie Guitron), his rescuer, soon finds himself approaching and entering the same city/state where his sister is masquerading as a page for Duke Orsino, the political ruler of this community.

Typical of Shakespeare’s comedies, there is at least one and often more than one sub-plot designed to provide a foil for more comic characters and comedy in general. In “Twelfth Night”, Olivia’s uncle, Sir Toby Belch (Matthew Gardner), has a serious drinking problem, and constantly is seeking out partying companions and drink related devilment to participate in. Olivia has a very pompous head steward by the name of Malvolio (Alan Cameron). Sir Toby decides to embarrass Malvolio and is joined by both Olivia’s lady-in-waiting, Maria (Jeremy Cole), and her father’s favorite “fool”, Feste (Edwin Peabody). They have all colluded in an effort to bring Malvolio down off his high horse. Included in this sub-plot we find another suitor to Lady Olivia, Sir Andrew Aguecheek (David Hardie), who is a drinking companion of Sir Toby Belch, who is also enlisted in the Malvolio embarrassment escapade as well. I won’t go into the details of this sub-plot, but it is outrageously funny.

Then, in a second sub-plot, Sir Anguecheek has become discouraged in his pursuit of Lady Olivia’s hand in marriage, when he finds out that she apparently likes the young page, Cesario. Sir Toby Belch, determined to keep his drinking buddy (Sir Anquecheek) around, tricks Sir Aguecheek into believing that if he simply challenges the young Cesario to a duel, Cesario will leave the scene in cowardice and provide an opportunity for Sir Aguecheek to once again go after the Lady.

There are at least 16 characters played by 15 different actors, more that I have space in this article to provide adequate kudos to for their excellent portrayals. While the entire cast is up to speed and deliver heartfelt performances, I need to specifically praise several outstanding portrayals, particularly that of Viola/Cesario, played and directed by John Butterfield himself. Billy Higgins is terrific as Lady Olivia, as is Jeremy Cole, who plays Olivia’s lady in waiting Maria. David Hardie and Matthew Gardner are wonderful as Sir Andrew Aguecheek and Sir Toby Belch. Edwin Peabody is a delight as he jests, reads poetry and sings for his lords and ladies. Knowing many of the actresses who will be playing the same roles in the all-female version, I hope I may be able to partake of their production as well. Unfortunately or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, my wife and I are preparing for trip to Ireland in the very near future and may have to forego a few shows, including the female version of this show.

These fun filled performances are very reasonably priced community theater productions at $12 for seniors and students and $18 for adults, for the most part delivered with casts consisting of both amateur and near professional level actors. These shows will continue on Thursdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with Sunday performances at 3 p.m., now through April 17th. The Butterfield 8 Theater Company uses the Cue Productions Live performance space at 1835 Colfax Street in Concord, only one and a half blocks East of Todos Santos square in downtown Concord. Tickets may be selected and purchased depending on which show you wish to see first, the all-male or all-female cast, by calling Brown Paper Tickets at (800) 838-3006 or by purchasing tickets at the door. You can also gather more information by going online to http://www.facebook.com/l/d6b0bN4DthfMsRNC45gGjogJg_Q/www.b8company.com or http://www.b8company.com/ for more information about the company and the show.

Youthful Broadway singing sensation, David Burnham, brought whoops, and whistles and wow’s from a delighted audience, over and over again, to the newly re-opened Willows Main-stage Theater in the Willows Shopping Center in Concord.

Back in January, I wrote in my column about the Concord Willows Main-stage Theater being reborn and the efforts of new Artistic Director Eric Inman and managing director, David Faustina to re-ignite public and local city leaders’ interests in reutilizing the wonderful theatrical facility in the Willows Shopping Center, which had laid dormant for well over a year. Unfortunately, when the economy went south several years ago, and the rent for the Willows Shopping Center theatrical space went north, the Willows Theatre Company had no choice but to close down the Willows Main Stage facility.

Eric Inman and David Faustina spoke to me a couple of months ago about the 36 year history of the Willows Theater Company including its operation in the Concord shopping center location, and more importantly, the broad diversity of theater the company had been able to produce in that larger and more versatile venue. They both professed a strong desire to re-engage the City of Concord and the City of Martinez and the Willows Shopping Center in the process of re-opening that facility. These two young men, who represent a change in management for the Willows Theatrical Company, have come to this conclusion at a time when both cities and business enterprises are dealing with very difficult financial problems. Their desire to re-establish the Willows Concord Main Stage company has met with some justifiable skepticism by a number of people interested in the theater company’s welfare. However, now after a year of re-organizing, this new Willows management team is pulling out all stops to re-ignite the interest of their very loyal theater fan base, many of whom were greatly disappointed when the company had to close the main-stage theater in the Willows Shopping Center.

The Willows Theatre Company marked its return to Concord with a gala re-opening event this past Saturday featuring that exciting young Broadway star, David Burnham, who performed in concert, accompanied by his stellar piano accompanist, Mark Vogel. Burnham has won Big Apple acclaim for his starring roles in the musicals Wicked, A Light in the Piazza, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. His concert included many of the best known songs from these shows, including “As Long as You’re Mine” from Wicked and “Love to Me” from Piazza. David Burnham originated the role of Prince Fiyero in the Los Angeles workshop production of Wicked, then stepped into play that part on Broadway. He was Fabrizio in the Tony Award-winning musical, A Light in the Piazza, in both the San Francisco and New York productions.

Burnham’s performance was nothing less than brilliant in every respect. This young man is in my eyes is one of the most promising new super-stars on the entertainment horizon in this country today. He has an incredible voice that is sweet, romantic and at the same time very powerful. He knows how to deliver a show that makes everyone in the audience feel as though he is singing and performing for them, connecting with them personally. After his standing-ovation performance, he immediately met with fans and audience members in the theater foyer where he personally autographed his CD’s for them. Several ladies from Rossmoor voiced their approval and endorsement of this outstanding talented performer, practically in unison. One Rossmoor lady told me that she even traveled to New York to see him perform there, expressing her feeling that this very talented young man is one of the best you will see anywhere today. They all said they hoped he would be brought back for another show soon! We need to recognize and thank local entrepreneur Stephen Shore of the Esses Productions Company providing the connections that brought this fine young talent to this theater for this performance.

Gala festivities began first with a cocktail reception hosted by Willows Managing Director David Faustina, Artistic Director Eric Inman, and the Benefactors of The Willows Theatre Company. The opening ceremony included and lauded many local leaders and dignitaries who have worked in close harmony to help bring the Willows re-opening dream to a reality. Those dignitaries included Concord Mayor Laura Hoffmeister, Martinez Mayor Rob Schroeder, Concord City Manager Dan Keen, Martinez City Manager Phil Vince, and Concord Downtown Program Manager Florence Weiss. Maurice Delmer, who represented Assembly member Susan Bonilla, presented the Willows Theater with a certificate of congratulations. Other significant participants included Virginia Thomas of the Todos Santos Business Association, Lt. Robin Heineman of the Concord Police Department and Lia Bristol, who represented District 7, State Senator Mark De Salnier.

The next production to open in this wonderful theater will be the exciting Caribbean musical, “Once On This Island”, which will open on March 21st and run through April 17th. This captivating story is a modern re-incarnation of a little mermaid-like story about a peasant girl, Ti Moune, and a rich boy, Daniel Breauhomme, whom she saves from Pappa Ge, the Demon of Death. They fall in love, but because of their differences in social class and family responsibilities and commitment, it is an ill-fated, hopeless love.

Tickets may be obtained or you can subscribe to the new season offering or simply order individual tickets by calling (925) 798-1300 or by visiting the company’s web site at http://www.willowstheatre.org/. The Concord Willows Theatre is located at 1975 Diamond Blvd., in the Willows Shopping Center in Concord and the Willows Cabaret Theatre is located at 636 Ward Street in Martinez.

" I Dream of Chang and Eng" opens at Zellerbach and "Let's Celebrate" was really great!

2011-03-07T10:51:00.000-08:00

Eng (Andy Chan) and Chang (Josemari Saenz) scrutinize employer P.T. Barnum (Mark Hinds), warily !!

Photo by: Ryan Montgomery

This past week I visited Zellerbach Playhouse on the University of California Berkeley Campus to take a look at renowned playwright Philip Kan Gotanda’s newest play, “I Dream of Chang and Eng”. I am pleased to report back on the production that I suggested you join me in examining this week. I found this new play about two of the most famous Siamese Twins in the world and their journey from freak show exhibitors to successful southern plantation owners to be an intriguing journey and a play that I will want to visit again.

In last week’s review, I mentioned that I had the opportunity to interview Mr. Gotanda by telephone in preparation for the unveiling of this new play. During that interview, he told me how exciting it is to work in a university setting with the full support of the theatrical department, where he has now entered what he calls phase two of his career, that of teaching, as well as writing. In this environment he has full support to write and to do new work, which would be very difficult now in regional theater with the financial constraints of the current economic environment.

This play is a perfect example of a brand new play that would be very difficult to pursue and develop due to the fact that the story encompasses the life story of these Siamese twins, Cheng and Eng, and the many significant individuals and experiences woven into the tapestry of their lives. The story as it is currently written includes 19 actors, 30 characters and 130 costume changes. A story of this magnitude, in addition to the fact that it is a brand new play, never performed before a live audience, would be a project far too risky financially for a community or regional theater to mount. In the college setting where eager minds want to learn how to develop stories into plays, where there are a lot of students seeking to enhance their acting skills, this is the perfect place to develop a story that requires a fairly large number of actors to tell a story of this magnitude. Mr. Peter Glazer, who is also a playwright, is directing this production, which is a collaboration with UC Berkeley and their theater, dance and performance studies department.

I introduced you to Mr. Gotanda because you have an opportunity to see the first blush of a new play, to experience a new work in the process of development. He has created to date at least 19 plays and 4 films. My wife, Karen, and I have been following his plays since we first saw “Yankee Dawg You Die”, in 1986, in a small Berkeley Repertory Addison Street Theater where they mounted new and experimental theatrical work. We saw his award winning movie, “The Wash”, and fell in love with his heartfelt writing that primarily focuses on the Japanese-American experience of those living in this country.

This new play is based on his fascination with the true story of two Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, chronicling their path from childhood in Thailand, to their introduction to the world as a traveling “freak” exhibit that eventually moved upscale and became part of the world famous P. T. Barnum traveling shows. These self-educated conjoined twins eventually bought out their contract, toured the world themselves, became very wealthy and successful businessmen, American citizens, and just prior to the civil war, settled down on a Southern plantation, becoming early pioneers in modern farming techniques. After marrying two southern sisters, they subsequently fathered 21children. More than just a story of two individuals traveling the same path, this story reveals the complexities of having to live your life conjoined to another human being, of never having a time in your life completely to yourself, never having private time with your wife, living much like a fish in a bowl.

According to Mr. Gotanda, his play is not an exact tale of what their lives were like, but a dream tale of how he perceived what their lives were like. There is not enough factual documented information as to what their daily lives were like, but enough is known about their various encounters along the path, to turn Gotanda’s dream into a reality. This is a very complicated story and while it is very intriguing and interesting, this first production is not without room for improvement. The first act was at times confusing, at least until you grasped the story development path, and it moved with less energy than it required. This story opened at first examining a very difficult period in Chang and Eng’s later lives and then, by way of flashback, takes you to their youth, then moves forward through significant milestones in their lives. Along the way it takes a look at their physical, psychological and sexual maturing and mating process as well. The story takes on a very personal look at the very difficult conflicts born of living through this physical abnormality, and finally it examines the epitome of brotherly love and dependency, a poignant story of the love and frustration of two men who learned that they were not freaks, but men who were “very special”, and yet, at the same time they were men who were very normal, with normal hopes, dreams and desires!

Director Peter Glazer has gathered together an excellent cast of current and former student actors. The lead roles of Eng Bunker and Chang Bunker are played by Andy Chan and Josemari Saenz. PT Barnum is played very well by Mark Hinds, David Moore is excellent as Learned Jack, and Gwen Kingston is superb as Lady Elizabeth Monroe. The wives of Chang and Eng, Addie Yates (Dasha Burns) and Sallie Yates (Chelsea Unzner) were very believable and charming. There are far too many actors to give each the kudos they deserve, but the acting performances are very strong and exciting. The choreography, under the direction of Erika Chong Such, was very clever and added significantly to the production. I enjoyed the play much more in the second act and overall I found this to be a play with great promise. Remember, this is a play in development and this was the first public performance.

Under the auspices of the Theater Dance and Performance Studies (TDPS) umbrella at the University of California at Berkeley, and some very generous private funding for this project, “I Dream of Chang and Eng”, has now opened in the Zellerbach Playhouse and continues through March 13th, with performances at 8 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Saturdays. Tickets are a very reasonable $15 for general admission and $10 for seniors and students. Call (510)642-8827 for ticket information or visit their website at tdpsboxoffice@berkeley.edu. Cal Performances are performed at 101 Zellerbach Hall #4800, University of California, Berkeley. If you go to the following link on the internet, http://maps.google.com/maps?q=zellerbach+playhouse&oe=utf-8&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=en&tab=wl you can find a link to a map that shows you exactly where the Zellerbach Playhouse is located on campus. The entrance to the Zellerbach Playhouse is on the north side of the building. I have found the entrance quite easily by entering the campus right at the intersection of Bancroft and Dana street, taking the paver path north between Haas Pavillion and the Zellerbach Playhouse until you come around to the front of the Zellerbach building at Speiker Plaza. The Playhouse entrance would then be on your left.
Karen and I found $5 parking, in a church parking lot, two blocks away and across the street from the Berkeley City Club at 2315 Durant Street and next door to the Berkeley Architectural Assn. office at 2318 Durant, which was not bad for a Friday night!

Disney on Ice's production, "Let's Celebrate", just made a quick but delightful stopover in San Jose and Oakland !

Finally, I hope you took my advice and took the grandchildren to one of the Disney on Ice productions of “Let’s Celebrate!” performing in the HP Pavilion in San Jose or the Oracle Arena when it made its Bay Area debut this past two weeks. I took two of my grandchildren, Rodrick and Mari to the show on Wednesday night in the Oracle Arena and I have to tell you that this was one of the best Disney on Ice shows I have seen to date.

The children were still talking about it yesterday morning when I stopped by their house. They both thanked me again and again for taking them. They got to see all their favorite Disney characters including Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald and Daisy Duck, Goofy, Lelo and Stitch, Toy Story’s Woody, Jesse, and Buzz Lightyear. In addition to many more Disney characters, all of the Disney prince and princesses were there, ranging from Aurora, Ariel, Belle, Cinderella, Jasmine , Mulan, Snow White, and even Tiana from the Princess and the Frog. The skating was quite excellent and the show was a lot of fun, albeit with a very shallow plot. The whole show was based upon Mickey Mouse being able to use Mickey’s “destinator machine” like a time machine laptop able to take him and Minnie to different places all around the world to join in the fun. Altogether, it was just a grand excuse to party, party, party!

This show is for everyone, adult and child alike. There was a delightful lady sitting next to us who had recently moved back to the Bay Area from England and she was having an absolute ball, snapping digital photos of the performers again and again. If you didn’t go this time, keep your eyes open for the next show to come through our area and go have fun. Disney does a great job and if you go on opening nights, the general admission tickets are only $15 for all seats except the ringside seats. Parking is a bit expensive at $25 a car, but that was the only disappointment!

Town Hall Theatre excells with their production of "The Glass Menagerie"

2011-03-06T15:16:00.000-08:00

This past week in Lafayette, the Town Hall Theatre opened a highly professional production of Tennessee Williams’ poignant and heartbreaking tale, in “The Glass Menagerie”. In addition, I interviewed one of America’s leading Asian-American authors, Phillip Kan Gotanda, this past week about a new play of his that is still in the developmental stage at the University of California, in Berkeley. This play, entitled “I Dream of Chang and Eng”, is literally a play that has been floating around in Gotanda’s dreams, both daytime and nighttime, in bits and pieces, for the past 20+ years. We’ve got a lot on our plate this week so I’d better get to it - - -.

Town Hall’s current production of “The Glass Menagerie” is an emotion packed production, due in large part to the outstanding acting talent, and the directing skill that Director Susannah Martin brings to the production. The words of Tennessee Williams are a powerful mixture of poetic imagery and prose, forged by years of personal hardship and sacrifice long before his first plays brought the spotlight of fame to his name.

The Glass Menagerie is considered a memory play, a quasi-autobiographical look back at Tennessee “Thomas” Williams’ own difficult past. Amanda Winfield (Heidi Abbott) is a middle aged mother of two children, reminiscent of Williams’ own mother. Tom (Aleph Ayin) her son, shadows Tennessee Williams’ own loneliness and desire for adventure, and Laura (El Beh), speaks to us from Williams’ own sister, Rose, whose insecurity led eventually to insanity. Our characters in this play live in a low rent apartment facing an alley in St. Louis, in 1937.

Amanda, divorced for 16 years after her husband suddenly abandoned the family and disappeared, struggles to make ends meet by selling and renewing subscriptions to serialized periodicals to her friends and church members, while her son, Tom, works as a stock clerk in an unfulfilling warehouse job. Tom, frustrated by his pressure filled family life, escapes as frequently as he can to the safety and solitude and vicarious adventures experienced in the local movie theater. Tom’s younger sister, Laura, is handicapped with a foot deformity and severe shyness and insecurity. Their mother, Amanda, is overprotective and loving and a highly critical parent. Amanda grew up in the lap of Southern luxury, on a plantation where she had friends in all the best of southern social circles. She had myriads of gentlemen callers pursuing her affections and unfortunately married a traveling telephone salesman, who, according to Amanda, “fell in love with long distance”. Amanda is possessed with finding a potential husband for her introverted and handicapped daughter, pushing her son Tom to bring home one of his fellow workers who might be a potential suitor for his sister. Tom is repulsed by the whole process of what he sees as the entrapment of a fellow worker. Even his sister, Laura, is frustrated by their mother’s constant admonitions and frequently reiterated concerns about Laura becoming an old maid.
While the story is a captivating and frustrating story in itself, the images of a world on the edge of war hangs darkly in the wings of this story, poking out unobtrusively from the eloquently expressed, articulate verbal background. Tennessee Williams is first and foremost a brilliant writer and his imagery and passion keep us in the historical moment. At the end of Part III, scene 5, Tom stands on the fire escape smoking a cigarette and in the role of a narrator, explains to the audience about the music drifting up to their apartment from the Paradise Dance Hall across the alley and explains that couples could be seen kissing in the alley below. He says:

“This was the compensation for lives that passed like mine, without any change of adventure. Adventure and change were imminent in this year. They were waiting around the corner for all these kids. Suspended in the mist over Berchtesgarden, caught in the folds of Chamberlain's umbrella. In Spain there was Guernica! But here there was only hot swing music and liquor, dance halls, bars, and movies, and sex that hung in the gloom like a chandelier and flooded the world with brief, deceptive rainbows. . . . All the world was waiting for bombardments!”

Finally, relenting to his mother’s unending pressure, Tom invites an old school chum, Jim, to be Laura’s first “gentleman caller”. Of course, Tom does not reveal that his invitation has anything to do with his sister, or even that he has a sister. He has simply invited Jim to his house to introduce him to his family and to have dinner. The mother flies into a fit of hysterical excitement, trying to turn their humble little walk-up apartment, a “Sow’s ear” if you will, into a “silk purse”, before the gentleman caller’s anticipated arrival. After all, she fantasizes that this one and only “gentleman caller” could be the answer to her concerns and prayers for her daughter!

"The Glass Menagerie"continues at 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, with Sunday performances at 2 p,m., now through March 19th. Tickets range in price between $29.50 for general admissions and Seniors pay only $22.50 for Sunday matinee performances. There is a separate service charge of $2.50 for single ticket purchases. The Town Hall Theatre is located at 3535 School Street, at the corner of Moraga Road and School Street in Lafayette. Contact the box office at 283-1557 or purchase your tickets online at www.TownHallTheatre.com .

Gotanda's new play, "I Dream of Chang and Eng", premiers at Zellerbach Playhouse on the University of California campus in Berkeley!

This past week I had the opportunity to speak with a playwright whose work I have admired for many years, Mr. Phillip Kan Gotanda. I introduce you to him because you have an opportunity to see the first blush of a new play, to experience a new work in the process of development and perhaps you will be intrigued enough to examine further some of the remarkable body of work he has created to date; at least 19 plays and 4 films.

Karen and I were at first intrigued by the title of a play, “Yankee Dawg You Die”, being produced in 1986, in the small Berkeley Repertory Addison Street Theater where they mounted new and experimental theatrical work. This story about two different generations of Japanese American actors and their experiences in the American film industry, one an older gentleman, Vincent Chang, who was only offered parts that reinforced old Japanese stereotypes and a younger actor, Bradley Yamashita, who will only take dignified and unstereotypical roles. More importantly, while they begin with a tenuous relationship, over a one year period of time as encompassed in the play, they grow to understand their similarities, respect their differences and above all, share their commonality as humans instilled with powerful ambitions and overshadowing insecurities. The story, while focused on Japanese Americans, is really, quite importantly more about the relationships that can be built between different generations and viewpoints. Intrigued by the passion, the poetic beauty of this amazing Asian-American author’s writing skills, we rented a movie, written in 1985 by Mr. Gotanda entitled simply, “The Wash”.

This movie told the story of a newly-separated Nisei (second generation Japanese in America) couple, Nobu and Masi, and their struggles to deal with the roles assigned by their culture and collective past. Masi eventually begins to date a widower by the name of Sadao, while Nobu finds great difficulty in moving on with his life, still imprisoned by memories of his time in the internment camps and the loss of his wife. Masi understands Nobu and attempts to ease his pain by continuing to return to his home to do his weekly wash. It is a beautiful, powerful story of love lost, but the caring that can continue, and often does.

I could go on to discuss the several plays written by Mr. Gotanda that we have seen over the past 20 plus years but instead I will tell you that we eagerly seek out anything of his authorship that we can, because we find his voice to be unique, eloquent and memorable.

I asked Mr. Gotanda about his life growing up in the Stockton area and how he found his way into becoming a playwright and screen writer. I learned that his path to writing came through his love of music, an opportunity to write a musical based on a Japanese fairy tale. It was produced, received reasonable response, he was asked to write another which he did, then began to write plays without music and found a demand for his talent. He says that he often gathered a story from one source and combined with another story from another source melding and merging until he found common messages that resonated with his audiences.

This new play is based on his fascination with the true story of two Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, their early lives featured in a Barnum and Bailey “freak” exhibit that toured the world. These conjoined twins eventually bought out their contract, toured the world themselves, became very successful businessmen, settled down on a Southern plantation, and married sisters and fathered 21children. According to Mr. Gotanda, his play is not an exact tale of what their lives were like, but a tale of how he perceived their lives were like. There is not enough factual documented information as to what their daily lives were like, but enough is known to turn his dream into a reality.

Under auspices of the Theater Dance and Performance Studies (TDPS) umbrella at the University of California at Berkeley, and some very generous private funding for this project, this "I Dream of Chang and Eng", is now being brought to fruition in the Zellerbach Playhouse beginning on March 4th, and continuing through the 13th, at 8 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Saturdays. Tickets are a very reasonable $15 for general admission and $10 for seniors and students. Call (510)642-8827 for ticket information or visit their website at tdpsboxoffice@berkeley.edu. Cal Performances are performed at 101 Zellerbach Hall #4800, University of California, Berkeley.

Flying high or falling flat, this week's reviews tell you where it's at!

2011-02-16T12:12:00.000-08:00

Man in the Chair (Michael Patrick Gaffney) in The Drowsy Chaperone!

Photography by Ben Krantz

Wow, a very big mixed bag this week! - - -

The Diablo Theatre Company is delivering a deluge of laughter and upbeat fun-filled music with their outstanding East Bay premiere of the Tony Award winning musical comedy, The Drowsy Chaperone, in the Hofmann Theater in the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts, in Walnut Creek. Then, down stairs, in the Knights Stage III Theatre, the Onstage Theatre is unfortunately presenting an underwhelming performance of Harry Segall’s romantic, comedic mystery drama, “Heaven Can Wait”. Unfortunate, in that the lead actors were ready and willing to bring their audience a terrific show, but far too many of their acting counterparts were either not ready or completely miscast for this production. More about this debacle later!

Next week, the “Disney on Ice” traveling show, skates their way back into the heart’s of their audiences in the Bay Area’s Oakland Oracle Arena and the San Jose HP Pavilion, beginning February the 23rd, and continuing through March 6th,. Feld Entertainment returns again with a new ice production that will bring an exceptionally exciting celebration of everything Disney, ON ICE!

Last, but not least, the world famous Venetian Room in the Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco, that hosted such greats as Tony Bennett, Nat “King” Cole, Joel Grey, and Marlene Dietrich between the 40’s and late 80’s, has been re-born once again as an entertainment venue that will bring back the best in premier entertainment to their upscale venue in the heart of the city, beginning with a February 20th, Sunday evening performance, with Anika Noni Rose.

The Drowsy Chaperone is a relatively new musical spoof of 1920’s “Jazz” musicals, a delightfully funny show that came to fruition in Toronto in 1998, moved to Broadway in May of 2006 and subsequently won the Tony Award for best book and best score. This outrageous spoof introduces us to an agoraphobic middle-aged Broadway Music fanatic, entitled, The Man in Chair (Michael Patrick Gaffney) who, as the show opens, is sitting in his living room (left front of the stage, next to a record shelf with a record player sitting on top of it) with his kitchen in the background. As the lights come up, the Man in the Chair quips about his frustrations with sitting in a darkened theater as he awaits the show to begin. Very quickly, you come to the conclusion that the reason he sits at home listening to his extensive Broadway Musical records collections, is because he is afraid of attending places with large gatherings, where he might have an uncontrollable panic attack.

In short order the Man in Chair tells us that he is in the mood for music from the flapper jazz era and that thought brings to his mind a musical that is one of his favorites (albeit a fictitious 1928 musical) called “The Drowsy Chaperone”. He pulls out one of the two long play records from this 1928 musical record jacket and begins to play it for us. As he settles back to enjoy the music, he now becomes the narrator, and begins to explain the plot to the audience, In doing so, he is so caught up in the musical that he is transported back in time. His dingy little kitchen suddenly becomes the launching platform for the show characters to emerge out of the woodwork, walls and appliances of his kitchen, allowing us to see them in full costume, just as he imagined them in the musical.

The cast of this show (the show within a show) includes a beautiful lead showgirl, Janet Van De Graff (Sharon Rietkerk), the showgirl’s angry producer, Feldzig (Michael Markovich), the handsome young man she has fallen in love with and is engaged to, Robert Martin (Daniel Epstein), Robert’s best man, George (Stephen Foreman), the Drowsy Chaperone (Leanne Borghesi) who is charged with the duty of keeping the two lovers apart and out of sight on the night before their pending nuptials. There are many more characters but two of them are the funniest and most improbable gangsters (disguised as pastry chefs, Gangster #1 (Ned Hansen) and Gangster #2 (Justin Isla)), you will ever be introduced to. The producer, Mr. Feldzig, is angry that his leading starlet, Miss Van De Graff, is willing to quit his show to marry a millionaire oil tycoon, Mr. Martin, leaving him without a lead performer. The producer, Feldzig (amazing the similarity to a guy by the name of Zigfeld, isn’t it?), hires a Latin lover, Adolpho (Dan LeGate), and pays him to meet and seduce the starlet in an effort to spoil the wedding, so that he can get his starlet back. Mr. Feldzig has a girlfriend who is a clueless blond bombshell by the name of Kitty (Samantha Bruce) who wants to take over Van De Graff’s role in the show, and while she is very sexy looking, she (her character) has little if any real talent and a nasal twanging voice that would probably break beer mugs at a rock concert! There are even more actors who should be praised, but unfortunately, I just do not have room to applaud everyone who deserves it in this show.

Watching from his armchair, the “Man in Chair” (Mr. Gaffney) is terribly divided between his passion to absorb every moment of the show as it unfolds and his obsession to interject into the musical his extensive truth-is-stranger-than-fiction knowledge base, all about musical productions and the actors who performed in them. He cleverly morphs the audience into and out of the fantasy before us. As the show goes on, more and more of the Man in Chair’s personal life is revealed through his musings about the show, until, as the record ends, he is once again left alone in his dingy apartment — but he still has his old long play record of his long-beloved show to turn to whenever he's lonely or unhappy. This character and the actor who portrays him is pluperfect in every respect, and without him, this show would be hard to imagine as successful.

This convoluted plot within a plot is a totally outrageous spoof on theatrical musicals, is played bigger than life and twice as ridiculous, marvelously ridiculous that is! It is a superb production, artfully crafted, expertly directed in every respect, led by Artistic Director Daren A.C. Carollo; Music Directors, G. Scott Lacey and Richard Vetterli; the exciting Choreography of Sheri Stockdale; Costume Designer, Carol Edlinger; Set Designer David Gallo; and especially Wig Designer, Judy Disbrow. We have had a lot of excellent theatrical choices recently to invite you to see, and this show is truly a wonderful experience, one you should not miss if at all possible!

What I have to do now, disagreeable as it is, is to tell you how terribly and totally disappointed I am with On Stage Theater’s current production of “Heaven Can Wait!”

When I learned that several of my favorite hardworking, talented and maturing young actors were going to be in this show, I looked forward with great anticipation mixed with a little trepidation about what I would find when this show opened this past weekend. Onstage Theatre, which is a community theater that works with many amateur actors, has been trying very hard to pull themselves together after their disastrous loss of the old Pleasant Hill Playhouse on Oak Road. The Playhouse was deemed an unsafe facility to conduct shows in, following a safety inspection a couple of years ago by the City of Pleasant Hill. Without their home theater in which to design, build, store and produce their little productions, it is very hard for a community theater to have to step up to a more professional operating level to conduct productions in a professional facility such as the Lesher Regional Center for the Arts. There are very tight management rules, union rules, city rules and time frames to have to work within and almost all rehearsals have to be conducted in other facilities, many times private homes. These little companies don’t get into the Lesher Center until a night or two before the company actually moves their sets, props and costumes into the “big theater” to open their shows. It is a very tough, demanding road, and without adequate funding and a lot of very talented volunteers to pull it all together, it many times falls flat on its face.

Unfortunately, when all the elements don’t come together, that is exactly what happens and apparently something happened to this production of “Heaven Can Wait!”, because in spite of some very hard working, excellent acting by the main actors, everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. My gut feeling is that this show was just too ambitious a project for this little company, and that On Stage Theatre just doesn’t have a strong enough base of trained “actors” or actors-in-training, to select from. Amateurs with little experience are ok in small roles, with few lines, and while some of these actors can memorize lines, some still have no idea how to act, robbing the character of the life and personality envisioned by the author.

This show is based on Harry Segall’s story of an up and coming boxer, Joe Pendleton, who appears to be headed towards death in a fatal aircraft accident, when an overzealous heavenly messenger pulls Joe’s spirit out of his body, prematurely! When the messenger arrives at the Pearly Gates with a strenuously objecting Joe Pendleton, and is told by his supervisors that Joe’s spirit was taken by mistake (and he still haves another 60 years of life to live on earth), a big problem rears its ugly head. When the messenger quickly tries to return Joe to his earthly body, he learns that another severe impediment has occurred. Joe’s body has already been cremated. Getting to this part of the story in this production was a disaster on the night I saw the show, as line after line to be delivered by the messenger and other supporting actors, was either muffed or forgotten, again and again. Joe Pendleton (Edwin Peabody) did a superb job, knew his lines well and even tried again and again to assist and coach his counterparts. There were awkward pauses long enough you could have driven a truck through them! This opening series of arduous, painfully time consuming errors threw the timing way off and set the “cringing” tone for the entire show.

The story takes a turn as a sub-plot develops, when Joe learns that the body he will most likely be given, that of a Mr. Farnsworth, is about to become a murder victim. You see, Mr. Farnsworth is a multi-millionaire, a corporate manipulator who makes and breaks people and businesses on a regular basis, if it serves his interests. Farnsworth’s wife (played by Shanti Rachel) and his private secretary, a Mr. Tony Abbott (Neil McChesney), are planning to murder Farnsworth, and they succeed in drowning him in the bathtub. With the assistance of Mr. Jordan, a chief heavenly messenger, the spirit of Joe Pendleton is quickly ushered into Farnsworth’s deceased body, before he is discovered. The murder planning lovers, Abbott and Mrs. Farnsworth, are of course shocked when “Farnsworth” suddenly appears, apparently in perfect health! The duplicitous pair will now have to bide their time, waiting for another opportunity to do him in.

There were several actors who contributed some excellent work, such as Bill Clemente as Max Levine, Joe’s former boxing trainer. When Bill Clemente came on the scene, it was as if a breath of fresh air hit the stage; he knew his lines, was completely in character, and for the most part, knew exactly how to deliver them. Joe finally convinces Max that he really is Max’s former pugilist protégé, Joe Pendleton, in another man’s body and convinces him that he, Joe, can still pursue a championship boxing career, even if he is the spirit in Farnsworth’s body.

Joe, now as Farnsworth, is a completely different and honorable kind of guy, but a guy who has none of the business skills or money manipulating knowledge of the former Mr. Farnsworth. Joe, now as Farnsworth, finds himself over his head in trying to straighten out the many ills created by the previous Farnsworth, including rescuing from financial ruin the daughter of one of his former partners, a Mr. Logan, whom Farnsworth railroaded into a jail term for felonies he never participated in. Joe takes a liking to Bette Logan (Jennifer Brown Peabody - - - yes, actor Eddy Peabody’s wife) and now wants to pursue her romantically. The head heavenly associate, Mr. Jordan, played by Mark Cornelius, was also excellent in every respect. Shanti Rachel, Neil Mc Chesney and Jennifer Brown Peabody are among those who also contributed significantly on the positive side of this production.

This is a wonderful play with great lines and with some very good actors who are trying valiantly to make it work. Then, there are some very amateur actors in a lot of roles, muddling along, and at the present time, this show is a total mess, a very mixed bag! Even the blocking is terrible, with actors walking where they shouldn’t, “around” people they are not supposed to be able to see because the actors they are dodging are from the spirit world!!! It’s hard to dodge a ghost! I applaud the company’s purpose in attempting to serve an entire community, providing anyone, lawyers, realtors, nurses and all other comers with the opportunity to get on stage, and to begin to learn to be actors. However, I believe their first duty as a theater is to deliver a meaningful theatrical experience, and to honor the author’s intent and vision. After all, isn’t that what your patrons pay you to see?

“Heaven Can Wait” needs lots of work but if you want to take your chances, it continues Fridays and Saturdays at 8:15 p.m., with one Thursday performance on February 24th at 8:25 p.m., and on Sunday February 27th and on March 6th when it closes. Tickets are $20 for general admission, $16 for seniors, and only $10 for youth up to age 17. The Knight Stage III Theater is on the ground floor of the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts at 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek. Call the Lesher Center for tickets at 943-SHOW (7469).

Now, other happenings around the Bay area, you might be interested in!

Direct from Lincoln Center, the sexy voice of Anika Noni Rose, will bring her highly acclaimed American Song Book series show, “Vintage Rose”, to the Venetian Room in the fabulous Fairmont Hotel for a one evening performance! This Tony Award winning actress and song stylist has almost become a household name following her success as Emmie Thibodeaux in Tony Kushner’s “Caroline, or Change”, her outstanding portrayal of Lorrell Robinson in the movie “Dreamgirls”, and her “Best Voice” award as the voice of Princess Tiana in Disney’s “The Princess and the Frog”.

This intimate evening with Anika Noni Rose will feature songs made famous by Blossom Dearie, Lena Horne and other legendary artists. This is a one night performance so call the City Box office now at (415) 392-4400 or go online to http://www.bayareacabaret.org/ for you tickets. Tickets are $45 each. The Venetian Room of the Fairmont Hotel is located at 950 Mason Street in San Francisco.

I love to take the grand-kids to the Disney on Ice productions and a new show, entitled “Let’s Celebrate” will be slip-sliding their way back into the heart’s of their audiences in the Bay Area’s Oakland Oracle Arena and the San Jose HP Pavilion, beginning February the 23rd, and continuing through March 6th,. With the voice of Anika Noni Rose still floating in my memory, what a great time to return to a Disney on Ice production to see their talented skating stars present a Mardi Gras celebration on Ice with Prindess Tiana and Prince Naveen. Alice and the Mad Hatter will celebrate a Very Merry Unbirthday Party, Lilo and Stitch will take us to a Hawaiian Luau and Jack Skellington will shiver our timbers with his Halloween celebration as well. “Let’s Celebrate” promises to stir up a wonderful evening with some of our favorite Disney characters so if you enjoy magic on ice, then an evening with Disney would be exciting and nice!

Tickets for the San Jose performances of “Let’s Celebrate” which run from Wednesday, February 23rd through Sunday, February 27th , or the Oakland Oracle Arena, which run from Wednesday, March 2nd, through Sunday, March 6th, are available by calling Ticketmaster at (800) 745-3000 or by visiting them online at http://www.ticketmaster.com/. To learn more about Disney on Ice, visit http://www.disneyonice.com/. Opening night tickets are always only $15 each (except VIP or premium seating). Other ticket prices range between $16 and $25 each, with VIP tickets at $45 and Front Row tickets at $75 each depending on seating location and day and time of performance. The HP Pavilion is located at 525 West Santa Clara Street in San Jose and the Oracle Arena is located at 7000 Coliseum Way in Oakland.

Strap yourself in as "Boeing-Boeing" takes off at Center Rep while a pluperfect "The Dresser" prevails in San Jose Rep's production!

2011-02-11T11:47:00.000-08:00

Robert (Alex Moggridge) and Gretchen (Jennifer Erdmann) connect while Gabriella (Jessica Lynn Carroll) waits for her lover! Photos by Kevin Berne

The Center Repertory Company is currently presenting “Boeing - Boeing”, a delightfully funny, totally insane and madcap 1960’s French comedy by Marc Camoletti, with a British adaptation by playwright, Beverly Cross, in the Margaret Lesher Theater in the Lesher Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek. At the same time, the San Jose Repertory Theater Company is presenting a moving and poignant case study of misplaced and overwrought loyalty in Ronald Harwood’s play entitled, “the Dresser”. The story is actually based in large part on Harwood’s experience as a “Dresser” to the Shakespearean actor, Sir Donald Wolfit, during the nightly turmoil of air raids and exploding bombs in the war years. These are both outstanding productions and I can hardly wait to tell you about them.

“Boeing-Boeing” is a comedy based on a man living in a bigamist or polygamist type of relationship with several women at the same time. The story is not new, just different in that the man in this play is portrayed a stereotypical American playboy, Bernard (Liam Vincent), who is living a superbly orchestrated erogenous adventure with three beautiful women in his Paris flat. He has proposed to each of them and is enjoying a very intimate relationship with each of these lovely women, a Texas American by the name of Gloria (Kelsey Venter), a dark haired, dark eyed Italian, Gabriella (Jessica Lynn Carroll), and a tall blond German, Gretchen (Jennifer Erdmann). He perpetuates this deception under the guise of soon becoming their husband. Bernard just never quite finds the time (as he is so over worked and stressed out from his busy schedule) to find time for the actual marriage to take place. Not only is he engaged to three very sexy women, but they, all three of them, are airline stewardesses. Each woman believes in her heart that Bernard is the perfectly devoted fiancé, a man who not only massages their egos and wines and dines them while they are together, but who remains completely loyal to her while she is off flying the friendly skies for her employer. Bernard believes that as long as he can carefully monitor each hostess’s flight schedules, knowing exactly how and when they will return to their French airfields and his flat, that he can keep his rewarding deception going and keep his bed warm at the same time.

Bernard also employs a full time housekeeper, Bertha (Lynda DiVito) who is paid to change and re-arrange certain personal things, such as decorations and photographs of each girlfriend prominently displayed in Bernard’s apartment, in accordance with each woman’s personal tastes. Bertha, like Bernard, lives by the flight schedules of each flight hostess, re-arranging the apartment’s artifacts as one woman leaves, in preparation for the next ones arrival.

All appears copasetic, his deceptions running like a well oiled machine, when his former college classmate, Robert (Alex Moggridge), unexpectedly shows up at Bernard’s apartment for a friendly school chum visit. Bernard invites a wide-eyed and disbelieving Robert into his confidence and shares with him, knowledge of his ongoing relationships with the three ladies. An astonished Robert plays along with the escapade while he is invited to stay on with Bernard in his apartment.
This show becomes a riot fest very quickly, almost in the first 15 minutes. The United Airlines hostess, a beautiful southern belle, Gloria (who is in making a mid-day stopover in Paris), is introduced to Robert, who has been raised as a very conservative gentleman and doesn’t understand why or how, one man can juggle three relationships all at one time.

Concurrent with Robert’s arrival, Bernard is advised that the ladies are soon to be upgraded in their jobs and allowed to serve on the more powerful Boeing super jumbo jets that their companies have recently purchased. These new aircraft are bigger, better and FASTER! Meaning, they are possibly going o be able to cover greater ground sooner, and return home with less time in transit. Again, Bernard does not seem to be particularly alarmed or concerned, so long as he can still correctly juggle their travel routes and times, as dictated by their company’s time tables. Just when Bernard is confident that absolutely nothing will go wrong, everything does begin to go wrong - - - go wrong - - - go wrong! Bad weather causes delays and stopovers in Paris, and the normal flying schedules become much more complicated and more tightly overlapping. Things may be going wrong for Bernard, but for his friend Robert and those of us who enjoy great comedy, everything is about to go right, or should I say, go great!

This tightly wrapped comedy is, outrageously funny, physically demanding and overtly sexual. Director Michael Butler has scored another high mark in regional theatrical direction with this master piece of just plain dumb fun! The acting is simply superlative in all characters, but I have to say that Alex Moggridge and Jennifer Erdmann, are unique in their characterizations, absolute gems. The 1960’s set designed by Erik Flatmo is pluperfect and contributes significantly to the overall production! The perfect period costumes by Victoria Livingston-Hall are equally pleasing.
This type of high energy slam bang boisterous comedy may not be the choice of everyone, but wife and I loved every minute of it, in fact, if I had the time, I would definitely go back and see it again. It is a mad-cap merry-go-round that revolves so rapidly, it is almost impossible to grasp the brass ring. It is reminiscent of many similar British comedies that we have seen over the years that have lots of doors opening, closing, slamming and banging, clothes coming on and going off, keeping you on the precarious edge of your seat, waiting for the next clever surprise.

Boeing-Boeing continues Wednesdays at 7:30 p.m., Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinees at 2:30 p.m. on Sundays in the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts at 1601 Civic Drive in Walnut Creek through Saturday, February 26th. One can purchase tickets by calling the box office at 943-SHOW (7469) or by visiting the in house box office or by visiting their website at http://www.centerrep.org/ or the Barnes and Noble book store ticket desk in their Walnut Creek store. Tickets range in price between $36 and $42 each.

In what has become one of our favorite theaters in the entire bay area, the San Jose Repertory Theater has once again delivered one of the most powerful productions we have seen in recent months with their production of Ronald Harwood’s engaging play, “The Dresser”.

Ronald Harwood moved from South Africa in 1951 to England, where he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He was an actor for seven years and he began to write plays for the stage in 1960. He as written numerous plays for the stage and the screen plays for his Academy Award winning movie, “The Dresser” and another Academy Award winning war time movie that was a favorite of mine, “The Pianist”, directed by Roman Polanski.

“The Dresser” examines the lives of two men, one a lead actor in his sunset years and the other, the man who has dedicated a major portion of his life in theater as the person who organizes and prepares the personal articles used by that actor in his performance, and in essence becoming the personal attendant before and after every production the actor performs in. The dresser has many duties that pertain to the actor’s preparation to appear on stage in each and every performance. He could and would assist in many duties, especially during the war years in England, when the theaters were working on a shoestring basis, barely able to compensate their professional actors. Those valet duties included assisting in the application of makeup, cleaning, ironing and preparing his costumes, attaching wigs, beards and other tonsorial duties.

This sad but poignant story introduces us to a Shakespearean Actor known simply as “Sir”, who has passed his prime and in the time frame of this play, during the bombing of London in the 40’s, is the lead actor in a small, decidedly poor theatrical company. “Sir” and his retinue of actors perform nightly hoping to keep live theater available to the distressed masses, willing to accept the trials and tribulations of their underfunded but greatly appreciated craft alive.

“Sir” (performed by Ken Ruta) is superb in his portrayal of this once great actor, who now performs as the shadow of his former self. “Sir” is occasionally spot on in his characterizations, but as is dictated by his increasing age and overshadowing dementia, increasingly becoming more befuddled, often frustrated and less than perfect in his performances

.
His dedicated and adoring personal dresser, Norman (James Carpenter), clings to his belief that each lapse in memory or values judgment is temporary and will be short-lived, with him remaining steadfast and loyal, refusing to see any end in sight for his duties to his employer as a “dresser”. “Sir” is on the verge of total mental and physical collapse, greatly in need of retirement from the theater all together. In fact, as the play opened, Norman has just returned to the dressing room in their little theater following “Sir’s” admission to the general hospital following an “incident” in which the actor had been found wandering in the streets, totally bewildered.

“Sir’s” leading lady is also his significant other, although not married. “Her Ladyship” (Rachel Harker) understands “Sir’s” increasing bewilderment and declining health and tries her best to cajole him into taking the money they have saved and to retire from this work. She pleads with him to retire, hoping to extend his years with her, years she is deeply concerned will be lost for every if he does not yield to her protestations and urgings.

Norman seems to have no other interests in life than his dedication to this aging actor and lives his life vicariously through his charge. His entire existence seems to be centered on this relationship and his work as the “dresser” to this employer. Norman continues to extol and exaggerate each nightly performance of his master, telling him fabricated stories of how much “Sir” has moved individual audience members to tears by “Sir’s” performance. They, the dresser and the actor, are each highly dependent on the other, far more than they realize.

Other actors include Madge (Lynne Soffer) the company’s stage manager, who questions seriously “Sir’s” ability to go on stage for his upcoming 277th performance of King Lear. Irene (Blythe Foster) is a young and very attractive aspiring actress who hopes to use her sexuality to persuade “Sir” to give her a more significant part in future productions. Other actors, who play the roles of other cast members in their Lear performance, include Blake Ellis, Julian Lopez-Morillas, Drew Benjamine Jones, Jason Kapoor, Shane Rhoades and Adam Sessa.

In 1983, the movie “The Dresser” received five nominations for the screenwriting and individual performances of Michael Finney as the aging Shakespearean actor and Tom Courtenay as the dresser. This production should also win awards as a spellbinding production, perfectly executed with superb acting all around, a great set and outstanding costumes. Director Rick Lombado has pulled together a superb cast and excellent support artisans, especially scenic designer, Kent Dorsey and costumer Cathleen Edwards. The dressing room set, with all of its World War II posters, gas masks and other paraphernalia is incredible. Perhaps brilliant is a word I use too much, but I cannot think of anything else that comes close to this production.

“The Dresser” continues with performances on Tuesdays at 7:30, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinees on Saturdays at 3p.m. and at 2 p.m. on Sundays, now through February 20th. Tickets range in price between $35 and $74 with a $6 discount for all senior tickets. Call (408) 367-7255 to reserve tickets or visit their online website at http://www.sjrep.com/. The San Jose Repertory Theatre is a beautiful facility, easy to reach and always rewarding. The San Jose Repertory Company Theatre is located at 101 Paseo de San Antonio, between 2nd and 3rd Streets, one block north of East San Carlos Street in San Jose. There is multi-storied public parking structure at the corner of East San Carlos Street, between 2nd and 3rd streets.

The Lion in Winter is a bit wobbly in San Ramon and Clybourne Park is an absolute brilliant production in San Francisco!

2011-02-06T20:07:00.000-08:00

The Role Players Theatre in Danville is currently producing “The Lion in Winter” and the ACT Theatre in San Francisco just opened this past week with a stellar production of “Clybourne Park”. Both plays are very powerful, emotional plays with thought provoking stories and roles that actors ardently seek to add to their resumes. I will begin with the local play (“The Lion in Winter”) first as is my general tradition.

This is the story of an aging King Henry II (played by Mark Jordan) and his dysfunctional family who have gathered together at Christmas in the year 1183, purportedly so that Henry can declare the successor to his throne. His wife of 15 years, Eleanor of Aquitaine (played by Sylvia Burboeck), has been imprisoned for the past 10 years for her insubordination to her husband and to keep her out of the way as he played his games of infidelity. Eleanor (at age 61), is older than the King (at 50 years of age), and is a brilliant player of politics and chess, clever, conniving and a survivor. She is joined by her three duplicitous and dueling sons in the Kings Castle.

The oldest son is Richard (also known as Richard the Lionhearted, the crusader), is played by Cin Seperi. He is the most mature son (at age 26), who is a clever, fierce, seasoned warrior and potentially, a dangerous enemy. Richard comes across as a brutal and powerful son, but he also keeps carefully hidden a restrained tenderness and even a secret weakness for his same sex.

Geoffrey, played by Chris Dewey, is the middle son, who at age 25 is a manipulative, treacherous and deceitful young man, an orchestrator who plays his younger brother, John, as if he were an instrument in his hands. Geoffrey is perfectly willing to sell his parents down the river of “No Return”, in exchange for the opportunity to rule his father’s kingdom. John is the weak and vacillating, immature and impossibly spoiled youngest son, who, at 17 years of age, is his father’s favorite son but certainly appears to be the worst possible choice for the head of England. All three sons are hoping to be named as his successor, but what would be the price they would have to pay? In reality, the only two sons he could turn the kingdom over to would be Geoffrey or Richard, but he really dislikes them as they resist his authority.

In addition, at this Christmas gathering, the King is joined by his 23 year old mistress, Princess Alais ( played by Deyki Ronge), whom he longs to marry, if he can only get the Pope to annul his marriage to Eleanor. Henry II feels he is still young enough to father new sons with Princess Alais (the sister to Phillip, the current King of France), sons who might be better progenies to assume the stature of the English Crown in the future, and perhaps more willing than his current sons to bend to his will. Alais’s younger brother, Phillip II, King of France (played by Percival Arcibal), is also in attendance at the gathering, seeking reparations from King Henry for his failed land transfer promises. His sister, Alais, was originally betrothed to the eldest son, Richard, when she was only 8 years old, and has lived in the court for many years, during which time, King Henry, has taken her as one of his many mistresses.

The role of Eleanor is perhaps the most vibrant character in the play. She gets the best lines and in this production, actress Sylvia Burboeck is in complete command of her character. She, like Katherine Hepburn, who starred with Peter O’Toole in the famous 1968 movie version, steals the show! Mark Jordan’s portrayal of Richard II was very shaky and wooden in the first act. These two finally connected in the second act and for the most part the show greatly improved as their power plays unfolded and they played off each other.

I was bothered by what I perceived as Mark’s inability to move with the kingly bearing and command of what I perceived a man of his power and station should demonstrate. He seemed to have difficulty moving up and down the many steps required on the simple but rapidly evolving set. It was not until after the show that I met with him and found out that he has had major surgery to one of his legs and it was nearly impossible for him to easily traverse the challenging physical attributes of the set design, an element that should have been taken in consideration in the set design for an actor with his impediment.

While the other actors were quite acceptable in their performances, there was another element that cast a somewhat negative feeling to this story about these kings, queens and princes; the costumes. Some were ill fitting and just plain did not enhance their actor’s character. Such little things as the light colored boots worn by King Richard II were extremely distracting. Anytime somebody’s shoes are so distinctive that you cannot take your eyes off them for the entire performance, something is drastically wrong, as shoes should not garner more attention than the actor’s performance. Such little distractions can take one’s mind off the message of the play.

The evening started off on the wrong foot, just in the ticket distribution process! When people arrive to pick up or to purchase tickets for the show and there is a major problem in their accessing them, the adverse experience is bound to carry over into their experience of the theater.

There was only one person selling tickets and no one set up to distribute the “will call” tickets, tickets that were already paid for. My wife and I stood in line for fifteen to twenty minutes until we complained to some of the company’s volunteers about the delay in this process. Shortly thereafter, one of these volunteers went in the ticket office and retrieved “will-call” tickets for many of us who were waiting in the same line with people who were there to purchase their tickets. There were plenty of people behind us, clear out trough the entrance doors who were getting very upset about the ridiculous delay. I got the feeling in my questioning of the volunteers that the ticket distribution process is strictly under the control of the City. If the City wants this theater to be successful, they must take a hard look at their role in this ticketing process.

I have seen this play, “The Lion in Winter”, produced by a number of theater companies over the past 20+ years and have memories of several that were better. To me the greatest joy in this play is the brilliant writing and the clever maneuvering these people will go through to accomplish their ends. For the most part, the acting in this production is very good and opening night is not always the best night to judge a community theatre production. Director Eric Fraisher Hayes selected some very talented actors, but the chemistry and individual performances on opening night just did not deliver the full measure of this well written work.

“The Lion in Winter” plays Fridays and Saturdays at 8 pm, Sundays at 2 pm, now through February 12th in the Village Theater at 233 Front Street in Danville. Call (925) 820-1278 for tickets or reservations of visit their website at http://www.danvilletheatre.com/ for more information. Tickets range in price between $15 and $25 each.

“Clybourne Park” reexamines the consequences of racial migrations and their affects on home ownership and real estate values as first examined in Lorraine Hansberry's 1959 play, "Raisen in the Sun".

A real gem of historical significance is currently playing at A.C. T. in San Francisco, in their production of Bruce Norris’s play, “Clybourne Park”. It is a play that addresses the emotions and financial consequences of racial integration from urban neighborhoods to suburban neighborhoods, in retrospect and in current times.

The housing community, “Clybourne Park”, does not really exist in Chicago, where it is portrayed, but it is representative of this suburban racial exclusion scenario that played out again and again, all over our country, through-out the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. The first act takes place in a home on Clybourne Avenue in 1959, which opens with Russ and Bev in the midst of packing up their belonging as they prepare to move to a new home, closer to Russ’s office. Beverly (played by René Augesen) has a black housekeeper, Francine (Omozé Idehenre), who has assisted her for years in keeping up their home and she is present, as well, assisting Bev in her packing of dishes and bric-a-brac. Russ (played by Anthony Fusco) is listening to his tube radio, taking a break and indulging in some ice cream while the packing goes on around him. A local minister, Jim (played by Manoel Felciano), stops by the house and attempts to engage Russ in a conversation about his decision to move and to sell their home to a black family, followed by local realtor and Rotary member, Karl (Richard Thieriot) and his deaf wife, Betsy (Emily Kitchens). It is obvious that there is some seriously negative history between Russ and these men as the tries politely at first, and then not so politely, to usher them out of his home. He is angry that they are butting into his business and tells them that the deal is done, get out and leave them alone. Bev tries to placate them by telling them that this new family, even if they are “colored”, may be a great family and an asset to the community, but they will hear none of this. The fear of impending financial disaster is pervasive to the outsiders.

Francine is trying to get out of the home to attend a prior commitment, but Bev continues to engage her in conversation and in the packing process. Francine’s black husband, Albert (Gregory Wallace), stops by to pick her up for their appointment and before long he too, is drawn into the fray, and what a fray it becomes! The characterization of the 1950’s inhabitants is written much as if this were a television script from same time period, like the characters from “Father Knows Best” or “Leave It to Beaver”, somewhat cartoonish but delightfully humorous as well as poignant.

The second act takes place 40 years later in the same home’s interior, a home which was once a gorgeous craftsman style interior, with lots of oak detailing, that now appears as a vandalized, vacant and broadly deteriorated setting. The same actors now gather as new characters with a white family, Lindsey (Emily Kitchens) and Steve (Richard Thieriot) who have bought the home and are attempting to refurbish and remodel that home in a neighborhood that has been predominantly Black for the past 30 to 40 years. They, with their realtor, Kathy (René Augesen) are engaged with members of a local homeowner’s association Kevin (Gregory Wallace) and Lena (Omozé Idehenre), their lawyer Tom (Manoel Felciano), with whom they are discussing the plans for remodeling the old house. Due to current association design rules they must seek approval from the association members and their local building council. As they are discussing the legalities of their proposed changes with the lawyer and the association members, construction worker Dan (Anthony Fusco) appears periodically, asking for guidance and direction from the home owners on the project he is working on.

Now the reverse situation is apparent, a community that has made the transition in ethnicity now screens its current interlopers and the fears and frustrations once again manifest themselves through this process of gentrification.
I personally found this a brilliant piece of significant writing, a relevant look at the way we deal with and have dealt with racial change in our communities. It is a new and clever spin on the events in the celebrated 1959 Lorraine Hansberry play, “Raisin in the Sun”. I loved the outstanding acting by everyone in the cast. These are all seasoned professionals. I also loved the superb direction by Jonathan Moscone (the longtime artistic director of California Shakespeare Company). The set design by Ralph Funicello, the costumes by Katherine Roth, the lighting by Alexander Nichols and the sound design by Jeff Mockus were absolutely perfect.

“Clybourne Park” continues Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinees on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m., now though February 20th. Tickets ($22 to $88) may be secured by calling the A.C. T. box office at (415) 749-2228 or visiting the website at http://www.act-sf.org/ . The beautiful theater is located at 415 Geary Street in San Francisco. I strongly recommend this as a superb production in every respect!

The Diablo Actors Ensemble current production of Driving Miss Daisy is a theatrical masterpiece!

2011-01-31T14:20:00.000-08:00

This week I have reviewed a brilliantly written story which chronicles the painfully slow passing of time and gradual reductions in racial prejudices as it may well have occurred in our southern states, as revealed in Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, “Driving Miss Daisy”, in the Diablo Actors Ensemble Theater in Walnut Creek.

Many of my readers were avid followers of Lois Grandi’s little 49 seat theatre, Playhouse West, on Locust Street in downtown Walnut Creek for several reasons, the intimate nature of a 49 seat theatre and the exceedingly professional level of theatrical productions delivered in this venue. When Lois Grandi decided to retire from this very arduous exercise, that of managing her own theater, Scott Fryer and his daughter, Samantha, took over this space a little over a year ago, with great hope of making this little theatre work for them and you as well. In case you have not been following their progress, they are slowly and carefully building momentum, and their own following. This venue is now operated by the Diablo Actors Ensemble Theatre, with Scott Fryer, Samantha Fryer and company fulfilling their end of the bargain by providing truly excellent, professional level theatre at a very reasonable cost. Now it is up to you to check them out, to attend this theater and if you do, I am sure you will be climbing right up on their momentum-gathering fan-wagon!

Of all the professional actors in the Bay Area that my wife and I have grown great admiration for, there is one, Mr. L. Peter Callender, that we have eager followed for close to 20 years. Mr. Callender is a brilliant thespian who must have been employed by just about every major professional theater within the Bay Area’s theatrical sphere of influence. Peter is a proud member of Actors Equity Association and is the Artistic Director of the African-American Shakespeare Company, an associate artist at California Shakespeare Theatre and his credits include Shakespeare Santa Cruz, TheaterWorks, Aurora Theater, Marin Theatre Company, Berkeley Repertory Company, A.C. T., San Jose Rep, TheaterFirst and the Lorraine Hansberry Theater, just to name a FEW!

When an actor of Mr. Callender’s credentials agree to step into a little 49 seat theatre such as Diablo Actor’s Ensemble, there has to be a strong motivating factor. Now, I cannot know what motivates Mr. Callender, but I can tell you that this is the second time he has agreed to tread the theatrical boards of this little company’s stage in the past year. Last year he starred in the outstanding production of “Educating Rita” that I raved about. That in its self, must say something about the quality of theatrical experience he expects to be associated with. An actor of this caliber just does not agree to put his reputation on the line, in anything less than the best, and Mr. Calleder never does become a part of anything that is less than the very best.

Joining him on this stage, in the Diablo Actor’s Ensemble’s production of “Driving Miss Daisy”, are two more actors for which I have great respect and admiration, Ann Kendrick and Timothy Beagley. Again Ann and Timothy bring to this marvelous award winning play, all that talent that makes a great work, a greater work of art and wisdom. Superb Acting all around!

I often talk about actors first, even before I begin to discuss the merits of a play, as it is the strength and merit of the actors, upon whose grist and gumption, bravery, brawn and mental metal, the theatrical alchemists forge and temper the wit and will of the author’s work.

That next most important element is the director, the overseer, the master of vision, who brings all the elements together, who directs with wisdom and perception, hopefully culminating in a performance that brings us to our feet or elicits our applause, in appreciation as the final curtain brings the production to a close. It is the combination of actors and directors who weave together the fabric of each play and player into a garment that we can wrap around us, a garment of experience that brings us warmth, wisdom, humor, joy and knowledge. Director Scott Fryer has delivered a beautiful and moving work of art in this production.

In this production of Alfred Uhry’s Pulitzer Prize winning play, we have all the elements necessary to produce a masterpiece, and that is exactly what we get, a masterpiece!

Uhry’s story begins in 1948, in Atlanta, Georgia, in the household of a Jewish widow, Daisy Werthan (Ann Kendrick), who has a propensity for driving her family automobile into other objects. Her son, Boolie Worthan (Timothy Beagley), has informed his mother that he can no longer find an insurance company that is willing to risk insuring her and her mishaps. Boolie suggests that he hire a driver to provide his mother with means of comfortable and safe transportation. Mrs. Worhan, a woman always conscious of her Jewish heritage (which had its roots in dire poverty there in Atlanta, but on the wrong side of the tracks), rebels against the concept of hiring a driver. She does not want her neighbors or synagogue members to see her as a person too elderly to drive or as a person ostentatious enough to desire a hired driver.

In spite of his mother’s objections, Boolie hires a black driver, Hoke Colburn, who has excellent credentials as a driver. After his hire, Daisy, refuses to allow Hoke to drive her anywhere, not for a whole week, as she continues to walk where she has to go to takes the trolley to the Piggly Wiggly Market, leaving Hoke and her new Hudson at home. Finally, after a whole week she relents and allows Hoke to drive her to the store and thus begins a twenty five year relationship that grows from adversarial, to deep friendship and lasting respect.

These times in the south signified huge changes in racial equality and prejudice and these changes are mirrored in the events that take place in their times. While on a driving trip to Alabama, when Hoke discloses that he cannot use the public men’s room at a gas station, and has to go into the woods to relieve himself, Miss Daisy begins to realize for the first time how seriously Hoke’s race affects his ability to live in the white society around him.

After a number of years pass, Miss Daisy wants to attend a dinner at which the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. will be the featured speaker. She wants her son to attend as well, but her son, who is a very successful businessman in the Atlanta business community, tells his mother that while he personally respects what the Reverend King is doing, he cannot attend and appear to be in support of Reverend King’s freedom movement. He tells her that the reality of the situation is that such a move would silently cost him dearly in the long run, in his relationships with his other not so enlightened Atlanta business associates.

The play reflects the ugliness of the times and the beauty of the people who helped to bring about the changes in their communities and society in general. It is a marvelous play, at time a very humorous play, a play with a terrific message, delivered by some outstanding messengers. I strongly recommend that you make time to see this outstanding work.
Driving Miss Daisy continues Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays now through February 13th, with performances at 8 p.m., except on Sundays were the matinees at 2 p.m. in the Diablo Actor’s Ensemble Theatre, which is located at 1345 Locust Street in Walnut Creek, next door to Peet’s Coffee. Call (866) 811-4111 for tickets and reservations or order on line at www.diabloactors.com/ . Tickets range between $10 and $30. There is a public parking garage across the street that stays open until 3 a.m. on the weekends.

January & February provide plenty of plays, dance and musical offerings and here are three you should not miss!

2011-01-16T17:52:00.000-08:00

January & February always provides a plethora of plays, dance and musical entertainment offerings. This week’s article is designed to help you focus in on some short run offerings (generally less than two weeks in duration or coming up too soon for me to review and report on before they open) that you might find very special and highly entertaining over the next couple of months. These are shows that will not be running long enough for me to review the actual production and get that review in our paper in time for you to make your entertainment decisions. I will highlight plays, comedy offerings, symphony, and ballet in a variety of venues around the Bay Area.

First, a couple of actors who are long time friends of mine, Fred Williams and Jean Wilcox will be presenting a show in the Diablo Actor’s Ensemble Theater on Locust Street entitled simply, “Jolly Good Show - - - Stories of Love, Laughter, Loss and Loneliness” on February 18 ( at 7.30 p.m.) and Feb 19 & 20 (at 2 p.m.), with all proceeds going to the Jean Wilcox Scholarship for Theatrical Studies. Fred and Jean have performed this show in an earlier incarnation previously and have added new material to this production that I am sure you will find highly entertaining. It is a delightful mix of monologues and skits that are both poignant, thought provoking and at times, very humorous. Jean Wilson is one of the driving forces behind the 250 member Drama Association of Rossmoor, which currently enjoys a membership that encompasses a very broad base of Rossmoor residents in Walnut Creek.

I have enjoyed their acting talents going back over twenty years, probably to the very earliest days of the Willows Theater. I cannot remember at this time what show I first saw them perform in together, but it was probably in an early version of “My Fair Lady” in which Fred played the part of professor Higgins and in which Jean played several characters including, Mrs. Eynsford-Hill, the mother of the young and amorous Freddy Eynsford-Hill! Jean Wilson moved into the Rossmoor community a couple of years ago and Fred moved back to Ireland, where he has family.

I have kept in touch with Fred, eager to know when he is back in the states, as he is a marvelous actor and director. When I learned he was returning to engage in the fund raiser for the Jean Wilcox Scholarship Fund to financially assist aspiring young college actors toward their dreams of theater training, I wanted to know more about the event and the scholarship fund itself.

The play is really nothing more than a loosely knit collage of short skits and monologues detailing seniors living and dealing with life’s experiences; positive and negative, poignant and playful, humorous and not so humorous, with a close resemblance to UK personages we know, have known and loved. While hopefully not giving too much away, a good portion of the play material was written by Allan Bennett, a well known British playwright from Leeds England (central northern Yorkshire area), known for his comedy and serious life sketches. You may be familiar with some of his work which is shown on the BBC quite often, such as the very popular television show, “Talking Heads” (late 1980’s), and his play, “The Madness of King George III”, was re-scripted as a movie, “The Madness of King George”, and won 4 academy awards (1994).

Many of Bennett's characters are unfortunate and downtrodden. Life has brought them to an impasse or else passed them by. In many cases they have met with disappointment in the realm of sex and intimate relationships, largely through tentativeness and a failure to connect with others. Bennett is unsparing and compassionate in laying bare his characters' frailties. His work is poignant and moving and through our frailties, he exposes the intimate humor of life’s situations.

According to Mr. Williams, one of the short skits is from a show called, “You know I can’t hear you when the water’s running!” and is about a couple of senior citizens “who have both been married three times before and they keep getting mixed up as to who was married to whom and when, and is very funny indeed!” It is described as a “sort of who’s on first” comic dialogue skit between Fred and Jean. Fred will also perform in another skit that is an Irish piece about a Bricklayer who has been injured on the job and is writing to his union, outlining his reasons justifying sick-leave. This skit is actually based on real life work situation and the resulting letter.

Jean Wilcox describes “Jolly Good Show - - - Stories of Love, Laughter, Loss and Loneliness” as a very funny collection of skits, but there is a stream of pathos that goes through them about English people reflecting on their lives. Jean refers to them as “Everybody has a Story” tales. Jean also does “Bed Among the Lentels”, one of the six monologues taken from “Talking Heads”, which was written specifically for the famed actress, Maggie Smith. This is the story about a Vicar’s wife who is not well fitted to the role of a Vicar’s wife, because she just doesn’t adapt easily to the mold expected. It is widely known as the best of the six “Talking Heads” monologues and Jean says that it is very funny!

They will be doing two matinees and one evening performance. If you would like to purchase tickets, which cost $12 each, call Jean Wilcox and let her know which performance you would like to see. You may call Jean Wilcox at (925) 937-6524 directly and address your inquiries to her. All proceeds will benefit the Scholarship fund. The production series will be in the DAE Theater located at 1345 Locust Street in Walnut Creek, right next door to Peet’s Coffee. This is a very intimate theater (49 seats total) where you can hear every word without having to strain your brain! I would not miss this show and I strongly recommend it to you as I know the quality and expertise of these wonderful actors and the material they bring with them.

Smuin Ballet's new modern dance production, "Oh, Inverted World", is set to the upbeat and modern rock/pop music of the Shins!

The Smuin Ballet has just announced that they will be performing a new work, a winter program entitled “Oh, Inverted World” created by Trey McIntyre set to the music of “the Shins” in Walnut Creek in the Dean Lesher Regional Center for the Arts on February 4th and 5th. I visited the company’s video montage on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upLWrJqzjOw and found this delightful on-line video introduction very upbeat and fun to watch. If you have access to a computer and the internet, I would suggest that you first take a look at this introduction and then consider purchasing tickets to the modern dance performance. This show should provide a generous dose of exciting dance performances by some stellar dance performers.

Not being familiar with the music of the group called “The Shins”, I did a little research on the internet and discovered that they are primarily described as an indie rock band (independent in the sense they totally control the content and distribution of their work) formed by singer, songwriter and lead guitarist James Russell Mercer. Their sound draws on several musical genres, including pop, alternative rock, indie rock and a mixture of folk music. Their first album, “Oh, Inverted World” was a smash hit when it was released in 2001 on Omnibus Records.

The album's title comes from a lyric in the second track, "One by One All Day", and there are several theories as to its meaning. It may allude to a line from German philosopher and economist Karl Marx. In his 1843 Critique of Hegel's Philosophy of Right, Marx blames religion for creating an "inverted world consciousness" that excuses mankind from self-responsibility. Alternately, it may refer to the science fiction classic "Inverted World" by Christopher Priest.

I went through this same process before I decided to attend the Berkeley Repertory Company’s production of “American Idiot” spawned by the musical group called “Green Day” (a group with which I was not familiar prior to that show). I loved that show and it was highly successful as it moved on to Broadway last year, garnering several Tony nominations along the way.

Artistic and Executive Director Celia Fushille describes her collaboration with McIntyre as rewarding, a perfect fit in her vision for Smuin’s future programing efforts – giving birth to work that is both exciting and vibrant. Anyone who is familiar with Fushille’s history with the Smuin Ballet, understands that this means uncompromising beauty, attention to detail and artistic excellence in anything and everything her group engages in.

Tickets for this Smuin Ballet production range in cost between $49 and $59 each and can be secured by calling the Lesher Center for the Arts Box Office at (925) 943-7469 or by visiting http://www.smuinballet.org/. The Lesher Center for the Arts is located at 1601 Civic Drive, at the corner of Locust Street and Civic Drive in Walnut Creek. There is ample parking in the public parking garage next door to the theater.

The Rrazz Room in San Francisco welcomes back Paula West on January 18th!

I have mentioned several times the exciting performers who are being showcased in the Rrazz Room in San Francisco each week. I want to tell you about a smooth jazz singing impresario, with a velvet voice, the incomparable Paula West, who will be opening next week, January 18th. This soulful song stylist delivers a mellow and heartfelt warmth that just makes you feel good, no matter what she sings. I just heard her rendition of Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rollin’s Stone”, via YouTube, when she was playing in the Jazz Standard room in New York where she was accompanied by the masterful jazz combo, The George Mesterhazy Quintet.

This is one cool lady who lets it swing naturally, never forcing, always reinforcing and reinterpreting the lyrics, gliding them upwards to newer heights. Sweet and mellow, when combined with this terrific combo, she just cannot be beat. If you like Jazz, you will love Ms. West! When the Rrazz Room opened in 2008, this is the lady, this is the act that opened their venue, and they knew exactly what they were doing. Solid Groove!

By any and all means, don’t miss what promises to be a terrific musical experience opening a week from now on Tuesday, January 18th, in the Rrazz Room when Paula West and the George Mesterhazy Quartet brings their eight week show to San Francisco. Tickets vary depending on the night of the performance, but range between $35 and a very reasonable $45 each. PLEASE NOTE: The Valentines night performance, February 14th, is slightly higher at $65 and it includes complementary chocolates and a glass of champagne. You may call for reservations at (866) 468-3399 and/or visit their www.therrazzroom.com/ website to see the entire performance schedule for this remarkable artist. In addition you can get a taste for the terrific variety of coming events. Check it out!

Host-escorted assigned seating is on a first come, first serve basis. Doors open 90 minutes prior to show. The Rrazz Room has a two-drink minimum and tickets are non-refundable. They have a variety of very nice drinks, alcohol or not, and they have a bistro meal menu. With a Rrazz Room validation, parking at the Mason O'Farrell Garage is $10 (up to five hours) and $15 (up to ten hours). Enter the garage from Mason or O'Farrell Streets. Karen and I usually take BART and walk the four blocks to the beautiful Hotel Nikko!

There are lots of great shows starting this month and I hope to keep you all happily informed and involved in the entertainment scene throughout this New Year. Please, for me, have a healthy and Happy New Year! Charlie Jarrett

Willows Theatre reborn in Concord!

2011-01-03T11:42:00.000-08:00

The mystic mime seems to be standing amazed at the marvelous news, the Willows Theatre returns to Concord!

Great news for East Bay theater aficionados as the Willows Theatre Company has just announced that they’ve turned back the clock, re-opening the Willows main-stage facility in the Concord Willows Shopping center to accommodate the exciting Caribbean Musical, “Once on this Island”, set to open on March 25th of this year.

This past week, I met with the Willows Theater’s new management team, including David Faustina (managing director) and Eric Inman (artistic director), who took over after former artistic director Rich Elliot resigned from the theater’s leadership role to take a teaching position in a school in Arizona. Everyone involved in community theatre is aware that Rich Elliot and his business partner Andrew Holtz had taken some huge risks in opening the new John Muir Amphitheater at the Martinez waterfront marina and the Campbell Cabaret Theatre in downtown Martinez both within a very short time of each other. Unfortunately, when the economy went south, and the rent for the Willows Shopping Center space went north, the company had no choice but to close down the Willows Main Stage. Eric and David spoke about the 36 year history of the Willows Theater while it was engaged in the Concord shopping center location, and more important, the broad diversity of theater they were able to produce in that more versatile venue. This desire to reengage the City of Concord and the City of Martinez and the Willows Shopping Center has come at a time when both cities and business enterprises are dealing with difficult financial problems and has met with some justifiable skepticism by a number of people interested in the theater company’s welfare. However, now after a year of re-organizing, the new Willows management team is pulling out all stops to re-ignite the interest of their very loyal theater fan base, many of whom were greatly disappointed when the company had to close the main-stage theater in the Willows Shopping Center. Many people in the Diablo Valley area found the Willows Theatre in Concord to be a very comfortable, convenient and popular theater destination. The management team says they have met with very positive and constructive intercourse among all interested parties, and while they admit they “are not out of the woods, yet” the progress is very measurable. The company has sought the input of its present season ticket holders as to what their preferences are and they are very excited by the outpouring of support for their re-engagement in the Concord Willows Theater.

In addition, the company wants to broaden the mission of the Campbell Cabaret Theater facility in Martinez to allow more opportunities for experimental theater and an infusion of new works by local authors and playwrights, while encouraging more submissions from schools and colleges around the country.

I have to admit that when I received my first copy of the Willows 2011 seasonal program offering, I was surprised at the fact that of the six shows being offered to season ticket holders, five were musicals. At that time I had no knowledge of the company’s quiet “behind the scenes negotiations and carefully orchestrated plans” to re-open the Willows Concord main-stage theater. I just could not imagine how they could mount the kind of musicals they had announced in their season offering in the “little” Campbell Cabaret Theater in Martinez.

The first musical to open in January, on the 31st, is “Rags, The Musical”, and it will be opening in the Cabaret Theatre. Rags is a wonderful story about the trials and tribulations of an immigrant family coming to America; the promises, the pain and transitions and growth that such a process brings into one’s life.

Next, will be the Caribbean musical, “Once on This Island”, which will usher in a breath of refreshing calypso music as the Willows Main-stage Theater re-opens on March 25th. This captivating story is a modern re-incarnation of a little mermaid-like story about a peasant girl, Ti Moune, and a rich boy, Daniel Breauhomme, whom she saves from Pappa Ge, the Demon of Death. They fall in love, but because of their differences in social class and family responsibilities and commitment, it is an ill-fated, hopeless love.

On June 20th, “King O’ The Moon”, will be opening in the Willows main stage. This humorous and thought provoking play is the sequel to a thoroughly delightful family play entitled “Over the Tavern”, a show that my wife and I truly enjoyed a number of years ago in the old Concord Willows Theater. This sequel will see the return of most of the original cast from “Over the Tavern”, a wonderful cast that elicited standing ovations for their acting in the earlier production.

Following this dramatic comedy, on August 4th, one of our all time favorite musicals, “Show Boat”, will take possession of the John Muir Marina Amphatheater, the perfect venue for this very powerful romantic production. “Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, I gotta love one man till I die, can’t help lovin’ that man of mine.” How can any of us forget the great lyrics from this American masterpiece? Captain Andy and his Mississippi river show boat, The Cotton Blossom, will come churning up the delta and drop anchor in Martinez (figuratively speaking) with a whole bunch of memorable songs and poignant stories and heart-felt music.

Then in October, “Chess, The musical”, with music and lyrics by Tim Rice, Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson, will open on the Concord Willows main stage. This musical was a big hit in London in 1986 and takes us back to the days of the cold war when two super powers, America and Russia, attempted to make propaganda for their political interests by one of them winning the world chess tournament. This is a fast moving tale of chess masters at work, enhanced by the underlying tale of the woman who manages one of the chess masters, who falls in love with the other country’s chess master. Deadly circumstances create a tale of political intrigue and romantic spice, all set against a backdrop of super power competition on an international stage. The music is the byproduct of three of the greatest musical names in the business; Tim Rice (known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Webber), Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Anderson, the two musical powerhouses known for their famous music and song stylings created when they were part of a group known as ABBA! I have wanted to see this show for years and now I will have an opportunity.

Bringing this inaugural season to a close, the Campbell Cabaret Theater in Martinez will wake you up from your winter somnambulistic musings with the upbeat music and styling of the “Winter Wonderettes”, a delightful girl singing group from the late 60’s, who invite us all to a grand “1968 Holiday Party” with all the wonderful songs we love, such as Winter Wonderland, This Christmas and even the sultry Santa Baby (made famous by Eartha Kitt).

All in all, I know a lot of my readers truly enjoyed the experience of theatre in the moderate sized, comfortable Concord Willows Theatre in the Willows Shopping Center. I have been told how much people have enjoyed the feeling of safety in that environment and the ease of finding adequate “free” parking within easy walking distance from the theater.

The Box Office is currently in the Martinez Cabaret Theater, but when the improvements are done, the company will re-open a part-time box office in the Willows Concord Theater. You can subscribe to the new season offering or simply order individual tickets by calling (925) 798-1300 or by visiting the company’s web site at http://www.willowstheatre.org/. The Concord Willows Theatre is located at 1975 Diamond Blvd., in the Willows Shopping Center in Concord and the Willows Cabaret Theatre is located at 636 Ward Street in Martinez.

Ginger Rogers, her life and times are remembered in San Jose and Sister Robert Anne leads a class in the art of Cabaret performance in Martinez!

2010-12-17T22:43:00.000-08:00

First of all, this week’s reviews take us to the Willows Theatre in Martinez, to explore the off-beat world of Author Dan Goggin’s Sister Robert Anne’s Cabaret Class. The second review takes us to the San Jose Repertory Theatre to reflect on and to immerse ourselves in the theatrical atmosphere surrounding the life and times of Fred Astaire’s very good friend, highly acclaimed dancing partner and seminal Hollywood actress, Ginger Rogers in “Backwards in High Heels”.

“Sister Robert Anne”, the celebrated street-wise Nunsense “bad girl”, who resides in the Mount St. Helen’s Catholic School of Hoboken, New Jersey, is back again in this new show. Sister Robert Anne (Deborah Del Mastro) has come home to the Willows Theater to conduct a educational program approved by the Mother Superior, a program which illuminates the fine art of “Cabaret” performing for the general populace.

I know that a lot of our East Bay residents are familiar with the litany of shows penned by Dan Goggins about a group of well-meaning but occasionally irreverent nuns who poke fun at Catholicism with their tongues in cheek, through various evolutions of the Nunsense Nuns. Karen and I were first baptized with the laughing waters shared by the Willows Theatre Company with the first Nunsense production in a converted bowling alley venue in Concord somewhere around 1986 or 1987. Over the ensuing years, following rave reviews by critics across the nation, Goggins wrote more wonderful and even wackier adventures for the nutty little nuns from the Mount St Helens School in Hoboken, New Jersey. Next came Nunsense 2: The Second Coming, (that starred such notable actresses as Rue MClanahan). Next Goggins decided to go Country style with Nunsense 3, the Jamboree (which was at one time recorded for television in the famous Grand Old Opry itself, starring Vicki Lawrence). Then along came Nuncrackers: the Nunsense Christmas Musical in 1998; Meshuggah-Nuns: The Ecumenical Nunsense followed in 2002; in 2005, Nunsensations: The Nunsense Vegas Review slipped in; and most recently Nunset Boulevard: the Nunsense Hollywood Bowl show and finally, this past week the West Coast Premier of Goggin’s latest triumph, found an exuberant audience in the little Willow’s Campbell Cabaret Theatre with Sister Robert Anne’s Cabaret Class.

For me, a non-catholic, public school educated type guy, most of the heavily ingrained Catholic educational experience jokes were definitely flying way out over my head. I’ve heard much about real life Catholic “sisters” teaching church concepts and doctrine by judiciously applying the golden rule (a wooden or brass 12 to 16 inch ruler which stood guard on the Sisters’ desk; AKA a religious device dedicated to assuring silence and absolute compliance). If you were raised a Catholic, more importantly a survivor of a Catholic education, you probably laughed more than anyone else in the audience, because the insider jokes really brought home lots of memories.

When and wherever the Brooklyn street-wise character of Sister Robert Anne arose in earlier Nunsense shows, she was always trying to garner the spotlight to share her love of stage and theatrical performance with the audience. In this show, she has full license to do it all, anything that lifts up men’s and women’s spirits and is in good keeping with church precepts. However, Sister Robert Anne seems to have a pretty broad interpretation or grasp of church doctrine, as it relates to music and Glory to God!

While many of the Nunsense shows are little more that an excuse to allow the Sisters to engage in rather bizarre fund raising activities for their order, activities that seem to me totally implausible to Catholicism, these activities have provided material to keep the Nunsense entertainment production train on course - - forever! Under the excellent direction of author Dan Goggins, this show is just as implausible as many of the earlier ones, but it is fully satisfying! Further, when you have a professional actress and natural cabaret performer of the caliber of Deborah Del Mastro, you have a really solid reason to go and enjoy an evening of outlandish scripting but at the same time, plausible information about becoming a Cabaret performer, if you had any inclination to do so. Ms. Del Mastro is a brilliantly funny, articulate and intelligent stage-savvy performer who absolutely captivates the audience, and knows full well of what she speaks! The musical director, Kim Vetterli, also known in this production as "Kimberly Anne, The Postulate", provides the musical accompanyment for this delightful show in addition to her sparkling personality being melded into several skits with Miss Mastro. What a great addition, live music, perfectly performed!

The songs that are used as the singing examples in the Cabaret classroom, have been taken from a broad range of the earlier Nunsense shows previously mentioned. Songs such as “Welcome, Bienvenue”, “I’ll Find a Song to Sing”, “Playing Second Fiddle” and “Growing Up Catholic” are representative of the type of songs included. Three primary questions guide this class through the evening’s entertainment and education. First the class asks what are you going to sing; second, what are you going to wear; and finally, what is a set-up and how is it valuable to your show’s continuity?
This fun-filled evening was raucously approved by the audience who joined in the singing, the question and answer period, and three members of the audience even joined the “good sister” on stage to help her demonstrate how easy it can be (in the right circumstance) to get up on stage and participate in the entertainment process.

Sister Robert Anne’s Cabaret Class will continue Wednesdays and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., with matinees on Wednesdays at 3:30 p.m., Saturdays at 2 p.m., and on Sundays at 3 p.m., now thorugh January 16th. Tickets range in price between @22 and $32 with discounts for students and seniors (65+) and they can be purchased by calling 798-1300 or by visiting the company’s website at http://www.willowstheatre.org/ . The Campbell Theatre box office is located at 115 Tarantino Drive in Martinez and the theater is located at 636 Ward Street in downtown Martinez.

The life and times of Ginger Rogers are remembered in San Jose Repertory Theater's "Backwards in High Heels"!

Now, let’s turn around and go the other direction, this time, to the beautiful San Jose Repertory Theatre in downtown San Jose, to take in the delightfully funny and for the most part, memorable production of this entertaining look back at the musical path followed by a great dancer and entertainer, Ginger Rogers. Backwards in High Heels takes a look at the long career of this very talented lady, from the time she entered a Charleston dance contest when the traveling act of Eddie Foy traveled to Fort Worth Texas and needed a quick stand-in.

The musical takes us down the Rogers road, through her numerous marriages, beginning at age 17, her years in vaudeville, Broadway tours, introduction to and relationship with famous dancer Fred Astaire and a long list of movies, both as a dancer and serious actress. Miss Rogers was the consummate professional, a savvy money manager and contract negotiator, eventually making her one of the most highly paid female entertainers in Hollywood or on the professional stage anywhere. In 1941 she won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starring role in the 1940’s production of “Kitty Foyle”. In the mid -50’s her film career declined as parts for older actresses became more difficult to secure, that is until she took on the part of Dolly Levi in the highly successful “Hello Dolly” on Broadway in 1965. Once again Ms. Rogers met with some very popular and favorable critical reviews. Her vignette role in the 1987 production of “Hotel” was her final screen appearance as an actress.

This musical is a very fast moving and employs the talents of some truly outstanding performers starting with the very talented Anna Aimee White (Ginger Rogers), who is quite unique in that she is an excellent actress, superb dancer and delivers her songs with a clear and beautiful voice. I am sure the producers of this show had to look far and wide to find a talent as outstanding as this lovely lady.

Heather Lee plays with excellent and touching diversity, Ginger Rogers’ mother, Lela. While there are many characters in this story, basically, they are played by only four other multitalented performers. Christianne Tisdale plays a plethora of female characters so well that I had to keep looking back at my program to make sure that they were all done by this one really special talent. When she played the parts of Ethel Merman, Katherine Hepburn, Betty Davis or Marlene Dietrich or anyone else, you knew immediately who she was imitating. This lady can do it all: dance, sing and act! On the male support side, Matthew La Banca does a fair representation of Fred Astaire, but not convincing. Benjie Randall and James Patterson play many supporting characters, each performing very well both as dancers, singers and actors.

The show is a very ambitious attempt to do justice to one of the truly great female talents on stage or the silver screen, but in some respects makes hokey what should have been grand. This becomes more of a love story about the relationship between Ginger and her stage-mother Lela, than a story about the woman most of us remember. I think it was almost too much to ask, in one musical, to portray the depth and breadth of this woman’s life, loves, successes and failures. I did enjoy learning about her determination and pluck, especially in her negotiation skills. Apparently it was from one of her negotiating discussions with a major film CEO that she is believed to have told him that she should be entitled to earn more income when dancing with Astaire, because she did the same things he did, but “she did it backwards and in high heels”!

Many of us have heard a great deal about Fred Astaire and his bulldog approach to dancing routines and rehearsals, so often lengthy, so exhausting and grueling to his dancing partners, that many were left with their feet bleeding. This portrayal of Astaire left me scratching my head asking where did they come up with this nice but milk-toasty Astaire. The real Astaire I loved and remembered just wasn’t there. Plus, in this story line, he seems to portray such an insignificant part of Rodger’s professional persona, nothing more than a “now you see him, now your don’t” flash back. In my eyes, my most vivid memories of Ginger Rogers were connected with Fred Astaire, but this miniscule portrayal of Astaire was very disappointing.

For the most part I enjoyed the overall production, the acting, dancing and singing skills of the talented cast. I suspect my disappointment with the Fred Astaire vignette came more from the limited Astaire inclusion and portrayal through the script writing, rather than from the actual portrayal of his character.

"Backwards in High Heels" continues through this week only! Performances are on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday evening at 8 p.m., with a matinee on Thursday at 11 a.m., Saturday at 3 p.m., and closing on Sunday the 19th at 2 p.m.. The tickets range between $35 and $74 each. Seniors get a $6 reduction in normal ticket prices. Call (408) 367-7255 for reservations or visit their web site at http://www.sjrep.com/ for additional information. The San Jose Repertory Theatre is a beautiful facility, easy to reach and always rewarding. The San Jose Repertory Company Theatre is located at 101 Paseo de San Antonio, between 2nd and 3rd Streets, one block north of East San Carlos Street. There is multi-storied public parking structure at the corner of East San Carlos Street, between 2nd and 3rd streets. Also, right now, all the Christmas lights are on in San Jose and there is a big Christmas in the Park celebration continues with all kinds of Christmas related displays, carnival rides and goodies in the San Jose Caesar Chavez Park just two blocks away from the Theater. This event continues through January 1st.