THEATREWORLD

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS AND REVIEWS

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 

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LIST OF CURRENT BROADWAY SHOWS

(last updated July 1, 2010)

 

The Addams Family – Musical – Lunt-Fontanne Theatre

 

American Idiot – Rock Opera – St James’ (adaption of rock band Green Day’s album of the same name)

 

Billy Elliott - Musical - Imperial Theatre

 

Brief Encounter  - Drama – Studio 54 (Sept 28 thru Dec 5)

 

Chicago - Musical - Ambassador Theatre

 

Come Fly Away – Dance - Marquis Theatre – Directed and Choreographed by Twyla Tharp to the music of Frank Sinatra

 

Driving Miss Daisy – Drama –  John Golden Theatre - stars Vanessa Redgrave and James Earl Jones (Oct 25 thru Jan 30)

 

Elf - Musical - Al Hirschfeld Theatre (Nov 10 thru Jan 2)

 

Fela! – Musical - Eugene O'Neill Theatre

 

A Free Man of Color – Drama - Vivian Beaumont Theater (Nov 18 thru Jan 2)

 

Good People – Drama - Samuel J. Friedman Theatre

 

In The Heights - Musical - Richard Rogers Theatre

 

Jersey Boys - Musical - August Wilson Theatre

 

La Cage aux Folles – Musical - Longacre Theatre

 

Lend Me A Tenor – Comedy – Music Box Theatre

 

A Life in the Theatre – Drama - Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre – Stars Patrick Stewart and T K Knight (Opens October 12) 

 

The Lion King - Musical  - Minskoff Theatre

 

A Little Night Music – Musical -  Walter Kerr Theatre - (stars Catherine Zeta-Jones and Angela Lansbury)

 

Lombardi – Drama - Circle in the Square Theatre (Opens October 21)

 

Love Never Dies – Musical – Neil Simon Theatre

 

Mamma Mia! - Musical - Winter Garden Theatre (check performance schedule)

 

Mary Poppins - Musical - New Amsterdam Theatre

 

Mrs. Warren's Profession - Drama - American Airlines Theatre – Stars Cherry Jones - (Sept 3 thru Dec 5)

 

Memphis – Musical – Sam S Shubert Theatre

 

Million Dollar Quartet – Musical, compilation - Nederlander Theatre

 

Next Fall – Drama - Helen Hayes Theatre

 

Next To Normal – Drama – Booth Theatre

 

The Phantom of the Opera - Musical - Majestic Theatre

 

The Pitmen Painters – Drama - Samuel J. Friedman Theatre (Sept 30 thru Dec 12)

 

Promises, Promises – Musical revival - Broadway Theatre  - (stars Kristin Chenoweth and Sean Hayes)

 

Race – Drama - Ethel Barrymore Theatre

 

Rock of Ages – (Musical, compilation) – Brooks Atkinson Theatre

 

The Scottsboro Boys – (Kander/Ebb) Musical / Drama - Lyceum Theatre (Opens October 30)

 

South Pacific - Musical - Vivian Beaumont Theatre

 

Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark – Musical - Hilton Theatre - (opens September 2010)

 

Time Stands Still – Drama – Cort Theatre – Stars Laura Linney - (Oct 7 thru Jan 23)

 

Unchain My Heart: The Ray Charles Musical – Musical / Drama - Ethel Barrymore Theatre (Opens November 7)

 

West Side Story - Musical - Palace Theatre

 

Wicked - Musical - Gershwin Theatre

 

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown – Musical - Belasco Theatre (Opens November 4)

 

 

 

WASHINGTON DC

THEATRE NEWS & REVIEWS

(kindly provided by Meaghan Greyson)

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Dates, titles, and other information subject to change.

SHAKESPEARE THEATRE COMPANY

2009/ 2010 SEASON

 

 

 

September 7-October 24, 2010

All’s Well that Ends Well, by William Shakespeare, directed by Michael Kahn at the Lansburgh Theatre.

 

 

November 30-January 2, 2011

Candide, by Voltaire, adapted by Leonard Bernstein, directed by Mary Zimmerman and co-produced with the Goodman Theatre, at the Sidney Harman Hall.

 

January 18 – March 6, 2011

Cymbeline, by William Shakespeare, directed Rebecca Bayla Taichman, at the Lansburgh Theatre.

 

 

March 8 –April 12, 2011

The Merchant of Venice, directed by David Muse featuring Patrick Page, at the Sidney Harman Hall.



May 17 – July 3, 2011

 

Enrico IV To Be Replaced With
Harold Pinter's Old Times


Washington, D.C. – Shakespeare Theatre Company Artistic Director Michael Kahn announced a revision to the 2010-2011 Season that includes the replacement of Pirandello's Enrico IV with Harold Pinter's Old Times. Kahn will direct Old Times at the Lansburgh Theatre from May 17 – July 3, 2011.

 

 Old Times
by Harold Pinter
directed by Michael Kahn
May 17 – July 3, 2011
Lansburgh Theatre

 

 

June 21 –July 24, 2011

An Ideal Husband, directed by Keith Baxter at the Sidney Harman Hall.

 

 

 

Washington, D.C. – AVENUE Q is the smash-hit Broadway musical about real life in New York City, as told by a cast of people and puppets through a hilariously irreverent, Tony-winning book and score. The three-time Tony Award winning musical will return to Washington, D.C. at the Lansburgh Theatre at the Harman Center for the Arts (450 7th Street NW). Performances run July 15 – August 15, 2010 and tickets will go on sale June 1.

AVENUE Q features music and lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, book by Jeff Whitty, based on an original concept by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx; and is directed by Jason Moore, puppet design by Rick Lyon, orchestrations by Stephen Oremus, choreography by Ken Roberson, scenic design by Anna Louizos, costume design by Mirena Rada, lighting design by Howell Binkley, and sound design by Lew Mead; associate director is Evan Ensign and music supervisor is Andrew Graham.

AVENUE Q is produced by Work Light Productions.

 

DATES: July 15 – August 15, 2010
Press Night and Opening Night: Friday, July 16, 2010

LOCATION: Lansburgh Theatre, 450 7th Street NW

 

 

PLEASE NOTE:

 

Elizabeth Ashley replaces Dixie Carter in Mrs. Warren ‘s Profession by George Bernard Shaw , directed by Keith Baxter at the Sidney Harman Hall, Washington, D.C., presented by The Shakespeare Theatre Company from June 8 through July 20, 2010---------------------------

 



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SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

THEATRE NEWS AND REVIEWS

(kindly provided by Dr. Kedar K. Adour, MD)

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THE MIDDLE AGES

by A.R. Gurney

 

Directed by Billie Cox.

 

The Ross Valley Players (RVP) Barn Theatre, Marin Art & Garden Center, 30 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. at Lagunitas, Ross, CA. 415-456-9555 or www.rossvalleyplayers.com.

 

July 16 – August 15.

 

The Middle Ages at RVP Misses the Brass Ring

 

One cannot review a play by A. R. (Albert Ramsdell) Gurney without mentioning White Anglo Saxon Protestants (WASPs) since he has rightfully earned the reputation as the chronicler of the upper middle class segment of society with three of his most successful plays, The Dining Room, Love Letters and The Cocktail Hour. These plays are the darlings of community theatres with their small casts, one set and ease of production. Ross Valley Theatre (RVP) did a brilliant production of The Cocktail Hour receiving Bay Area Critic Circle (BACC) nominations. Gurney’s plays also unfold over years giving him the luxury of allowing his characters to mature while demonstrating changes in social mores.

 

So it is with this early play The Middle Ages written in 1977 when he still kept his day time job of teaching that he did not relinquish until the financial and critical success of The Dining Room.  The intricate non-linear construction of The Middle Ages demonstrates some of the skilled writing of his later works. All the action takes place in a trophy room of a venerable men’s club in an unnamed Midwestern city beginning in 1940 though 1970. It begins in 1970 with the funeral of Charlie (Alex Shafer), the patriarch of his family who had clung to the tradition of “family” and the good life exemplified by belonging to the exclusivity of the Country Club.

 

In a discussion late in the play between father Charlie and oldest son, Barney (Peter Smith), the relationship mirrors the Biblical return of the prodigal son. Rebellious Barney is the eldest son with a no-nonsense unseen brother Billie who has remained at home becoming a successful lawyer. As told in a series of flashbacks interspersed with introspective monologs by each of the characters, the play begins and ends with the funeral of Charlie and the return of Barney who has made a fortune as the producer of porn films. The story line can be construed as a unrequited love story when charming, popular Barney meets 14 year old Eleanor during a Christmas party at the Club and his immediate infatuation is professed as love. As fate would have it, he is rejected by her and she eventually marries Billie. Barney carries this open secret with him through his reckless Candide type journey that for inexplicable reasons is equated with Robin Hood. When he does show up, the individual meetings with Eleanor and collective reunions with his family, Gurney piles on layers of his activities from Berkeley, the Navy and through the Korean and Vietnam wars.

 

Widower Charlie marries Myra (Tamar Cohn), and Eleanor and Billie raise a three-child family while Barney still professes his love while indulging in sexual relationships typical of  “new age for women.” In the process, Gurney slips in the social elements relating to the relationship to Jews, Blacks and the others “who don’t belong.”  As Charlie’s world crumbles, Myra assumes the strong role with the concurrence of Eleanor in making the “Club” more tolerate, including allowing women to be members.

The scenes between Barney and Eleanor are extremely well written and acted by Smith and Sims, giving the play much of its humor. The competent performance by Alex Shafer and Tamar Cohn as the stalwarts of the older half of the generation gap situation is admirable. Sims effortlessly demonstrates her skills as an actor, changing from a 14 year old to the mature matron with clear character distinction through each 10 years of aging. Barney is Gurney’s protagonist and Peter Smith as the young Barney is a joy to hear and watch with his physicality. Sadly, he still plays the young man throughout rather than gracefully mature as the script demands questioning director Billie Cox’s control of her actors.

 

Set designer Bruce Lackovic has created a perfect replica of a men’s club trophy room. There are floor to ceiling bookshelves, stuffed deer heads, huge fireplace, gun racks, and a huge stained glass window through which Barney makes many of his entrances and exits. Running time just under two hour with an intermission.

 

Kedar K. Adour, MD

 

 

 

 

 

COWARDLY THINGS: Reflections and Inspirations from all things Noël Coward.

 

Starring Cindy Goldfield & Scrumbly Koldewyn.

 

Direction by Michael Phillis

 

New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC Theatre 3) located at 25 Van Ness Ave. at Market St. in San Francisco, 94102.  (415) 861 8972, or online at www.nctcsf.org.

 

July 8 – 31, 2010

 

 

COWARDLY THINGS AT NCTC A FUN FILLED/NOSTALGIC EVENING

 

The Summer Cabaret Series at the New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) wisely has invited Scrumbly Koldewyn and Cindy Goldfield back as a team and they create a fun filled/nostalgic evening of mostly Noël Coward’s songs adding some great ones that Noël probably wished he had written. Cindy and Scumbly sing, dance, tell terrible jokes, and more than occasionally throw in a naughty/risqué/ribald routine as you would expect from Noël Coward.

 

Just for the record, “Hold Your Hand Out, Naughty Boy” the only song with hilarious audience participation was written by Worton Murphy & Worton David and is an example of using routines of others that  perfectly reflect Cowardly ambience. You’ll find bits from Roger’s and Hart (“The Blue Room”), Sandy Wilson (“Poor Pierrete” & “A Room In Bloomsbury”) and Cole Porter (“You Don’t Know Paree”).

 

However, it is a Noël Coward show and  in the first act, with minimal costume changes Cindy and Scumbly take turns as soloists and duets as mesh almost together with precision  for “Any Little Fish”,  “ A Bar in  the Piccola Marina” “Come The Wild, Wild Weather”, “Green Carnation” (a tribute to Oscar Wilde), “I’ve Been to a Marvelous Party” with a plethora of lyrics and others. They shuffle off to buffalo just before the intermission with the unanswered question “Why Must the Show Go On?”

 

The show must go on because there is a second act and our charming duo are in top hat and tails with the appropriate lead in of “Saturday Night at the Rose and Crown” and “Take Me Charlie.” Then they have back to back show stopper’s with “”Our Mother Doesn’t Know We’re on the Stage (by Billy Bennett) and “”Mrs. Worthington” with side splitting reasons to “don’t put your daughter on the stage.” They don’t neglect the “Has Any One Seen our Ship” , “Mad About the Boy”and “Mad Dogs and Englishmen.”

 

Scumbly who is superb at the piano, has a good cabaret voice, a wicked smile, great comic timing and earns most of the accolades during the first act of this 95 minute show with intermission. Cindy does a very creditable job but takes a while to warm up and in act two she really blossoms in her solos and the duets with Scumbly. Michael Phillis has astutely paced the show interspersing sentimentality with humor and moving  Cindy around the very attractive set. Highly recommended.

 

Kedar K. Adour, MD

 

 

 

 

MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION

by George Bernard Shaw

 

Directed by Timothy Near.

 

Bruns Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way. (formerly 100 Gateway Blvd.),  Orinda, CA 94563.(just off Highway 24 at the California Shakespeare Theater Way/Wilder Rd. exit, one mile east of the Caldecott Tunnel.) Complimentary shuttle from Orinda BART beginning 90 minutes prior to curtain. Complimentary parking onsite

 

 

IT ALL ENDS ON TWO UNSPOKEN WORDS

 

In 2007 Cal Shakes, under the direction of Jonathan Moscone, staged a brilliant production of George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman. The top-flight cast, imaginative staging with spectacular, lights, sound, fire and brimstone created a breath-catching experience. For Mrs. Warren’s Profession they again have a top flight cast and a superb director in Timothy Near but the imaginative staging with sets by Eric Flatmo detract rather enhance the evening. The entire stage floor and flats are adorned with second-rate knock-offs of Georgia O’Keefe’s massive flower paintings and one wonders “For what purpose?” Despite this inventive distraction, director Near has molded the cast into a must see ensemble with sufficient humor to counter Shaw’s self-indulgence for verbosity.

 

Secrets and lies are at the heart of George Bernard Shaw’s early play written in 1893, banned from performance in London in 1894 and not legally performed in England until 1925.  Although its major emphasis rests on the hypocrisy of the privileged class and a scathing indictment of social injustice to the lower classes that leads women into “the profession”, it is a vivid presentation of relationship between mother and daughter. The daughter Vivi (Anna Bullard) raised in an affluent, educated environment on the proceeds of mother’s, Mrs. Warren (Stacy Ross), earnings from running high-class brothels. They are two strong women who have a brief reconciliation when Vivi learns the path her mother has trod from abject poverty to a woman of wealth. Vivi accepts the past social injustice as reason for the present situation. That reconciliation is torn asunder when Vivi learns that her mother is not about to give up her highly profitable business.

 

 Shaw was a feminist and political liberal who created strong women characters (“The Life Force”) who take the initiative.  As a member of the Fabian Society, a non-revolutionary socialist group, he was an outspoken champion of women’s rights. Vivi, as with many of Shaw’s female characters is the protagonist of the play and Anna Bullard nails the characterization perfectly reflecting the ethos of “the new women.”

 

Shaw is adept at creating characters that are both individualistic yet are representative of types. His male characters in this play start that tradition. He first introduces a Mr. Praed (Dan Hiatt), a well-bred lover of beauty in women, art, poetry and life in general. He has been sent by Mrs. Warren to meet Vivi who is living in a country estate. In that meeting, Shaw adroitly juxtaposes Vivi’s independence with Praed’s courteous conventional treatment of women. No nonsense Vivi, a graduate of Cambridge, is the first woman to win a coveted mathematical award in competition with men. Her professed purpose was to win the 50-pound stipend that she will use to set herself up in business.

 

Next on the scene is the rebellious rouge neighbor Frank (Richard Thieriot), son of hypocrite Reverend Gardner (Rod Gnapp). The relationship between Frank and Vivi may have progressed to sex suggested by the line “let’s go play under the leaves (again).”  Mrs. Warren has kept incriminating letters sent by the Reverend during their amorous tryst refusing to accept the worldly sum of 50 pounds for the packet. This gesture gives us insight into her character as we learn that “kissing and telling” is not in her makeup. This foreshadowing plays a crucial part in the expose/conflict to follow since Reverend Gardner may be Vivi’s father. This suggestion of incest was further reason the Lord Chamberlain banned the play.

 

The last and pivotal male character is the lecherous Lord Crofts (Andy Murray) hiding behind a demeanor of respectability while he is a partner in Mrs. Warren’s profession skimming 35% of the proceeds. He spouts the words justifying the honor of making money and he is the one who vindictively informs the youngsters that they may be siblings.

 

Stacy Ross and Anna Bullard would be selected for a Tony Award if the play were on Broadway. Each projects the perfect demeanor that their characters demand with the slight edge going to Bullard. Director Near paces the entire show brilliantly throughout multiple smooth scene changes but may have missed a beat with an overly athletic seduction scene between Mrs. Warren and young Frank. Dan Hiatt gives a jewel performance as the personification of artistic gentleman of the 1890s. Andy Murray as the lecherous “gentleman” of wealth conveys strength and conviction generating the necessary animosity Shaw has written into the character. My vote for best supporting actor goes to Richard Thieriot whose vivacious interpretation of a wastrel son and loveable scoundrel holds his own the stage even in the presence of the major characters.

 

Running time 2 hours and 30 minutes.

 

Kedar K. Adour, MD

 

 

 

 

 

TRAVESTIES

 

by Tom Stoppard

 

 

Directed by Robert Currier.

 

Marin Shakespeare Company, Dominican University's Forest Meadows Amphitheatre, 1475 Grant Avenue, San Rafael, CA. 415-499-4488 or www.marinshakespeare.org.

 

July 9 to August 15, 2010.

 

 

TRAVESTIES AS A ZANY SLAPSTICK FARCE BY MARIN SHAKESPEARE COMPANY

 

Tom Stoppard’s TRAVESTIES is the opening salvo of Marin Shakespeare Company’s 21st season. For artistic director Robert Currier it is a labor of love. With the exception of a few opening night technical glitches and apparently ad lib mugging by one cast member, the staging acting and directing are flawlessly integrated to create a “must see” production even though it runs two hours and forty minutes since the farcical intensity relieves the onslaught and is actually symbiotic with Stoppard’s intellectual wit. William Elsman’s performance as Henry Carr the narrator and major character is a tour de force certain to garner a Bay Area Critic’s Award. His supporting cast of equity actors Alexandra Matthew, Lucas McClure, Stephen Klum, Julian Lopez-Morillas and Cat Thompson offer pitch perfect accompaniment to the entire evening and seem to have as much or more fun professed by director Currier.    

 

Currier’s physical directorial touches are legion and his actors respond with ease, grace and fluid movement. You know you are in for a fun comedy/farce when unnamed major characters glide about the stage pushing mobile pieces of functional furniture, bookcases and staircases across the stage with Salvador Dali type clocks sharing wall space with a Cuckoo Clock that, at appropriate times, bursts out with a “Cuckoo” commenting on the action and words. Are we in Alice’s Wonderland? No. It is 1974 and we are in the mind of the major character, the aged Henry Carr, a retired low level English government administrator who was stationed in Switzerland in 1917 as his faulty memory attempts to recreate the past.

 

During the Great War, World War I, three diverse major world figures were taking refuge in Switzerland: Irish James Joyce (Lucas McClure) author of “Ulysses”, artist Tristan Tzara (Darren Bridgett) founder of the DaDa movement, and social revolutionary Vladimir Lenin (Stephen Klum). Stoppard creates imaginary meetings between the men to explore the nature of art/artists and its relation to social revolution. Poet Tzara began Dadaism in rebellion to ridicule contemporary culture and conventional art. Tzara’s artistic revolution was an akin to Lenin’s social revolution.

 

This brings us to the non-linear construction of the play that moves between the senility of Carr in 1974, the youthful Carr and acquaintances in 1917. During the flashbacks Stoppard cleverly, and of course intellectually, intermingles Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest, adding a librarian Cecily (Alexandra Matthew) and Gwendolyn Carr (Cat Thompson) as the love interests of Henry and Tristan Tarza respectively who vacillate between being Algernon and Ernest of the play and themselves. Thompson and Matthew are superb in their roles as foils for their men and have almost the last laugh with a hysterical encounter satirizing in musical banter the hilarious Oscar Wilde scene near the end of the play.

 

Lucas McClure’s James Joyce is beautifully underplayed with rigidity even when his poem has been shredded, he is the claimant in a law suit and he is enmeshed in a food fight. Stephen Klum as Lenin exudes believable revolutionary tendencies and uses his wife Nadya (Sharon Huff who is hilarious with her brief Russian lines), as a sounding board. Another gem of acting is turned in by Julian Lopez-Morillas (although he forgets to leave the tea cakes on stage) as Bennett, Carr’s manservant that Stoppard has stolen from Oscar Wilde  and is used to keep the audience informed about the happenings of the world outside of Zurich during different time frames. This is a brilliant writing effort by Stoppard adroitly executed by Lopez-Morillas.

 

Stoppard thoughts about art and society are voiced by his characters without prejudice, but are highly satirical acceptable alternatives allowing the audience to make their own decision about the various viewpoints. In doing so he adroitly skewers all with his provocative lines but too often gives the impression of saying “pay attention, these are brilliant, worthwhile thoughts.” One unheralded sage said, “A lesson taught with humor is a lesson remembered.” Stoppard with plentiful help from Currier and the cast giving us more than enough farce, slapstick, song and dance to forgive many of the didactic aphorisms.

 

Kedar K. Adour, MD

 

 

 

 

 

SPEECH AND DEBATE

by Stephen Karam,

 

Directed by Robin Stanton.

 

Aurora  Theatre Company, 2081  Addison St.,  Berkeley. 510.843.4822 or http://www.auroratheatre.org.

 

June 11 – July 18, 2010

 

 

TEEN AGED ANGST ERUPTS IN SPEECH AND DEBATE

 

In this technological age, playwrights are substituting computers for telephones and by projecting email, chat room, twitter or Facebook posts on a screen they no longer have to write one-sided dialog to flesh out off stage characters. So it is with Speech and Debate being given a great technologic staging on the intimate Aurora stage beginning with chat room conversation flashed on the back wall screen. Stephen Karam wrote the play when he was not far removed from his High School years and the script has semblance of autobiography.

 

The major characters are High School teenagers with personal emotional baggage in their past that gradually unfolds over 110 minutes without intermission. The setting is Salem, Oregon as a present day image of Salem, Massachusetts home of the notorious witch-hunts immortalized in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible that is an integral part of the story line.  It begins with Solomon (Jason Frank) who fancies himself as a budding Pulitzer Prize reporter wishing to write a story about abortion in the school paper. After being thwarted by his advisor (Holli Horlien) he suggests an exposé of the uptight conservative mayor who preaches family values publicly and practices homosexuality privately. The play has its roots in the 2005 expose of Spokane Mayor Jim West who had consensual sex with an 18-year-old High School Senior.

 

Within the chat rooms, Solomon “meets” openly gay senior Howie (Maro Guevara) and Diwata (Jayne Deely) a frustrated would be actor who plans to organize the first Speech and Debate Club within the school as a means to further her overly optimistic assessment of her acting ability. As it is with internet contacts, what should be private often becomes public supporting the doctrine of being very careful what you post. The unlikely trio form a tenuous relationship based on intimidation to pursue the exposé. Diwata is a pushy, not very likeable motor-mouth that author Karam softens when her secret is divulged.

 

Solomon, the picture of an all-American boy, capitulates to Diwata’s plan when Diwata threatens to reveal his inner personae. Howie (Karam’s alter ego) has only the desire is to graduate maintaining the even keel he has created within a non-accepting environment.

In a series of short scenes, the machinations become more involved and Karam cleverly injects a modicum of humor recognizing that “A lesson taught with humor is a lesson retained.” 

 

All three young actors perform superbly and Holli Hornlien playing the two adult roles is perfect projecting the dichotomy between the generations. Divulging plot twists would be inappropriate. Director Robin Stanton keeps the action flowing on Eric Sinkkonen’s inventive set, accented by Kurt Landisman’s spot on lighting, musical direction by Billy Philadelphia and brilliant sound designer Chris Houston.

 

Kedar K. Adour, MD

 

 

 

 

PETER PAN: Multimedia play.

by J.M. Barrie, adapted by Tanya Ronder,

Music by Benjamin Wallfisch

 

Directed by Ben Harrison

 

Threesixty Theatre, Ferry Park, S.F. (888) 772-6849. www.peterpantheshow.com.

Through August 2010.

 

 

HIGH FLYING PETER PAN

 

It’s not that San Francisco doesn’t have enough attractions to entice visitors to The City that is almost everyone’s favorite city. Last year the British fascinated us with Cineworld Kneehigh Theatre Company’s multimedia production of Brief Encounter. If you were impressed with their computer generated 3-D imagery (CGI) wait until you see Peter Pan and prepare to be even more impressed.

 

This spectacular stage production has been imported from London where it received rave reviews. It is the world’s first 360-degree tent pavilion and it rises 100 feet high at Ferry Park on the Embarcadero, opposite the Ferry Building. There are12 projectors delivering fantastic, seamless hi-resolution video that transports the cast and audience on a breathtaking flying trip over Edwardian London around churches, along the Thames and under bridges  ending in Neverland the home of the lost boys.

 

J M Barrie’s beloved story of Peter Pan becomes a secondary consideration as the fantastic technical aspects enthrall the audience. All the characters are there, Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Wendy and her brothers, the lost boys, Captain Hook, Mr. Mee and the crocodile hot on Hooks heels. The skeletonized two man controlled tick-tocking crocodile with the clothespin teeth steals the show during the non-aerial sequences.  Sitting near youngsters will add enjoyment to your visit since their gasps and wide-eyed fixations on the action are spontaneous.

 

Original London cast members include Abby Ford as Wendy Darling, Jonathan Hyde as Capt Hook/Mr. Darling and Itxaso Moreno as Tinker Bell. Local Bay Area actors join them.  British actor Nate Fellow, making his professional debut, is the new Peter Pan and he performs admirably. Commenting on the quality of the acting is difficult since the CGI projections take the accolades. However, Jonathan Hyde conveys a piratical demeanor as Hook and deftly changes to the fuddy-duddy Mr. Graham with grace and ease. Abbey Ford is charming as Wendy. Itaxso Moreno gives an exhilarating performance with her high-flying ballet moves. Anthony Strachan gives a loveable rendition of Mr. Mee. Running time 2 hours and 20 minutes with intermission

 

Kedar K. Adour, MD

 

 

 

 

 

BEACH BLANKET BABYLON (Steve Silver's Beach Blanket Babylon): Musical revue.

Created by Steve Silver

 

Directed by Kenny Mazlow.

 

Club Fugazi, 678 Beach Blanket Babylon Blvd., San Francisco. 90 minutes. (415) 421-4222 or www.beachblanketbabylon.com.  Open Ended Performances (Season 36)

 

 

BEACH BLANKET BABYLON IS A 90 MINUTE NON-STOP HYSTERICAL TRIUMPH

 

After running continuously since 1974, one might erroneously wonder if the quality of the early years could be maintained with the departure of the Val Diamond whose name is synonymous with Beach Blanket Babylon. The answer is an unqualified YES! As this iconic musical revue heads for its 36th season with Tammy Nelson filling in Diamond’s shoes, more accurately wearing those outrageous hats, the show never misses a beat appearing fresh, vital and topical. This 90-minute romp will have you begging for more as the appreciative audience gave it a well-earned standing ovation. The energy from the cast fills and music of Bill Keck’s four-member band Club Fugazi to the rafters.

 

The hats that have been a trademark of the show are even better and bigger than ever with a touch of amazing technological pizzas, including Madonna flying across the auditorium to the strains of “ A Prince or Bust”  adding to the fun. Director/ choreographer Kenny Mazlow and producer Jo Schuman Silver keep the puns and satire up-to-date/topical. Examples include lampoons of Tiger Woods (if you ain’t got the swing etc), Obama’s “stimulus package. . . Viagra”, Palin’s Lipton Tea baggers and Al Gore (“It’s too Damn Hot” and “We’re having a Heat Wave) with perpetual showstoppers coming on and on.

 

The story line is simple: A virginal Snow White (“I could eat a poisoned apple and come up on my feet!”) played to perfection by Shawna Ferris, is searching for her one and only Prince with the help of Glinda, the Good Witch from Oz to show her the way. Chave Alexander, the other diva, matches Tammy Nelson note for note with flawless comic timing. Snow White ends up in Italy (Pizza and Chef Boy R D hats), Paris (fabulous Curt Branom as King Louie in pink and bouffant hairdo to outdo hairdos, the dancing French poodles and riotous Can-Can dance by what else, trash cans). I think Snow White gets to the jungle (“Born Free”) and I know she goes to South America where the Latin Bombshell wears her Tutti-Fruiti hat. How could I forget Harry Potter “Dancing with the Stars.”

 

Enough said, words couldn’t to justice to this spectacular musical revue. Beach Blanket Babylon has become an integral part of San Francisco and has been honored with a street name. Club Fagazi, just happens to be on that street. Do not miss this show. It is worth seeing again and tourists are advised that attendance is mandatory.

 

Cast: Shawna Ferris, Curt Branom, Jacqui Heck, Paulino Duran, Renee Lubin, Doug, Magpiong, Caitlin McGinty, Ryan Rigazzi, Tammy Nelson, Phillip Williams.

 

Kedar K. Adour, MD

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHICAGO

THEATRE REVIEWS

 (kindly provided by Ruth Smerling

PLEASE NOTE: Ruth has certain Chicago Theatre reviews archived

She may be contacted by e-mail at the following address:    Reelgodess@aol.com

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GUIDE FOR THE PERPLEXED LEADS GREAT CHARACTERS TO A LIGHT STORY

 

 

It’s too bad there’s no theatrical potluck.  If Joel Drake Johnson could take his rich, angry, overworked and deeply flawed characters to a playwright like Tracy Letts who sometimes writes epic stories he may create a new wave in the world of theatre.  It could signal an age of collaboration where the greatness and strength of multiple playwrights fuse to form works that open peoples’ eyes.  They could write plays that simply have to be seen and quoted and talked about for decades.  Everything they did would be as epic and spectacular as Tony Kushner’s Angels In America. 

 

Joel Drake Johnson is an interesting playwright who focuses on character and less on plot.  From Johnson’s latest play on stage at the Victory Gardens Biograph main stage, directed by Sandy Shinner, A Guide for the Perplexed, a host of needy characters emerge, each one trying to get by on their own, but in great need of the other, yet the whole time working against each other.  Rather than a beginning-middle-end story, you have a group of people trying to find their own paths without getting forced onto some else’s muddy lane.  It’s more of a game of observation.  Just wait and see.  

 

Steppenwolf ensemble members Kevin Anderson and Francis Guinan rise to the challenge with Anderson as Doug, recently let out of prison for beating someone to a pulp.  Doug was a drunk with a vicious dog of a temper who was not only in constant trouble, but a disgrace to his affluent sister, Sheila (Meg Thalkin), who wants to help him.  Anderson is disarming and adorable enough to win his way into the hearts of the people around him and old enough to make him seem intrusive and selfish.  Sheila is onto Doug and her help comes with conditions.  But until he gets on his feet, and he has no clue when that will be, Sheila is all he has.

 

One of the most oppressive conditions is Sheila’s husband Phillip (Francis Guinan).  Francis Guinan gets very Frank Galati as Phillip who recently lost his job.  He’s a man who has done what has to be done all his life.  Released from his responsibilities, he’s depressed and feeling totally useless with Sheila making all the money that comes in.  Set designer Jeffrey Bauer makes Phillip’s depression and loss acute with a set as elegant as any palatial estate, complete with a wooded garden, and a rotating disk that moves the action to different rooms in the house, each one elegantly furnished and warm and comfortable. 

 

Anderson and Guinan work together like a Swiss watch as Phillip tries to instill a sense of order in Doug.  Doug know he has no choice and complies as fully as he can, yet in moments of humor, he always knocks something over or pulls a book off the wrong shelf. 

 

Phillip and Sheila have a son, Andrew (Bubba Weiler), a confused teenager who is excited to have his uncle in the house.  He wants to hear all about his life in prison and how he survived.  Unfortunately, Doug’s stent in the joint was very uneventful by Hollywood standards.  All he did was train a seeing eye dog for a blind woman and cried when the guards told him the dog had been sold. 

 

Doug passed the time in prison writing letters to women who write to convicts.  Women like Betty (Cynthia Baker).  Even though she’s a successful member of society, she’s deeply lonely.   When Doug decides she’s attractive enough to spend time with, she rushes to the house with all kinds of elaborate presents and encouragement.

 

If A Guide to the Perplexed reveals anything it shows that the grass is always greener.  You never know if those beautiful homes you see along country roads are inhabited by successful people.  Maybe the people inside are unemployed, recovering drug addicts or ex-cons.  It also shows how important it is to have family.  Doug needs a place to stay.  Phillip needs to be necessary.  Together a family can help each other no matter how little they get from the rest of the world. 

 

A Guide to the Perplexed runs through August 15 at the Victory Gardens Biograph, 2433 N. Lincoln Avenue.  Phone 773-871-3000 for tickets and information or visit www.victorygarden.org.

 

 

 

 

BLACK ENSEMBLE SETS A LITTLE CHICAGO HISTORY TO MUSIC

 

Chicago is basically a city of neighborhoods.  Some neighborhoods are famous for their concentrated ethnicity, some boast of unique diversity.  In some neighborhoods you can find the only restaurant or shopping of its kind in the world or at least in the Midwest.  Most important, because these Chicago neighborhoods are notorious for one thing or another, their denizens have the opportunity to create livelihood for themselves by providing opportunities for the rest of the community. 

 

Bronzeville is a Chicago neighborhood on the south side notorious as the center of African American culture since the early twentieth century.  A little more recently though, since 1949, Bronzeville became the place to go to hear “The Blues,” real Mississipi Blues.  Bronzeville was not a stop on the sightseeing bus.  Bronzeville came alive after hours with the sounds of great musicians.  Probably the best known and most cherished spot in Bronzeville was Theresa’s, a little tavern located in the basement of an apartment building run by Theresa Needham.  She stayed there for 30 years until the building was sold and she was tossed out because she never had a lease.  Until then, every night for a single dollar cover, people would forget about the day they just had, get dressed up and come down to Theresa’s.  In this lounge, musical history was made.  The house band featured Buddy Guy and Junior Wells.  But Theresa’s also became a place where famous Blues musicians let loose, like Muddy Waters,  Jimmy Rogers, Otis Spann, Little Walter, Otis Rush, Earl Hooker and Howlin’ Wolf.  

 

Theresa’s story is a dear one to Black Ensemble member Joe Plummer.  Plummer is an actor and prolific and critically acclaimed playwright who brings us back to that little spot on 4801 S. Indiana Avenue with his lively and brilliant Nothing But the Blues at the Black Ensemble Theatre, directed by Artistic Director Jackie Taylor.  Plummer, with the help of costume designer Carl Ulaszek, recreate Theresa’s bar complete with crooked signs, tchazkes and a full bar so inviting it makes you want to enter the set and order a cocktail before show and at intermission.  Please don’t!  There’s plenty of candy and soda in the lobby. 

 

Rhonda Preston is Theresa Needham, proprietor and very astute businesswoman.  Theresa stood behind the bar, counted the money and made sure no one drank too much.  It anyone got out of hand she had bouncers that would straighten things out.  While the house band under the direction of musician Robert Reddrick is setting up, Plummer tells the story musically, from the viewpoint of Theresa’s regular customers.  There was Lewis the Drunk (Lyle Miller), someone Theresa cut off after he failed to pay his tab and still managed to get other people in the bar to buy him drinks.  Perspective comes greatly from Mr. Washburn (Rick Stone), a senior citizen and who spent a lot of time at Theresa’s and offers up words of wisdom, and an occasional song.  You think that Flo (Robin Beamon) and the Mailman (Kelvin Roston) are a couple.  Then Mrs. Tate, the mailman’s wife (Noreen Starks) comes in for open mike night and is surprisingly calm as she takes the stage and says “You can take my husband, but leave my man alone!”

 

The stadium style seats are rocking with the lively music.  Nostalgia wells up in everyone’s eyes and heart as they realize this is not only a historic event, but an inspiration to everyone who has ever had a dream or an ambition.  Just do it.  Just put those Nikes on and do it just like Theresa Needham, just like Jackie Taylor, founder of the Black Ensemble.  Live your dream with all its ups and downs.    Nothing But the Blues runs through August at the Black Ensemble Theatre, 4520 Beacon Street, Just two blocks north of Wilson and two blocks east of Clark. 

 

Speaking of living a dream, the Black Ensemble breaks ground on the new building that will be located at 4450 N. Clark Street on September 10.  They’re only a million or two away from reaching their goal and fundraising efforts are well underway.  A subscription to next season is one good way to contribute.  The line-up includes the return of The Other Cinderella, All in Love is Fair – A Tribute to Love Songs, Remember Pearl Bailey?, You brought the Sunshine in my Life (The story of the Clark Sisters) and a fifth play to be determined.  For information on Nothing But the Blues, the upcoming season and the new building, visit www.blackensemble.org. 

 

 

 

 

A PARALELLOLOGRAM CHALLENGES THE BRAIN AT THE STEPPENWOLF

 

The Steppenwolf Theatre’s “Season of Belief” culminates with its most challenging entry, Bruce Norris’ A PARALLELOGRAM; an absurd black comedy that uproots everything we know is possible and suspends us into an altered universe for a baffling and entertaining two plus hours, directed by Anna D. Shapiro.

 

Kate Arrington is Bee.  She’s sitting in bed fighting with her husband Jay (Tom Irwin) who insists he came home and smelled cigarette smoke in the room.  She is not a smoker and says it’s his imagination.  He insists she is too smoking.  There are two other people at the residence.  One is an older woman (Marylouise Burke) who resembles Ruthie Gordon in Where’s Poppa?  (Ruthie was the senile woman who was the bane of her two sons’ existence who promised never to put her in a home.  A cult classic and a great DVD pick).   This woman can stop time with a remote control clicker and is only visible to Bee.  The other is a disappointing Hispanic gardener outside mowing the lawn (Tim Bickel).  Jay is becoming more upset because the gardener, who barely speaks English, is getting grass in the pool.  

 

In the first Act Bee and Jay are both attractive young people who have little in common opposition and the need to shout out their convictions.  Tom Irwin is spontaneous and relentless as Jay who is forever on the phone fighting with his ex-wife Marcy.  The more time Jay spends on the phone, the more Bee talks with the old woman who is invisible to Jay.  As she becomes more and more friendly with this woman, she learns that this woman is actually her future self.  Bee cannot believe that she will grow into a chain-smoking, obese old woman, and future Bee warns her to get on the stick.  With future Bee’s help, she tries to change, having her click on and off during explosive confrontations with Jay so that she may take a different tact each time until she gets it right.  She soon learns that the only thing standing in the way of her relationship with Jay is herself and, that he was not wrong, she was smoking, but just at some point in the future.  In Act two, like all Bruce Norris’ works, illness plays a strong role and the visit from the future could just be the flood of dreams induced by heavy medication.  

 

A Parallelogram is undoubtedly constructed for the proscenium of the “theatre of the absurd,” playing like a dream that needs to be interpreted at once, with an immediacy of the same impact as a Max Ernst painting, where lines cross and heavy shapes never find ground to rest on.  This is not reality, but this work is real.  Each symbol needs to be unraveled and put into place or something very bad will happen to these characters.  It represents a milestone for Norris, a playwright focused on how unclean and diseased our environment is.  A Parallelogram has lifted his hallmark obsession to high art.  This play takes us into the heart and mind of an afflicted soul as unsuspectingly as a germ takes hold of a bloodstream.  As this woman fights for her life with every device known to modern civilization, we fight with her trying to decide what the hell is going on.  Norris gives us little familiar landscape to grasp onto.  We plunge right in and come up trusting Norris and the Steppenwolf for delivering another play that will leave us talking, dreaming and deciding until next season.

 

 

A Parallelogram runs through August 29 on the main stage at the Steppenwolf Theatre, 1650 N. Halsted.  Phone 312-335-1650.  Visit http://www.steppenwolftheatre.org for tickets, information and stimulating commentary on this play and many others. 

 

 

 

 

IBSEN’S SHOCKING EXPOSE FINALLY FINDS ITS NICHE

 

What makes a work of art classic?  The work of playwright Henrik Ibsen remains classic because of its forward thinking.  When Ibsen wrote Ghosts it did not receive a warm welcome in the theatergoing community.  In fact, the head of Nya Teatern, one of Stockholm’s most influential theatres called the play “One of the filthiest things ever written in Scandinavia.”  Dealing with sexually transmitted disease, adultery and illegitimate offspring, Ghosts was way too controversial for its time.  Ibsen must have anticipated the tremors this work would have caused in a time when to even think of such things was tantamount to coming face to face with the devil himself.   Nevertheless, just like the modern playwright, Tony Kushner, when he sat down filled with conviction and penned Angels in America, Ibsen wrote Ghosts, opening the closed doors, revealing a little bit of the demons that plague our society and have an effect on every single person on the face of the earth.   He knew that the story would have to come out as some point. 

 

Seeing Ghosts now, in the year 2010, performed by the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble (Boho), directed by Peter Marston Sullivan, still makes an impact as it exposes the inner workings of a seemingly affluent Swedish family who are only a hair away from being stripped of every shred of dignity they have accrued, trying to live a dual life.  Our attitudes have changed drastically over the last century or so, but Ibsen knew how to hit every nerve and make us stand up and take notice and keep an inventory of the wrongs committed in a family. 

 

Famous for elaborate and powerful sets on an economic space, the Boho spares nothing with Anders Jacobsen and Judy Radovsky’s intricate and studied design.  Unlike previous productions, this set has closed windows that do not show nothing of a world outside the manor and heighten the claustrophobic lifestyle these people come to adopt.  Florence Ann Romano makes her Boho debut as Regina Engstrand, housekeeper to the wealthy Alving home.  Her father, Jakob, played by Sean Thomas, also making his Boho debut, has paid her a visit and asked her to leave the Alvings and come to work for him.  Regina is refined, educated and sensitive.  Her father is a crude laborer with calloused hands and ungrammatical speech and often intoxicated.  He proposes that she come back to town with him so that she can help entertain retired sailors in the new home he hopes to build for them. 

 

Saren Nofs-Synder gets a standing ovation as Mrs. Helen Alving, the matriarch with so many dark secrets threatening her tranquility; it becomes probable that any one of them could burst the stays on her corset at some point in the play.   Costume designer Sarah Putnam has given her flowing, elegant and fitted garb in subdued red and orange.  Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Alving’s biggest confidant is Reverent Manders (Steve O’Connell).   So close is he to Mrs. Alving that not only does he know all the family secrets, he also helps her spend her money.  She has agreed to fund an orphanage in the name of her late husband.  As plans get underway for the orphanage, lots of loose ends start to unravel, the biggest of being, Oswald (Charles Riffenburg), Mrs. Alving’s son, finds that he suffers from sexually transmitted disease that will eventually “soften his brain and make him a vegetable.”  With hand to forehead and all the melodrama of a young and angrily beautiful Bette Davis, Mrs. Alving must reveal a truth that will shatter the entire foundation the family stands on. 

 

Ghosts has finally found its place in the time-space continuum at the Boho.  Peter Marston Sullivan, with an eye to minutiae, delivers a story that is nearly cinematic, and filled with all the movements necessary to propel people from one frame of mind to another in a world just shy of being modern and convenient.  Ghosts is as aesthetic as it is exciting, with exquisite and vibrant performances by a cast of accomplished actors given enough rein to express the full force of their talent. 

 

Ghosts runs through July 18 at the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble, just off the Morse El stop at 7016 N. Glenwood.   For tickets and information phone 866-811-4111.  Some tickets are still available for all performances, but going very quickly. 

 

BOHO IS MOVING!  REMEMBER – This fall the Bohemian Theatre Ensemble will be one of the resident companies performing at Theatre Wit, the old Bailiwick space.  You can nestle into the comfy red seats and see the epic musical Big River from September 10 to October 10.  The new season also includes Striking 12, The Elephant Man, Dirty Blonde and Icarus.  Ask about subscriptions. 

 

 

 

 

 

RED CARPET ROLLS OUT FOR BILLY ELLIOT AT THE ORIENTAL

 

Sunday, April 11, a little before 6:00 p.m. it was almost impossible to walk down Randolph Street.  The mob in front of the Oriental Theatre was five and six deep.  Police officers were all over and stretch limos were parked for the entire span between State and Dearborn.  People were gathered to get a tiny glimpse of Elton John, accompanied by Oprah Winfrey, entering the theatre for the Chicago opening of Billy Elliot, the Musical, featuring music by special guest Elton John, book and lyrics by Lee Halls and choreography by Peter Darling.  Stephen Daldry directs.  Along with Oprah, Elton John, Rev. Jesse Jackson and his beautiful daughter Santita, a host of newscasters and local celebs, the curtain opened on a film clip viewed by a young boy.  It was a newsreel reporting on the rampant unemployment experienced by multitudes of citizens in England during the dreaded Thatcher years. 

 

The focus sharpens on one small mining town facing poverty, ruin, despair drowning their sorrows in a pint or two whenever they can.  Conditions are so bad they go on strike for better wages in the mine.  They never had much to begin with, but now are forced to tighten their belts even more.  To keep their kids off the streets, they send the boys to the gym to learn to box.  The gym is shared by a ballet class of young girls taught by the dedicated and strict Mrs. Wilkinson (Emily Skinner).

 

Billy Elliot (Cesar Corrales), son of a miner and brother of an anarchist soon finds himself dancing with the girls, and displays a rather uncanny talent.  Despite encouragement from the teacher, Mrs. Wilkinson, he knows with all the trouble the town is in, his father would never approve.  But Mrs. Wilkinson wants him to follow his own heart and cultivate the talent.  His father (Armand Schultz) is livid, believing a dancer is just a “Poof” and less than a man.  Mrs. Wilkinson decides to go for broke and tells Billy he should audition for the Royal Ballet.  She forces his father to witness the power of Billy’s dance, and he’s sold. 

 

With, through music, dance and spectacular special effects, the entire town sets aside their feud with the mining company and joins together to help Billy get to London for his audition.  There is something almost supernatural and divine about Billy Elliot.  It’s a story of hope, high energy and encouragement.  At a time when the United States is undergoing unemployment, budget deficit and international crisis, Billy Elliot reminds us that no matter how bad things are, they will not stay that way.  It’s all a matter of faith, perseverance and focusing on what we can change, not panicking over what is out of our hands.

 

Billy Elliot, The Musical has a long run here in Chicago with tickets available through August.  There is some strong language and some of the content may not be suitable for young children.  Everyone will fall in love with 11-year-old Billy Elliot played by Tommy Batchelor, Guiseppe Bausilio, Cesar Corales and J. P Viernes, dancers so agile they nearly fly from one end of the stage to the other.  Look for Chicagoans Patrick Mulvey as Tony, Billy’s older tough-guy brother, Susie McMonagle as Mum, the woman who raised Billy and Tony and never leaves a room without her purse, Blake Hammond as Mr. Braithwaite, the accompanist.  The chorus includes Chicagoans Elijah Barker, Tony Clarno, Kayla King, Mark Page, all superb dancers and singers.

 

Tickets for Billy Elliot, The Musical range from $30 to $100 and a select number of premium seats are also available.  Tickets are available at Broadway in Chicago Box offices (24 W. Randolph St., 151 W. Randolph St. and 18 W. Monroe), the Broadway in Chicago Ticket Line at (800)775-2000, all  Ticketmaster retail locations (including Hot Tix and select Carson Pirie Scott, Coconuts and fye stores), and online at www.BroadwayInChicago.com).  For groups of 15 or more, call (312)977-1710. 

 

Rush tickets for $25 go on sale at 10:00 a.m. the day of each performance (11:00 a.m. on Sundays).  Twelve seats are available at the Fort Center/Oriental Theatre box office (14 W. Randolph) only.  As many as 38 additional sets, subject to availability at select performances, may be made available, but Rush ticket limit is two tickets per patron, all seats are limited view.  Rush is worth a try, the theatre has minimal obstruction, and the spectacular musical is performed floor to ceiling. 

 

Ruth Smerling

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more details or individual advice/help - email:  GPowner@aol.com