Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus at ISC

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The language of Elizabethan times most familiar to us through the epic plays of Shakespeare captures essential English speech: iambic pentameter. It is easy. It’s  lyrical and at once familiar and arcane.  Melissa Chalsma’s direction of Doctor Faustus flows like quick silver with a talented cast doubling, tripling and multitasking like anything through the basic story of one man’s lust for power at the price of his own soul.   As Faustus, Adam Mondschein finds the groove of the language and runs with it.  Each of the ensemble members reflects the voice of training that has been a signature for the Independent Shakespeare Company.  This is a stage play.  It’s theatrical. Simply, it works

The entire ISC production under Chalsma’s precision guidance, (she adapted the script as well from two different versions of Marlowe’s play) understands not only the language, but in the company’s rough hewn stage on Casitas, makes beautiful use of the space.  It is this dedication to the play itself, not being restricted by the tiny area and limited tech (though the lighting by Bosco Flannagan and uncredited projections are just fine) that bring Marlowe’s text to life. 

Mondschein shines as the power obsessed German doctor who uses arcane magic to conjure Mephistopheles, the gorgeous and talented Suzan Crowley. Crowley brings her full bag of tricks as an actor.  With some features that favor Katherine Hepburn, her mane of auburn hair frames a benign face that speaks evil truths about being damned to Hell while seducing the eager doctor. Her command of the language is arresting.   Only Mondschein and Crowley remain consistent in their roles while the rest of the cast soldiers on as a well tuned ensemble.  Outstanding Ashley Nguyen as The Evil Angel and half a dozen other characters, tempts Faustus to stay true to his bargain with The Dark One.  Like a cartoon image of a little angel on the other shoulder, Sam Breen brings light as the Good Angel. Lexie Helgerson as both malevolent Lucifer and Helen of Troy as well as a very lusty Lust is, simply, hot! 

 

Faustus is given the gift of invisibility and bedevils Andrè Martin as The Pope, reflecting perhaps,  Marlowe’s contempt for religion.  Matt Callahan as Robin has a moment with his bladder and a bucket.  Each character in the doubling is crisp and well executed. The social commentary and the morality tale come together well.  The language, though not always easy to follow, flows beautifully.   

This fine ensemble, also well known for their free productions of Shakespeare in Griffith Park makes Elizabethan Theatre accessible.  The actors play as a unit, sharing the stage and creating their world in a tiny, but serviceable space.  Director Chalsma’s stage pictures are beautiful.

The lobby is a hallway with a TV tray as the box office.  No frills, just excellent theatre.  For an evening of professional acting and a story well told, don’t miss Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus at the Independent Shakespeare Company.  Bring a pillow.

DOCTOR FAUSTUS by Christopher Marlowe

Directed by Melissa Chalsma

Independent Shakespeare Company

3191 Casitas Ave. #168

Los Angeles, California 90039

Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30PM

Sundays at 2PM

Through November 23, 2014

Tickets and Information

818 710 6306  www.iscla.org

WORLD PREMIERE: A or B? at The Falcon

Garry Marshall’s Falcon Theatre is unique.  The choices for productions vary and are always professionally presented in every aspect.  The World Premiere of Ken Levine’s A or B? is no exception.  In his program notes, Levine credits Marshall with virtually everything that his writing has come to, citing early episodes of The Dick Van Dyke Show penned by Marshall and his writing partner, Jerry Belson as inspirational.  Certainly, situation comedy is at the forefront here, but with a bit of in depth soul searching that features well timed one liners (including a sly reference to Pretty Woman). It’s a comedy. A comedy with heart.

A or B?'s multifunctional set with New York skyline by Bruce Goodrich (who also did the appropriate costumes), with snazzy lighting by Jeremy Pivnik set the scene. Uncomplicated precision moves by director Andrew Barnicle keep the show moving a pace.  Sexy Jules Willcox as Abby Morgan and Jason Dechert as ripped Ben Steele: both superbly cast millenials, bring this somewhat bizarre piece to life.  

Jason Dechert and Jules Willcox in
A or B? at the Falcon Theatre.
Photo by Jill Mamey.

 The 1998 German film, RUN, LOLA, RUN captured the imagination by showing three different scenarios as the lithe redheaded Franka Potente as Lola sets out to save her boyfriend’s life by running to collect money to get him out of a jam.  Each time she sprints from her apartment, she has obstacles that make her frantic chase change. In each of the three episodes we see the minutes fly by as she dashes into three different futures. Levine’s play uses a somewhat similar approach by having Ben and Abby meet in slightly different ways.  Each character is the same person, but Abby is defined at first by a red dress and then by blue.  Each color then represents attitudes and even the same lines delivered with different approaches.  It works.  This is not Chekov it’s a modern take on relationships: business and romantic.  The twain shall meet and there’s the rub.

Levine says that television has pretty much defined his approach to writing and the situation comedy element is played here in broad strokes bringing gales of laughter from the opening night audience.  A or B?'s  cultural references and the use of cyber tools (“I hate ATandT!”) create a hip and happening atmosphere.  We open on Abby on the phone chatting with her cat making kissy sounds before getting back on with her mother in hometown Northwest USA discussing which dress to wear, hot red or cool blue,  to an interview with Ben for a position in his marketing analysis firm in New York City. The play asks the musical question, “Love or Ambition: A or B?  Choose one?” As the characters swap attitudes with sexual innuendo as well as in the sacko, we see the same characters under the influence of completely different takes on their lives, as well as a martini or two. It’s sweet and sour and bitter sweet as time passes and in the final analysis we see Abby in a purple dress, another shot at something special evolves as we may have hoped all along.

Supporting this professional theatre with a season ticket gets you invited to the Opening Night Performance and preferential parking.  Garry Marshall is a grand host and the goodies and champagne are not to be missed.  A or B? It deserves  an audience!!

A or B?
by Ken Levine

The Falcon Theatre

4252 Riverside Drive

Toluca Lake, CA 91505

October 24, to November 16, 2014

Tickets and information 

818 955 8101

www.falcontheatre.com

VILLA THRILLA by Anna Nicholas

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Circle X at the Atwater has been invaded by a ‘merry band of madcap actors’.. more or less.  Anna Nicholas’s Villa Thrilla bounces off a recent trend of whodunit mystery parties that invite the guests to solve a heinous crime.  Murder most foul!  What works like a charm in Michael Frayn’s Noises Off! and Charles Ludlum’s The Mystery of Irma Vep takes the premise in a slightly different direction.

The theme of the entertainment at The Thrilla Villa (it’s a creepy old mansion owned by the Thrilla Family in the past) is a 1960s party complete with shaggadelic Austin Powers look-a-like Zachary (Gregory Gilford Giles), Carol Wayne Clone “Cleo”  (Erica Hanrahan-Ball) and a cast of actors ready with a script to enact an evening’s entertainment.  

At rise we discover a shady couple (Bruce Willis clone Brad Lee Wind as Tony Bonifacio / Oscar Fazzoli) and his Mercedes Ruehl clone wife, Donna / Jacqueline: Dayna LaBelle) at the spooky gate to the Thrilla  Villa.    It’s a dark and stormy night.  Great lighting and sound by Brandon Baruch and Peter Bayne set the scene as we learn that Tony and Donna are “connected” Italians (well, Tony is and Donna, apparently, is simply a browbeaten broad) arriving at the Thrilla Villa in search of an old acquaintance, “Mickey,” who has had plastic surgery and may be the connection to acquiring the old manse to take advantage of its New Jersey zoning for a casino/ entertainment destination.  They know nothing about the murder mystery event, but are welcomed as though they were expected.

Madison Rhoades' well turned set with scrim walls is elegantly tacky.  Seeing through the walls seemed to foreshadow something happening behind them.  It never did. 

Exposition and deliberately broad acting styles include the punked out and cynical Carolyn (Giulia Davis)

and her suave ‘uncle?’ Fredrick (Steven Connor).  The cast attempts to get along with the show with the Bonifacio/Fazzolis totally confused as to what’s going on.  All Tony/ Oscar wants to do is find the hidden passage and connect with his old pal, Mickey.

The opportunities for jokes are abundant, but few.  The set is loaded with doors for entrances and exits, but they are never really put to use as we might expect in a romp like Noises Off!  Why director Gary Lee Reed didn’t at least use the swinging door to the kitchen is a mystery of its own.  Andrew Villarreal as Tom, the house boy (who may have something going on with Zachary), camps to high heaven until the plot of the play within the play falls to pieces.  Rosalind (Carolyn Crotty) as the elegant hostess loses a contact lens, “Mickey” finally surfaces, the Voice of Doris Roberts is credited as the Voice of Camilla Thrilla, but her lines are difficult at best to understand…  as are the lines of some of the actors, especially in their guise of characters in the play within the play. 

This is a valiant effort at a silly premise, that with some work might fly through all the available doors a pace.  Keeping track of who’s who and the thread of the plot is reflective of Agatha Christie (Ten Little Indians is briefly referenced).  The fun of farce is the theatricality of it.  The mad nuttiness of Noises Off! is missing. The clever use of doubling in Irma Vep is missing, too.  With a bit more energy and enunciation by the actors and really using all those doors, it might become a clever romp. 

VILLA THRILLA

By Anna Nicholas

Produced by Bournos Productions

The Atwater Village Theatre

3269 Casitas Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90039

Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM

Sundays at 3PM

Through November 23, 2014

Tickets and information

800 838 3006

www.ThrillaVilla.com

2 Pianos 4 Hands Bach-to-Bach @ Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre

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Reviewed 18 October, 2014 by Robert Roll

2 Pianos 4 Hands: a play with music, or a piano concert with a light comedy narrative, earned a Canadian Tony Award in 1996 when authors Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt projected the A Chorus Line treatment onto the rarified world of classical concert piano.  Here is a concept that will either hook you right away, or give you pause.

As the characters Rick and Ted develop from squirmy kid prodigies into master pianists, their stories are embroidered not with poppy “I Hope I Get It” show tunes, but with the music of Mozart, Bach, Beethoven and a half-dozen other masters of classical music.  When you talk about an all-star score, this show has it in spades.

Christopher Tocco and Thomas Frey 

PHOTO CREDIT: Suellen Fitzimmons and Stratton McCrady

The current program’s fulsome and technically flawless musical performances alone make the show worth attending. In the four very capable hands of Thomas Frey and Christopher Tocco, the Rubicon Theatre Company offers an elevating musical evening of piano virtuosity and colorful character study.  

What’s really fun about this two-man cast is the effortlessness with which they hand off to each other both musically and dramatically in the roles of secondary foils to the main characters they play— seamlessly finishing each other’s thoughts both at the keyboard and in the storyline.

If you have ever been the beneficiary—or victim—of early-life musical training, 2 Pianos will strike a diminished G 7th chord in you.  Whether your childhood direction ran to youth soccer, math jams or any other parental-compulsive activity, the themes in this play ring equally true.

The show presents a story of two polite Canadian kids run through the wringer of competitive art at an early age.  They bridle at having to practice long hours, attend endless local competitions, and struggle to find their true selves while facing a blizzard of conflicting instructors, judges and well-meaning relatives.

Once the polite Canadian kids grow into polite Canadian piano virtuosos, they begin to discover enough about themselves to decide whether they may be great, or quite good, or good enough to ultimately be themselves.

With A Chorus Line, the producers had a certain latitude in casting great actors who could “dance a little”.  Any casting choices for 2 Pianos 4 Hands must place superb keyboard skills as foremost.  Frey and Tocco fill the musical bill handsomely, their skills with the light comedy and character changes are more than sufficient to round out a diverting evening.  Thomas Frey’s direction places musical performance exactly where it belongs, front and center. Past visitors to the Rubicon know that its converted 1920’s church with fewer than 200 seats is a more intimate venue than the grand concert hall the play might suggest, but Scenic Designer and Lighting Designer Steve Lucas crafts a setting exactly as advertised: 2 Pianos, elegantly framed, with a few stagecraft surprises that delight, never detract. 2 Pianos 4 Hands is a scintillating presentation in a jewel box setting.

2 Pianos 4 Hands Bach-to-Bach by Ted Dykstra and Richard Greenblatt

Rubicon Theatre

1006 East Main Street

Ventura, CA  93001

Wednesdays at 2 pm and 7pm

Thursdays and Fridays at 8 pm

Saturdays at 2 pm and 8 pm

Sundays at 2 pm

Through November 16, 2014

Tickets:  $35 - $59

$20/students (under age 22 with valid student ID)

805.667.2900

rubicontheatre.org

Free Readings at Circle X

CIRCLE X Theatre Company at the Atwater Village Theatre

This is not a review.   

It's just a report that if tonight’s reading of a new play by Bill Lawrence of the Circle X Writers Group is any indication, there’s some good work happening.   Lawrence’s play in two acts, “Second Slip,” is funny and current.  Thank goodness someone is writing comedy for the stage. 

The Circle X Theatre Co. at The Atwater continues its Monday evening soirees with catered goodies by Johanna McKay through November 10, 2014.  The 99 seat theatre was filled almost to capacity tonight.  Upcoming readings Monday at Eight will feature 10/20 A Capella by Tim Mason, 

10/27 For the Loyal by Lee Blessing, 

11/3 ICU by Fielding Edlow and 

11/10 an Untitled piece by Lina Patel.  The actors are professional, the reading tonight was very funny without effort. 

Highly recommended.

Circle X at the Atwater

3269 Casitas Avenue

LA, CA 90039

Mondays at Eight

Free (but donations for the goodies are appropriate!)

Easy parking

Real theatre for those who care

BETTER at The Echo Theatre

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Disclaimer:  I first saw Joe Spano with Julie Paine and others in a version of Dracula at the Zephyr in Hollywood in the seventies. Then, much later, I shared a dressing room with him while working on the pilot of Trapper John, M.D.  The guy is a terrific actor and a friend.  That said, Spano’s character, Marty, is the hub around which the plot of Jessica Goldberg’s world premiere play, BETTER, turns.  

Jennifer Chambers’s direction of Goldberg’s new play keeps the action cooking with the audience’s attention drawn left and right to represent several locations as the story unfolds.  We find ourselves at once remembering the not so distant past in small town Ohio as well as dealing with maturing siblings and others in the present day.   

Marty (Spano) is the patriarch of his family and has supported them by owning and operating a grocery store successfully for years.  His stage four cancer has him on his last legs as his children return home to comfort their mother, Laurie, (lovely Sigute Miller) and spend time with their failing dad. 

As the daughter, Annie, Meredith Bishop, brings life to a young woman pushing forty who is   beginning to question her life’s pathway.  Middle age crazy or crisis is going around as she arrives back home reluctantly morphing from her adult self as a mother and owner of her own restaurant in New York, to the teen she was while growing up in small town Ohio.  Annie’s battle with her past, her present and her future is well presented as she reunites with her high school squeeze, Frank (Malcolm Madera) who is now an older, divorced, handsome and very “interested” contractor who is assessing issues with Marty and Laurie’s aging house. 

Goldman is not Arthur Miller, however the depths of her appreciation for the feeling of family Miller exudes in Death of a Salesman and All My Sons creeps in.  Strong personalities clash and clatter.  We meet John, Annie’s brother (pumped Jeremy Maxwell), a health nut with pressing issues that may land him in jail back in California.  Maxwell’s rapid speech made some of the exposition a bit difficult to follow, but as with all of BETTER’s characters, he imbues his disappointed initials in the fabric of the play.  Frank’s Ex, Missy (far out Andrea Grano), inserts herself into the situation and winds up in the sack (well, heels to the ceiling in an easy chair!) with John!

Annie’s husband and father of their child, Cal (slick Johnathan McClain) is a successful  and very self involved self help guru who admits that he has lost the ability to see the future.  Annie has also had serious thoughts about her life goals while being prodded by Marty to take over the family business. 

Marty’s aging and confused mother, Anya (Eve Sigall) is slightly out of sync with the rest of the cast, none the less, the importance of this woman also near the end of her life, brings the story full circle. 

BETTER moves well with great energy that hurries the pace now and then, but brings each character and their issues solidly together.  The comparison with Arthur Miller’s work is mostly about the relationships of the characters to one another.   Eight different people with eight agendas that are all focused on one goal. The conflicts are real. 

Stephen Gifford’s beautifully executed set with subtle lighting by R. Christopher Stokes creates the perfect atmosphere for the story to unfold.  Goldberg’s ability to bring these three dimensional characters to life: emerging through twenty months of workshopping by The Echo pays off.  

BETTER by Jessica Goldberg

World Premiere

The Echo Theatre Company

@ The Atwater Village Theatre

3269 Casitas Avenue

Los Angeles, CA  90039

Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays

Through November 16, 2014

Tickets and information

310 307 3753

www.echotheatrecompany.com