JC Rocks

Extended through April 19 at the MET Theatre!!

The MET Theatre has deep roots in the land of 99 seats.  More than thirty   years ago, Bill Bushnell and his LA Actors Theatre held forth there with excellent productions using professional actors to high acclaim.  Today, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice meet Hair meets La Cage Aux Folles in Dolf Ramos and Marco Gomez’s  cracker jack production of Jesus Christ: Superstar. A superior cast rocks the house upstairs at the MET.  It’s a musical celebration in the midst of controversy about Actors Equity Association rattling sabers, ready to gut the current 99 Seat Plan.  The irony is that Ramos and Gomez, producers of high quality musical theatre in the tiny space on Oxford, actually pay their actors, hire musicians as well as top notch technical staff.  A full house for a Sunday matinee means a couple of things. One is that JC Superstar is a tried and true hit. Second is that with a cast of over twenty five actors and musicians, you can guarantee at least a few full houses who will stand to applaud. When word of mouth gets out, it’ll still rock on its own.

Fact is that this DOMA production, not without its flaws, will bring an audience of even total strangers to their feet and rightly so.  The Webber/Rice version of the last days of Jesus are seen through the eyes of Judas, (terrific Jeremy Saje), whose strong voice and dedication to the part bring chills.   One distraction, however is that our standard ‘bearded lady’ memory of the King of Kings remembers him with long flowing hair.  The hairpiece that equally strong Nate Parker as Jesus sports was immediately an issue for me.  From the leads to the ensemble, costumes by Lauren Oppelt and commitment are consistent and well done.   With the hip modern day approach to the play, real hair for Jesus would have been just fine.  Abandoning disbelief is crucial, even in a rock opera.  Excellent performances include strong vocals by Renee Cohen as Mary Magdalene and Venny Carronza as Herod.

Excessive stage fog seemed unnecessary, but the excellent stage  design by John Iacovelli and an amazing live band directed by Chris Raymond make this a truly professional production. Director Marco Gomez and choreographer Angela Todaro deserve double applause for their precision.  Over all, this is a great presentation of a classic American Rock Opera.

DOMA is dedicated to musical theatre.    It’s a must see.

Parking for the theatre is available east of  Santa Monica with a few spots in the neighborhood.   Arrive early. 

Jesus Christ: Super Star

By Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber

Performances continue through March 22:
Fridays & Saturdays @ 8 pm, Sundays @ 3 pm  
DOMA at The MET Theatre
1089 N. Oxford Ave.
Los Angeles CA 90029

Tickets and Information:

323 802 9181 

www. Domatheatre.com

Sesquicentennial at The Colony

THE ROAD TO APPOMATTOX  
by Catherine Bush

The Colony Theatre in Burbank knows its audience and Catherine Bush’s play (as well as The Whipping Man currently at the Pasadena Playhouse) each discuss the travails of the Civil War.  We meet, in particular,  Robert E. Lee (Bjorn Johnson) with his aide de camp, Colonel Walter Taylor (Shaun Anthony) as the North closes in. At the same time, Steve (call me Beau) Weeks (Brian Ibsen) has dragged his lovely wife, Dr. Jenny Weeks (Bridget Flanery), on a trip along the Civil War marker trail in search of his past. In particular, Beau wants to know about his great great grandfather Beauregard Weeks, who may have been associated directly with General Lee. 

Bridget Flanery and Bjorn Johnson star in the West Coast Premiere of the Colony Theatre Company's production of "THE ROAD TO APPOMATTOX" directed by Brian Shnipper and now playing at the Colony Theatre in Burbank.

 

PHOTO CREDIT:  Michael Lamont

Clever leaps of time from April, 1865 to present day Virginia on David Potts’ brilliant woodland set, bring Steve/Beau and Jenny in a parallel universe to where Lee discusses strategies to win the war, even in the face of sure defeat. 

As Steve/Beau and Jenny examine a marker along the trail, we hear a motorcycle.  Chip (a renowned Civil War Scholar) played by Taylor Pierce, finds Jenny alone in the woods and is immediately smitten.   Personal revelations emerge that get compared to Humpty Dumpty’s demise in the eleven year marriage of the young couple and also in the demise of Lee and his army.  Pierce appears in 1885 as well, as Captain Russell who, in the end pleads with Lee to reconsider his surrender. 

The problem for me with this play is that the story is interesting from an historic point of view both in 1865 as well as 2015 but holds little suspense and few surprises.  Director Brian  Schnipper is straight forward, guiding his cast in perfect costumes by Diane K. Graebner, through their paces.  The story unfolds neatly with Lee doing his best to be in command with communiqués continuing to arrive that announce that the pincers of the Enemy and General Grant are closing relentlessly.   

Bold tech lighting by Jared A. Sayeg and effects fill the stage as Lee scrambles to avoid defeat though the writing is on the wall as Richmond falls and the Road To Appomatox is inevitable. 

For history buffs and those who enjoy a professional performance of a marginally interesting evening of theatre, this is a not so challenging piece. Certainly,  dedicated actors bring the story, such as it is,  to life.  At the end, Lee appears in his full dress uniform and hopes he has dressed properly.  “I don’t know what to do.  I’ve never surrendered before.”

In this sesquicentennial anniversary of the defeat of the Confederate States, our attention brought to another era and the futility of war may be appropriate.  A fine cast and an appreciative audience made opening night one filled with energy.  The play itself is just a play. 

THE ROAD TO APPOMATTOX  

by Catherine Bush

  

THE COLONY THEATRE

555 N. Third Street 

Burbank, California

Opened February 14, 2015

Continues Thursdays  through Sundays

Closes March 15, 2015

Tickets and Information

818 558 7000  
www.colonytheatre.org 

A CARLIN HOME COMPANION: Growing up Carlin with Kelly Carlin

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The Falcon Theatre in Toluca Lake is like a miniature Mark Taper Forum.  I may have commented on this in the past, but want to reiterate because the work I’ve seen here has been professional work, quality work and impressive.  No exception is Kelly Carlin’s one woman autobiography that discusses her life as the daughter of America’s premiere curmudgeon / raconteur: George Carlin.  The impressive set by Keith E. Mitchell is beautifully designed and features projections that aid and abet Ms Carlin’s ninety minute discussion of her life under the influence of her dad.

Kelly Carlin in
A Carlin Home Companion,
Growing Up With George
at the Falcon Theatre.
Photo by Sherry Greczmiel

Rolling smoothly from her dad’s early days as a wannabe comedian, partnering in at one time with Jack Burns (who later, yeh, is memorable for his work with Avery Schreiber) to television roles; meeting Kelly’s mother, Brenda and through the haze of drugs and booze and finally finding his niche to become the darling of college kids and on to Carnegie Hall. 

Wonderful projections by Fritz Davis with Nick McCord's lights with sound design by David Beaudry bring the piece to life as Kelly recalls the days of her struggle as the child of a guy whose idea of child rearing included taking the kid out to a street corner and leaving her there… like for a week.  Never literally, but in a way Kelly was sometimes left to referee fights that her parents had.  She was also called upon to shepherd her mother through tough times that included cases of Mateus Rosè, clouds of pot smoke and struggling through flurries of snow.  Ms Carlin’s timing and depiction of both of her parents as well as recreating some of the more dramatic scenes of her life “growing up Carlin” simply work.  Casually dressed, she obviously enjoys the movements and her  stories, though some are sad and thoughtful.  It’s a wonderful work of art.  Director Paul Provenza, no stranger to the lives of kids in  Show Business, guides the actress around the set with perfect timing that the technical aspects of the show demand.  It appears to be a smooth collaboration between still and video projections as well as light cues that almost become additional characters in the piece.

More applause to Garry Marshall and the staff of The Falcon for providing diverse and professional work at this unique venue.  This is a production that is not to be missed for fans of George Carlin as well as for those who may thirst for an inside peek into the life of an iconic genius who more and more told the truth in his attempt to awaken us to our own demise.

A CARLIN HOME COMPANION: 

Growing Up Carlin with Kelly Carlin

The Falcon Theatre

4252 Riverside Drive

Burbank, CA 91505

Through March 1, 2015

Tickets and Information

818 955 8101  or  www.falcontheatre.com

Madwomen at Parson’s Nose

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Madwomen Photo Credit Parson's Nose

Parson’s Nose founder, the charming Lance Davis, in his curtain speech, vamps awaiting the arrival of relatives of a cast member.  The store front where the theatre shares studio space is simple and straight forward. This is adult theatre. There   an air of caring and a personal approach. Davis serves refreshments to the audience!  2015 marks the fifteenth year that this hearty band of actors/artists as they advance into their new season with Davis’s adaptation of Maurice Valency’s translation of Jean Giradoux’s The Madwoman of Chaillot. 

We meet a broad range of characters with as many degrees of skill as there are members of the cast.  Lance Davis’s direction is simple.  Nicely painted drops take us to the sidewalk café where The President (first night jitters Alan Brooks) connives with the Baron (Gary Lamb) and the Broker (Paul Perri) to create a company dedicated to fleecing anyone who may be fleeced for all their money. Across the room sits the kingpin, The Prospector, (James Calvert) in an ironically pristine ice cream suit. (Costumes by Holly Victoria Willaume are excellent!). Anything but clean, these four conspire to drill for oil in the neighborhood ruled over by title character Madwoman: Countess Aurelia (superb Mary Chalon).

In Act II perfectly underplayed Barry Gordon (Ragman) serves as a calming common denominator for the issues that Aurelia and her whacky sister madwomen (Dorothy Brooks, Jill Rogosheske and Marisa Chandler) as they plan the trial of Prospector and his cabal of greedy capitalists. Ragman serves as defense counsel to try in abstentia the rascals who will stop at nothing to secure the oil that the Prospector declares to lie beneath the Boulevard Chaillot.  Auriela has learned about the Secret Door that leads to the depths of the sewers of Paris.  After a brief trial the bad guys are all sent to their demise down the Rat Hole! 

Giradoux is and shall always be the Romantic.  A side story of true love between Phillipe and Irma: (Daniel James Clark dubbed Roderick by Auriela and Amber B. Malo), in typical fashion lock eyes and are destined to spend their lives together. Perhaps this is the playwright’s pitch for a happy future. Eerily prophetic, echoing the warning of US President Dwight D. Eisenhower, the play’s message is couched in a slightly farcical French setting.  The theme of Ike’s statement,  “… we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the militaryindustrial complex!” rings true.  Auriela’s kangaroo court conviction and sentence for the oil cabal may be one that many of us in the 21^st Century might secretly wish for.

PN’s production is simple and straight forward.  There is a feeling of community and community theatre that permeates the space from the moment the audience comes in.  Respect for the play in this deliberately abbreviated adaptation makes it totally approachable.   A short intermission is the theatre’s way to stimulate discussion and community over Orangina and red wine. Tres Francais.

The Mad Woman of Chaillot by Jean Giradoux

Parson’s Nose Theatre

89 S. Fair Oaks Avenue

Pasadena, CA 91030

Saturdays and Sundays

Through March 1, 2015

Tickets (Pay what you will) and information

626 403 7667

THE WHIPPING MAN at Pasadena Playhouse

Adam Haas Hunter, Charlie Robinson and Jarrod M. Smith
Photo by Debora Robinson

April 13, 1865.  Late at night. The Civil War lumbers on. The South on its last legs.   Into Tom Buderwitz’s shabby southern mansion, now in total disarray, by looters or the ravages of war, Rebel soldier, Caleb (Adam Haas Hunter), stumbles through the front door accompanied by thunder claps and lightning. Caleb may be a deserter from the Confederate Army.  He is the son of the home’s owner, a Jew, who has brought all of his family and slaves into the fold.   Passover is upon the house.

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The storm echoes the seventh plague of Egypt as Moses called upon God to convince Old Pharaoh to let his enslaved people go.  The correlation between the emancipation of the slaves at the heart of the Civil War and the liberation of the Jews in ancient Egypt brings to light an idea that has seldom been approached.  Playwright Matthew Lopez, in his Obie Award winning play, examines not only the influence of slave owners on their ‘property’ but how liberation affects the now free men: former slaves as they sojourn into the wide world. 

Excellent and bombastic Charlie Robinson, as Simon, the old retainer for Caleb’s family, enters to find Caleb in excruciating pain dragging himself into the large and formerly lavish living room.  Gangrene has set in.  Simon, as the slave who has been chief cook for Caleb’s family for years, along with his servant wife, Elizabeth and their daughter, Sarah, has knowledge of medicine in a rudimentary way.  An amputation must be performed.   John aka Nigger John, Jarrod M. Smith, arrives bearing the fruits of war, including much needed whiskey for the eventual removal of Caleb’s wounded leg. 

Martin Benson (founder, with David Emmes, of the South Coast Repertory Theatre where this production was developed), allows the actors to take rein and run with the action.  In Act II, April 15, 1865, the night of Passover, Simon has intended to make a seder and using whatever they can find, including hardtack for matzoh, he is deeply saddened to learn that the President has been shot and killed.  The interaction of how to deal with liberation, the death of the man who brought the Emancipation to the slaves explodes.  The aspect of ‘two peas in a pod’ describing the childhood friendship between Caleb and John, is at once conflicted as it was the custom to keep slaves in line by sending them to the Whipping Man, which was done to both John and Simon, exposes a strong ethical and personal dichotomy that permeated the country in the days of the Civil War and in a way continues today.

A beautifully staged production with excellent technical aspects gives the audience much to think about.  Highly recommended.  Special Talk Back days are listed on the Playhouse website.  A special nod to the Playhouse for, at last, installing new seating.  No longer does an audience member have to cross their fingers hoping that they would not be sinking into the exposed spring of a tattered seat. 

THE WHIPPING MAN

By Matthew Lopez

The Pasadena Playhouse

39 S. El Molino

Pasadena, CA 91101

Tuesday Through Fridays at 8PM

Saturdays at 4PM and 8PM

Sundays at 2PM and 7PM

Through March 1, 2015

Tickets and Information:

www.pasadenaplayhouse.org

626 356 7529

Company revived in Thousand Oaks

Review by Robert Roll

Company - Sondheim’s “Into the Oaks”

Don’t let the idea of another regional production of a 45-year-old Steven Sondheim musical put you off.  

Cabrillo Music Theatre’s current revival of the Tony-bedecked “Company” offers a shimmering evening’s entertainment at the Scherr Forum in Thousand Oaks.

If you know the composer’s oeuvre, this is the one with Side by Side By Side, Another Hundred People, The Ladies Who Lunch, and a half-dozen other hoppy, poppy show tunes delivered by a beautifully blended ensemble cast.  

The central character Robert, not so much celebrating his 35th bachelor birthday as dissecting the life that has led up to it, is delivered by Alexander Jon.  Jon’s strong voice serves him well in Sondheim’s soliloquies, as he navigates one of the most twinge-y personas in musical theatre.  This amorphous, uncommitted 70’s guy is really just the pivot man between George Furth’s series of one-acts about marriage and what it does to nice people.

Here is the karate-chopping Sarah and Harry.  Elissa Wagner and Michael Andrew Baker get genuinely physical with some bona fide body slams and back flips in real time.  Later we hang with tightly-strung Jenny and her mustachioed hubby David, lounging with Robert on a couple of authentic 70’s Naugahyde beanbag chairs with a bag of pot.  By the time Robert’s dreamy sexy chorus of current squeezes materializes to harmonize You Could Drive A Person Crazy, the cast and audience have started to party.

Highlights in this show come one after another.  Let’s single out, though, a coloratura turn by Cabrillo first-timer Chelsea Emma Franko’s Another Hundred People, and the damn-she’s-good Getting Married Today pattered to Gilbert and Sullivan perfection by Heather Dudenbostel as Jenny, the potentially runaway bride.

Cabrillo’s Artistic Director Lewis Wilkenfeld is fond of saying “It’s not musical theatre without live music”.  A nine-member orchestra conducted by Cassie Nickols is onstage/upstage for the entire three-hour performance playing with the cast, not at them.  Cate Caplin’s choreography turns this talented ensemble into a Broadway show line that delivers the tappin’ kicken’ goodie goods.

Here is a live show worth seeing.  In the  T.O. Civic Arts Plaza’s smaller (400-seat) venue, Lighting Designer Jean-Yves Tessier’s staccato illuminations flirt against Tom Buderwitz’ muscular set just as Jon’s character Robert toys with his trio of sweethearts.  

Drive out to T.O. and see this show.

Company

The Cabrillo Music Theatre

Presented in the Scherr Forum Theatre

2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard

Thousand Oaks, CA 

800-745-3000

www.cabrillomusictheatre.com

January 23rd, 2015 8pm

January 24th, 2015 2pm*

January 24th, 2015 8pm

January 25th, 2015 2pm

January 29th, 2015 7:30pm

January 30th, 2015 8pm**

January 31st, 2015 2pm

January 31st, 2015 8pm

February 1st, 2015 2pm

February 5th, 2015 7:30pm

February 6th, 2015 8pm

February 7th, 2015 2pm

February 7th, 2015 8pm

Mutant Olive at The Lounge

Mitch Hara / Mutant Olive / Photo by Ed Krieger

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MUTANT OLIVE written and performed by Mitch Hara

For any actor to tackle a one person show is admirable.  It’s like walking a tight wire without a net and wire walking is what Mitch Hara is doing for  an hour and a half currently at the Lounge on Santa Monica Boulevard.  That the venue is on Santa Monica is significant, even though some of his story takes place a couple of miles to the west in the heart of   WeHo.  The Lounge is an intimate little space of about fifty seats.  The old brick walls are bare with a long black velour up right that provides for an off stage area, though Hara, as his alter ego Adam Astra, actually enters from the lobby as though presenting himself for an audition for Death of a Salesman. Breaking the fourth wall, he engages in immediate audience interaction by asking a lady in the front row to take his photo ‘to remember the moment in case he actually gets the part.’ This presents a strange dichotomy of discomfort and luring the audience into his bizarre world. 

Bulk of the show turns on the title: Mutant Olive (He was forced to wear an olive green suit as a kid).  We hear how Astra was raised by wolverines, the unkind, but apparently accurate description of his parents.  His portrayal of his drunken and abusive father and distracted mother, the whore, startles and wears a little thin, but the wirewalking is cleverly directed by Terri Hanauer.  The bare bones stage: one ladder, five boxes, three folding chairs,  create Astra’s home, his mother’s boudoir, an encounter group, a dramatic car wreck that winds from Santa Monica Boulevard to Robertson through alleys to Melrose where all hell breaks loose and a hospital where an out of body experience reminds slightly of Angels in America.

Hara’s movements are stereotypically gay as he tries again and again to present his “pizza delivery boy” rendition of Puck in a Midsummer Night’s Dream.  His impressive mime is smooth as silk, as he dances his various characters throughout the piece.  

Performing such intimate autobiographical material is daring and for the most part works.  Recounting a drunken blackout on stage at the Matrix in David Rabe’s Hurly Burly and his rendering of a believable out of body experience make the sometimes overly profane and indulgent moments worth waiting through.  This is deep digging, at times a one person pity party that over all might work even better with some judicious cutting.

Mutant Olive written and performed by Mitch Hara

LOUNGE THEATRE
6201 Santa Monica Blvd.
Hollywood CA 90038
(corner El Centro, one block east of Vine)

 Thursday, Friday and Saturday at 8PM

Through February 28, 2015

Tickets and Information: 

323 960 7861

www.plays411.com/mutant

Let’s Mess With Texas!

A Tuna Christmas @ Rubicon Theatre Company

Reviewed 7 December, 2014 by Robert Roll

The holidays are a perfect time to step out with friends or family and indulge in the real magic of live theatre. It’s a true gift to spend some downtime with our loved ones, our community and the talented people who sacrifice some of their precious holiday time to put on a show for us.

Our choices this year are abundant and varied.  For those who balk at the peppermint sweetness of a "family-friendly" show, or worry they may nod off to the dreamy strains of the symphony, the Rubicon in Ventura offers a tart alternative.  

Its wildly popular holiday revue "A Rubicon Family Christmas" takes a hiatus this season as the company presents a lively rendition of A Tuna Christmas—the sassy and rather cynical second installment of the "Greater Tuna series" of two-man shows penned by Joe Sears, Ed Howard and Jaston Williams.

The Rubicon has cast a pair of terrific character actors in the show; Broadway vet and Rubicon favorite Jamie Torcellini with the Company’s certified wunderkind Brian McDonald (who also directs). 

Brian McDonald and Jamie Torcellini in A Tuna Christmas

The players rise to the task of inhabiting a dozen different roles apiece, each with his (or her–a lot of “hers”, actually) own personal backstory, physical mannerisms and dialects.  It’s telling that the intermission crowd was discussing each of the play’s characters as if they were fully realized individuals, rather than facets of two individual performances.

Set in rural Tuna, the “third smallest town in Texas”, original cast members Howard and Williams built something of a cult following over the last quarter century skewering the prairie taboos of sex, religion, politics and bedrock values of the tiny burg’s quirky residents.  Texans love this stuff.  The plays’re funny because they’re so true!  These plays are, however, Texans making fun of Texans.  Two good ol’ boys playin’ all the parts–even the women folk–dressin' up in wigs and high heels and panty hose and lipstick…  Boy, Howdy!

The original production and its subsequent touring performances diverge from the Rubicon offering in one critical aspect.  Howard and Williams winked to their audience, “Don’t Mess With Texas unless you're from Texas”.  Skilled as they are, Messrs. McDonald and Torcellini are terrific actors playing roles.  Just as it would be mean-spirited of two Texans to do a play peppered with tasteless Polish jokes, their play may ask too much of anyone other than themselves to own sufficient Austin hipster-cred necessary to mean-spiritedly ridicule those dumb-as-dirt natives of the Lone Star State.

That said, if you can embrace the Texas-for-Texans premise, A Tuna Christmas delivers a show, light on plot and long on characterization, which serves up some redneck laughs in equal measure with a few genuinely poignant moments.  

Christopher Beyries’ versatile set design and Lighting Director Johnny Ryman’s effects conduct the viewer from place to place as adeptly as the cast’s deft character segues.  A special nod is earned by Sound Designer Cricket Meyers for making some offstage business seem three-dimensionally real.  Costumes by Michael Mullen and a dazzling array of wigs and hairpieces designed by Danielle White gave the cast just the right equipment to realize their two-man “cast of dozens”.

A Tuna Christmas by Joe Sears, Ed Howard and Jaston Williams

Rubicon Theatre Company

1006 East Main Street

Ventura, CA  93001

Wednesdays 12/10, 12/17 2 p.m. and 7 p.m

Thursdays 12/11, 12/18 8 p.m.

Fridays 12/12, 12/19 8 p.m.

Saturdays 12/13, 12/20 2 p.m. and 8 p.m.

Sundays 12/14, 12/21 2 p.m.

Tickets and Information: 805.667.2900

www.rubicontheatre.org

 

ISC’s Dickens: Make time for a treat! Give yourself a present.

-->Most of us immediately think of Alastair Sim’s Scrooge in the 1951 movie version of A Christmas Carol about the time that the Thanksgiving dishes have been washed and put away.  The tradition of Scrooge and Marley and the Cratchits is one we’ve heard a hundred times and counting.  The true poetry of Charles Dickens is really in the story telling itself.  Of course, the movie and the sundry plays with top hats and empty scuttles of coal or even Bill Murray’s “Scrooged” come to mind.  Today I learned that the way the story really must be enjoyed is by hearing Dickens’ words.  Dickens’ words delivered by …   Dickens!  They must be narrated as well as acted out.  The poetry must roll from the tongue with a slight British accent; a little music, a little song and the warmth and spirit of Christmas.  Scrooge’s story must be gently spread before us like the wonderful feast it is.

I’m happy to announce that The Independent Shakespeare Company’s tradition of presenting A Christmas Carol With Charles Dickens in just such a manner fills the bill to the brim and over flows with poetry and drama in a way so charming, so professional and with so much joy that it simply must not be missed.

ISC’s tiny space in an industrial complex in Atwater goes to prove that it’s the work that comes first.  The imagination and the dedication to the story and the work of the director (smoothly conducted by Melissa Chalsma) is flawless.  With Mr. David Melville, as Scrooge as well as the sundry other characters, including Marley, the Ghosts and most of the Cratchits; assisted ably by the lovely Miss Julia Aks, ISC presents the tale of miserable Scrooge with gusto and verve and the great good humor that must be much like the way Dickens himself may have presented the story a hundred and sixty years ago. 

Program notes remind us (as we were recently reminded in last year’s The Invisible Woman with Ralph Fiennes as Dickens) that the man not only gave us a wealth of classic and memorable stories, but he was also an actor.  Evidently, he caused some women to faint when he portrayed Bill Sykes in his dark tale of Oliver Twist! As Dickens, Melville welcomes the audience though not all that happy to be in a dinky little space in Atwater and needs reminding to introduce his pretty assistant, Miss Aks.  Melville embraces Dickens as one might enjoy the embrace of an old familiar cloak.  He wears him and becomes him as he brings Bob Cratchit, his hard working ‘clark’ to life and then embarks on his journeys with the Ghosts:  Marley arrives with chains (sfx by Miss Aks) and tells Ebenezer that it’s time to assess his life and watch out for the Spirits who will visit him in the subsequent nights to come. Melville provides the dialog for all but a few of the well known characters, having a splendid time the Scrooge’s nephew, Fred and all.  We see Scrooge through the magic of The Ghost of Christmas Past and learn that his greed and ambition cost him the love of his fiancé, Belle, played with tenderness by Miss Aks. 

The seats in the ISC space are more practical than comfortable, so bring a pillow, but whatever you to do treat yourself to fine theatre and the true spirit of Christmas this year, make it over to Atwater and enjoy Melville and Aks in A Christmas Carol!

A CHRISTMAS CAROL With Charles Dickens by Charles Dickens

The Independent Shakespeare Company

3191 Casitas Avenue  #168

Los Angeles, CA 90039

Only 4 performances   

Saturday December 13 at 2PM and 7:30PM

Saturday December 20 at 2PM and 7:30PM

**The performance 12/13 at 7:30 pm is SOLD OUT
**The performances 12/20 at 2:00 and 7:30 are SOLD OUT

Tickets and Information: 818 710 6306

www.iscla.org

Broomstick at The Fountain

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Broomstick by John Biguenet

The Fountain Theatre in Hollywood chalks up another winner with Jenny O’Hara starring as “Witch” in the extended Broomstick.  

Jenny O'Hara as Witch / Photo: Ed Krieger

  

The last time I saw O’Hara on stage was here at The Fountain with her talented husband Nick Ullett in Steven Sachs’s brilliant “Bakersfield Mist.”  Sachs directs this one with a steady hand.  

I’ve always rejected the term ‘character’ actor because, in fact, every single character we’ve ever seen on stage or in the movies is a persona inhabited by a skilled (hopefully) actor who is acting out the part.  Jenny’s husband, Nick, actually played himself in his one person show, “Dying is Easy, Comedy is Hard,” at the Matrix four years ago and in so doing, recreated himself to much acclaim. 

O’Hara takes Biguenet’s eighty minutes of rhyming couplets and spins them into tales: chilling and inquisitive.  At rise, Witch is visited by someone whom she ‘took in’ when he was a child and chides him for being shy. She goes on to tell how holding him off the floor by the hair of his head helped him calm down. This sets the tone for Biguenet’s couplets which O’Hara delivers with skill.

For over forty years on film, on television and on the stage, O’Hara has been a working actor.  She never holds back.  Indeed, in Broomstick, Witch, is an out there gal.  Witty and present, alive and feisty within her fairy tale hovel (brilliant Hobbit Hole set by designer Andrew Hammer, aided and abetted by Jennifer Edwards’ lighting that almost becomes another character in the play and Peter Bayne’s ebullient sound) where her story unfolds. O’Hara works her magic on an appreciative audience.

Witch recalls that she has always felt ‘misunderstood’ from the time she was a tiny child and goes on to relate an early romance with a beau whom she loved.  Losing him seemed to turn her toward discovery of her special powers.  The show has been extended, giving late comers, like me, the opportunity to see a well written show expertly presented in this, the 24^th season of The Fountain. 

"Broomstick"  by John Biguenet

Fountain Theatre

5060 Fountain Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90029

8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays

2 p.m. Sundays. 

Extended to December 14, 2014

Tickets and information: (323) 663-1525

 www.FountainTheatre.com