Live and in color at The Elephant Room

(Please click on the photo for the full effect)

The Elephant Room currently unleashed at CTG's Kirk Douglas in Culver City may get an audience in spite of itself.  

 Kings (and Queens) of Comedy include duos and trios in the form of Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Burns and Allen, Martin and Lewis, The Marx Brothers, The Three Stooges, The Ritz Brothers and in modern times The Flying Karamazov Brothers.  If the guys (Lounge Lizard: Dennis Diamond, Cowboy: Daryl Hannah .. no, not THAT Daryl Hannah and Hippie Louie Magic in bad wigs and marginally executed slap dance choreography ) tearing up the Elephant Room had taken a cue from any of the above it might help.  The irony is that they have successfully taken their show on the road and in spite of the mess, bad jokes and lame tricks, the audience laughs, sometimes in concert, sometimes just shaking its collective head, realizing that they are sitting still for such shenanigans.

The shiny main curtain changes colors as the audience crams itself into airline seating.  Why, at rise, the three guys are sitting on a fold out sofa that is spewing smoke is a mystery. They recite the opening stage directions milking moderate applause from the audience.  We’ve been warned that these guys are on the prowl.  Leering stares from the trio are supposed to let us know that they mean business, ladies.  It’s a mishmash of silly dancing and an introduction to the turquoise Elephant Room  which is literally sitting on cinder blocks (to show there are no trap doors, I guessed) where the ‘magic’ will astound and entertain.

The magic is marginal, using mostly store bought magic tricks, performed in concert from time to time, each member of the cast contributing his particular brand (Lounge Lizard, Cowpoke, Hippie) of magical comedy.  Though never mind bending, the best trick, perhaps, is the trio working together with materializing and disappearing eggs.  One egg apparently shifts from one guy to the next in a clipped rhythm that is pretty impressive.  More impressive is the manifestation of a crystal wine glass and the guys breaking their now three manifested eggs into it one at a time.  Meanwhile, Daryl returns to the stage with a frying pan, Diamond produces a block of cheese, Louie produces a fork and an omelet is created with magic “fire” from Diamond’s finger tips.  Before our very eyes the seemingly normal fry pan cooks the eggs to a perfect turn. 

The old call-a–volunteer-from-the-audience-routine produces an attractive young woman who screams and hollers as an electric sabre saw we’ve just witnessed shredding a head of romaine is passed through a special device over her body and saws something else on the other side.  It’s cheesy old stuff.  The script is minimal and the dumber and dumberer patter is completely in sync with the purpose of the whole silly production: simply to have some fun.  Serpentine streamers, a ton of confetti, a disappearing guy from the audience named Kyle and an embarrassed blonde named Paige, are all part of ninety minutes of only slightly organized mayhem instigated by director Paul Lazar. Created by three "magicians," Trey Lyford, Geoff Sobelle and Steve Cuiffo, it could use some tightening, but for a good time call... 

P.S. Loxodontics by Eric Wright and the Puppet Kitchen are the frosting on the big cheesecake.

THE ELEPHANT ROOM 

Created by Trey Lyford, Geoff Sobelle and Steve Cuiffo

CTG presents at The Kirk Douglas Theatre

9820 Washington Boulevard

Culver City, CA 90232

Tuesday through Friday 8PM

Saturday at 2 and 8 PM

Sunday at 1 and 6:30 PM

Through September 16, 2012 

Tickets $20 to $50.00 (subject to change) 

www.CenterTheatreGroup.org

213 628 4017

AN IRISH BLESSING at The Odyssey

  L to R: Joe Pacheco, Patrick Quinlan, Austin Hebert, Shaun O’Hagan, Scott Conte

The Irish Curse, continues through September 16, 2012 at the Odyssey.  It is a fine, fine play. 

Contrary to the publicity hype, that seems to promote the show as a comedy, I found it more dramatic than I'd expected and though presented with good humor, it is much more. 

We find five men:  A cop, tall and handsome by his own admission, Stephen (Shaun O’Hagan);  Rick (Austin Hebert) the feisty Irish 22 year old kid; Joseph (Scott Conte), an attorney in his forties and newcomer Kierin, from Ireland (Patrick Quinlan), a virgin who’s afraid his bride (he'll be married in two days) may reject him because of his diminutive size. 

 Father Kevin Shaunessy (Joe Pacheco) is the 50 year old Catholic priest who runs an AA type session for men with the "Iris Curse:"  colloquially:  a tiny penis.  What Martin Casella’s dialogue does beautifully is to defuse the embarrassment of penis terms, along with a healthy smattering of curse words that are inappropriate but effin’ necessary in the meeting room of St. Sebastian's Catholic Church.  It’s a rainy night in Brooklyn and these men, who alternately love and hate, reject and respect one another, come together to find new insights into their mutual concern: how to regain and/or maintain self respect in the face of a society that apparently places great value on the size of a man’s penis.

Casella’s script is way more than cock jokes.  As we are made privy to the private lives of the four members of the group we discover the fears which dominate their egos, that, in a patriarchy, are so fragile.  The coincidence of Father Shaunessy’s bumping into Kieran, brings new life to a group that has become somewhat jaded to the ongoing issues that have been hashed and rehashed, while the good Father tries to rein the rhetoric in.  The characters are superbly written, beautifully defined, well arced and professionally acted. To his credit, Director Andrew Barnicle moves his actors minimally, but after all it’s really only exposition.  Bantam rooster Rick in the big cop’s face, after admitting that he, Rick, stuffs his jock strap with a rolled up tube sock, is about as confrontational as it gets. The dialogue and the action such as it is, never stop flowing. At once the characters are sometimes confrontational and often funny. Even the priest makes confessions regarding his reductive member which affected his decision years ago to join the clergy.

We discover the 'issues' that these men face because of embarrassment and teasing and how self esteem can be challenged by their individual size situations.  Yes, size does matter, no matter what they think women think.  It matters to them.  A lot.  The real stand out in the dialogue is the new guy, Kieran.  The angst and issues of the newlywed-to-be surface more deeply as he tells of how the ‘curse’ effected his da and how in a similar scenario of his finding his his way to this group,  his da found another accepting group years before.  Perhaps Casella is promoting serendipity or chance, maybe even fate, but what we have here is an hour and a half where we forget the sniggering about the size of anyone’s cock or Johnson or mushroom or pee pee and gain believable insights into strong feelings harbored deep within five exceptional yet average guys on a rainy night in Brooklyn. 

The play has been extended...   through September 16, 2012

The Irish Curse by Martin Casella

The Odyssey Theatre

2055 S. Sepulveda

LosAngeles, CA 90025

Tickets $30 Top 

310 477 2055 Ext 2

www.Odysseytheatre.com

MOLINA STUNNING AT THE TAPER

Alfred Molina as Mark Rothko

John Logan’s RED invigorates the imagination and resurrects beautifully the spirit of Mark Rothko currently at the Mark Taper Forum. 

Alfred Molina  as the painter not only takes the stage, but draws the audience in with exaltations of the creative process and ego that stir the passions. At once the image of the painter and the actor meld in the Passion/ Work of Molina and Jonathan Groff as Ken, his assistant newly hired who shows up dressed to impress but does not.  Rothko immediately puts Ken in his place and as the story evolves, it may be Ken who survives with the notion that, as Rothko exhorts him early on, he may be the son who kills the father.  Director Michael Grandage’s hand is invisible as the story unfolds flawlessly.  The best credit one can give a director is when his work appears so naturally. 

Ken knows that he is in the presence of something great and allows that being a part of it is an education that can be gained in no other way.  The two discuss philosophy and in a stroke of genius, Logan has Ken compare Rothko to Apollo and Pollack to Dionysus in masterful strokes.  Rothko says that painting is ninety percent observation and thinking and ten percent laying on of the paint.  The physical action of laying the ground for one of the painter’s huge canvases is, simply, a dance in Red.

Rothko was born Marcus Rothkowicz in Russia, moving at the age of ten to Portland to be with his family.  After a three year separation and only months after his arrival in the United States, his father passed away, leaving a hole in the young man’s spirit.  This loss seems to have permeated the life of the painter, who began with making figurative artwork and after moving to New York and being influenced by abstract  expressionists like Jackson Pollack began what became an obsession with large fields of color. 

The year is about 1958.  Downstage the fourth wall becomes the mural that Rothko was commissioned to paint for the Four Seasons Restaurant in the new Seagrams Building in New York City.  From time to time the actors come down to contemplate the work. Inspiration comes and goes.  Scenic designer Christopher Oram’s practical atelier where Rothko worked toward the end of his life and career is excellently crafted and is supplemented by Neil Austin’s lights which almost become another character in the play, as do the sound cues by Adam Cork.  It is spare, but active with huge canvases upstage and Rothko and Ken working in concert with panels on a large rolling  easel.   

Rothko’s ego splashes all about the stage unbound.  The man arrives at the studio from home dressed in suit and tie and then transforms into the artist.   This is his calling, his work, his profession, his life.  At one point in a discussion about the demise of Jackson Pollack, Rothko calls the splatter artist’s death a suicide.  “He didn’t commit suicide,” Ken responds.  Then Rothko enumerates all of the contributing factors that led the hard drinking wild man from Wyoming to hit a winding country lane in an Oldsmobile convertible at break neck speed.  “If that’s not suicide, I don’t know what is.  My suicide" he says, "won’t be so ambiguous.”

The heady dialogue is fodder for debate and elucidation.   For artists and those who fancy themselves ‘in the know’ about contemporary art, it’s a wonderful colloquy.  For fans of Molina, he does it again and again, stepping out of the way to allow Rothko's complex character to emerge: ebb and flow and flood the stage.  Young Groff holds his own and in a huge speech meets the famous artist head on in a way that shocks and surprises but at the same time necessitates the next steps for both the youngster and the master.  It’s a masterful play and a wonderful production with nuance and laughs and performances worthy of more praise than I can find words for here.  Tickets are dear.  Go anyway.

Michael Sheehan

RED

By John Logan

Mark Taper Forum

Los Angeles Music Center

135 North Grand Avenue

Los Angeles, CA 90012

Phone: 213-972-7211

marktaper.boxofficeticketsales.com/

$100 top
Closes September 9, 2012

INsiders at ANW

This from Pasadena's Classic Theatre Company:

 "The INsiders" Launches Wednesday, August 29, 2012, 7 pm;
Continues Through April 2013 at A Noise Within 

A Noise Within (ANW), the acclaimed classical repertory theatre company, launches "The INsiders" program to explore the company's six 2012-13 season masterwork productions and their relevance to the 21st century with lively discussion forums led by guest experts and specialty workshops on the artistic process.  "The INsiders" begins on Wednesday, August 29, 2012, 7 to 9 pm, with "The Dark Fantasy of Cymbeline," a program focused on Shakespeare's Cymbeline presented by Dr. Miranda Johnson-Haddad.  It continues throughout the season, spotlighting George Bernard Shaw’s The Doctor’s Dilemma, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath adapted by Frank Galati, Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice, and George Farquhar’s The Beaux' Stratagem adapted by Thornton Wilder and Ken Ludwig.  The interactive conversations, held September 19, October 10, November 7, 2012; January 9, February 6, March 6 and April 10, 2013, offer in-depth information on the historical, cultural, political and philosophical influences impacting the plays and their contemporary relevance as well as insights into the artistic process.  "The INsiders" (formerly known as “Scholar’s Society”) was established to engage members in challenging and lively discussions about A Noise Within's work, which has been lauded by critics as "freshly imagined," "invigorating," “inspired,” and “masterfully crafted.”  Members also receive a copy of each play.  "The INsiders" meetings take place at A Noise Within’s new 33,000 square-foot, state-of-the-art Pasadena venue. 

ALL MY SONS / Dreamhouse Theater Company

 Patrick Cavanaugh and Caroline Westeimer   Photo: John Sullivan

All My Sons

Arthur Miller’s success as a playwright stems from his deep interest in the human condition.  Most think first of his Death of a Salesman, the story of failure through the best of intentions mingled with excuses.  Interestingly, Salesman was Miller’s second play following the success of ALL MY SONS in 1947. Evidently, based on a true story of greed and malfeasance stemming from the sale of faulty airplane parts for the WWII effort ALL MY SONS foreshadows the sad tale In Miller’s Willy Lohman with the main character, Joe Keller.  Briefly, Keller (multitalented Ronald Quigley who is credited with the set design) has profited from the war in a suspicious way.  Blaming his partner, Steve Deever, for shipping cracked cylinder heads, Keller is exonerated in court while Deever is sent to prison. 

Dreamhouse Theater Company’s current production of ALL MY SONS at The Jet Theater in NoHo stands with professional productions of the play in many aspects.  Quigley’s spot on exterior of the Keller home takes us to Ohio a few years after the war.  Keller has grown his business after the cylinder head scandal and his son, Chris (Patrick Cavanaugh) is the beneficiary.  There is a bravado in the Keller men.  The matriarch, Kate (Caroline Westheimer) holds out hope that their older son, Larry, will return from the war, though he’s been declared missing in action and presumed dead. The war is now over, yet Kate holds out for the unlikely return of her son. Frank Lubey (Lukas Bailey) fans the flames of Kate’s vigil by declaring that, according to Larry’s horoscope, he could not have died on his ‘favorable day.’

The story, as in other works by Miller, goes down a rocky path of familial strife. A young man seeks his own way out of the shadow of his father’s apparent greed.  Personalities conflict.  Hard feelings are maintained.  Chris wants to marry Larry’s girlfriend, Ann Deever (beautiful Jacqueline Hickel), against his mother’s wishes.  The dialogue is crisp and cutting.  Finding the through line to any kind of happiness is difficult for Arthur Miller and whether or not this play leaves us with much hope is beside the point.  It’s a story of people struggling to survive in the face of ruin.  How Keller is finally revealed as the true culprit in the cylinder head debacle turns him inward with shame and, as later in Death of a Salesman for Willy Lohman, the end is near.

Director Alex Sol (working with his lovely wife, Producer Sarah Sol) is building a strong company of theatre professionals whose youth and enthusiasm are vital to taking a storefront and building a space to present theatricals.  Excellent tech (with the exception of one flash that should be seen anywhere but behind the front door of the Keller home) is flawless.

Arthur Miller’s language is an absolute reflection of the forties in Post WWII middle America.  The cast pulls it off, keeping pace and their individual characters lively and involved.  It’s an intimate space where every nuance of the issues of the story are immediately available.  Small theatre like this deserves an audience.  Tell a friend and experience the joy of a dedicated company with a difficult play.

ALL MY SONS by Arthur Miller

Dreamhouse Theater Company at

The Jet Theater

5126 Lankershim Blvd. (Enter in the back)

North Hollywood, CA 91601

Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM

Sundays at 7PM

Tickets $25.00

Understudy Matinees August 12 and 19 @ 2PM $12.50

Through September 2, 2012

Tickets:

www dreamhousetheatre.com

818 745 7331

KOMITAS at Atwater Village Theatre

Jesse Einstein, Gina Manziello

                                                                                                                  Photo by Kevin Mills

From time to time guests are invited to see a show that I may be unable to make time to see.  This is from

Guest Reviewer, Arpine Eloyan. Thank you, Arpine.

The story of Komitas is synonymous with and revered by Armenians all over the world.  His unique, all encompassing musical talents have made him a national icon.  

Revolutionizing Armenian music, he purified it from early Turkish influences.  His music has become a symbol of joy, sorrowful       perseverance and triumph for an entire nation.  In addition to his musical talents, he was also a poet, a philosopher, a teacher and a priest.  His inner struggles between his personal faith and church made him an unconventional hero.  Ultimately, “he was so traumatized by the 1915 Genocide that he spent the last 20 years of his life in an asylum in virtual silence.”

Komitas has said that life begins when sound is born and so with his familiar music playing in the background  the play begins  at the Circle X Theater in Atwater Village.

On a minimalistic but yet poignant set, Lilly Thomassian has demonstrated her craftsmanship of fine writing by presenting this very complex and challenging biographical play which tackles the many facets of Komitas’s intriguing life. 

Director Pavel Cerny has done a unique job in terms of creating scenes of make believe, fantasy and symbolism.  It’s hard to imagine the difficulty of creating a genocide march on a relatively small stage where one is able to visualize, feel and hear the stomps of the tens of thousands of the marchers who were about to be mass murdered on a remote island.  To accomplish a scene of this intensity with a limited amount of actors is touching, surreal and profound. 

Jesse Einstein, as Komitas, exudes a high level of energy, rhythm and dynamism keeping the audience’s attention from start to finish on his life’s journey.  The onstage chemistry between the Young Komitas, Arthur Parian, and his grandmother, Takui Akopyan, is dynamically refreshing, powerful and moving. 

Komitas is an interesting, engaging and emotional play that has all of the major elements of one man’s struggle within himself: his passions and choices vs. his destiny. Ultimately, Komitas's beliefs and convictions come to resolution; best expressed through his music with love.

Komitas

By Lilly Thomassian

Atwater Village Theatre

3269 Casitas Avenue, Los Angeles

July 14^th through August 19th. 

JITNEY: A BUMPY RIDE

Larry Bates, Charlie Robinson & Ellis E. Williams in August Wilson's "Jitney" 

 Photo: Henry DiRocco. 

August Wilson’s Jitney arrives at the Pasadena Playhouse from South Coast Repertory Theatre  shucking and jiving with a slightly disco beat as the playwright discusses Pittsburgh in the seventies.   Becker (spot on Charlie Robinson) runs a jitney station:  gypsy cabs that ferry locals in the black community where licensed cabs won’t go.  The pay phone rings.. and rings.. and rings and someone, whose turn it is to drive answers “Car Service.” 

Wilson has garnered acclaim for his personal and well written examinations of working class folks who are, coincidentally, African American.  Jitney discusses generations  of characters whom we come to truly appreciate. We sympathize, empathize and laugh, to find our hearts engaged as the plot works out conflict and love, separation and reunion.  Ellis E. Williams as Turnbo gets up into everybody’s ‘bizniss’.  Meddling for a guy like this is inevitable.  Generations of working class Americans are represented here. They're just trying to make a go of life in a little business that is about to be shut down to Urban Renewal, but not if Becker has his way.  Tired of being pushed around by the establishment, the men band together, in spite of some major personality conflicts to keep their jitney station going.

Shaun Motley’s functional set design is perfectly fine.  Trouble with fluorescent lights was a minor distraction in otherwise successful lighting by Brian J. Lillienthal.  Dana Rebecca Woods’ costumes from the seventies brought knowing chuckles from the audience. 

Director Ron OJ Parson keeps the action and intentions focused but at over two and a half hours, the Playhouse challenges the audience to struggle in their threadbare seats for way too long.  Opening night audience was in for the long haul, but the very real pain of the length of the show makes for less than a fun evening.  

Bring a pillow.

JITNEY by August Wilson

The Pasadena Playhouse

39 S. El Molino Avenue

Pasadena, CA

Through July 15, 2012

626 356 7529

$59.00 top

Rush Tickets One Hour before Curtain $15.00

Pasadena Playhouse goes back in time: The Heiress

The Heiress

Henry James’s novel, Washington Square, was written in the late 1800s.  In 1947 Ruth Goetz and Augustus Goetz adapted James’s novel for the Broadway stage calling it The Heiress.  It tells the melancholy story of a lonely young woman struggling reluctantly to find herself through the appreciation of others.

The proscenium is cloaked with a beautifully painted drop depicting the toney New York City neighborhood of  “Washington Square 1850.” It is very impressive. We then discover John Iacovelli’s gorgeous set, an elegantly beautiful reproduction of a Victorian townhouse in Wedgewood Blue. Leah Piehl’s fantastic costumes, especially for the women of the company in change after change, with every detail attended to; antique furniture reflecting the wealth of the good doctor’s success; all extend the promise of a classic piece of theatre.

Fair warning has been announced that the play with an intermission will run almost three hours.  Polite applause by the invited audience as the stars make their entrances is traditional. We meet the chilly patriarch, Dr. Austin Sloper (Richard Chamberlain) as he discusses the issue of daughter, Catherine’s (Heather Tom), inept social graces with his sister, Aunt Lavinia (the excellent Julia Duffy).  Soon we are joined by Catherine and the slow and deliberate movement of exposition begins.

The first honest moment of the play is expressed by a five second dash across the stage. It’s the completely professional Elizabeth Tobias, as Maria, the crisp and efficient maid.  Unfortunately, The Heiress is not about Maria.

The plot moves slowly, possibly by director Tàmaso Rodriguez’s design. And, though presented in beautiful images, the story of how Miss Sloper is swept off her feet almost immediately by the fortune hunter, Morris Townsend (slick Steve Coombs); spurred on by the romantic notions of Aunt Lavinia, and all, it takes much too long to tell.

Chamberlain cuts a fine figure on the stage, handsome, yet hard pressed to give love to Catherine, whom he blames for the death in childbirth of his beloved wife. The doctor’s knowledge of his own impending death, “I am never wrong about these things.” he says, elicits a fine audience response.  And, then, time passes. Townsend returns (in the novel as a fat and balding ne’er do well, but in the play not much the worse for wear) to give it one more shot with Catherine, only to be unkindly snubbed. Pace was the issue on Opening Night.  Hopefully, as the show progresses, the energy will pick up.  

The Heiress

By Ruth Goetz and Augustus Goetz

The Pasadena Playhouse

39 El Molino Avenue

Pasadena, CA 91101

Through May 20, 2012

Rush Tickets available one hour before curtain: $15.00

Tickets $29 to $59.00  Premium Seating $100.00

For performances and information:

626 921 1161

www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org

 

Is Love an Illusion? Corneille says Maybe

Deborah Strang and Nick Ullett Photo Credit Craig Schwartz

Pasadena’s A Noise Within’s dedication to bringing the ‘classics’ to life is well played this season.  This third entry for the season is a winner.  Pierre Corneille’s The Illusion, adapted from the French by Tony Award Winner Tony Kushner, moves smoothly exploring the difference between Reality and Illusion.  In Margery Williams’s  story The Velveteen Rabbit asks “What’s Real” to learn that Love may be the answer.  Corneille is more cynical, saying that “Love is an Illusion: a demonic black disease.” The story would argue the contrary, however, as the splendid Nick Ullett (“Uh Lut” s’il vous plait) as Pridamant goes to a lot of trouble to try to find and reconcile with his son, Calisto/Clindor/Theogenes (broad strokes by Graham Hamilton).  We learn that all of the conjurings by the sorceress Alcandre (brilliant Deborah Strang, Deborah Strang!  Deborah Strang!!  Deborah Strang loves to pose and her theatrics are delightful here) that make up this sweeping chronicle may be themselves simply Illusions.  The scenes conjured by Alcandre are reminiscent of The Fantastiks where the boy, Matt, is bounced through the rigors of the world every which way through El Gallo’s vision “I Can See It.”

You can’t tell Corneille’s characters without a program and even then, keeping track of who’s who playing whom and when and where may be a bit of a challenge.  Effervescently rising to the top is a dark haired beauty, the exquisite Abby Craden as Elisa/Lyse/Clarina, somewhere along the line more or less swapping social stations with the equally impressive Devon Sorvari as Melibea/Isabelle/Hippolyta.  Action is magical and well paced.  The audience’s keeping up is almost as much fun as the actors are having on the stage.

Alan Blumenfeld in a complete 180 from his recent turn in Baby Doll, is funny and charming as Matamore.  Multiple turns by Freddy Douglas and Jeff Doba are impressive. Ensemble members beautifully facilitating scene changes are the able Katherine Lee, Alex Parker and Michael Sanchez.

Major kudos to the ANW tech staff:  Keith Mitchell’s verdant drops and Jeremy Pivnick’s ever shifting lighting design combine with impressive sounds from Doug Newell, Zipline Sound. Julie Keen’s lush costumes are… well.. lush.

Casey Stangl’s direction kept things moving, but stage pictures were sometimes off by just a hair.

When all is said… and done…  to mount three shows with major scene and lighting shifts necessary night after night is a gift.  A little culture is good for us.  That ANW culls these somewhat obscure plays from theatre history and makes them work is to their credit.  

The Illusion by Pierre Corneille adapted by Tony Cushner

A Noise Within

3352 East Foothill

Pasadena, CA 91107

Runs in repertory with The Bungler and Antony and Cleopatra

March 18 – May 19, 2012  See website for specific dates

Tickets and information www.ANoiseWithin.org

626 356 3400 Ext. 1

$46 Top

Second Annual High School Theatre Fest @ The Playhouse

As a former High School Drama teacher, I highly recommend seeing these kids in action. The camaraderie that holds these young actors together is like nothing you've ever seen. I count the participation of my students in the High School Drama Festival at Cal State Long Beach produced by Professor Ken Rugg as life changing.

It's happening early in the day, but it will be worth the effort to make it to Pasadena to see Theatre at its best.

Michael Sheehan

This from Patty Onagan and Joel Hile, Publicists for The Playhouse:

The Second Annual High School Theatre Festival is on Saturday, May 12, 2012, at The Pasadena Playhouse (39 S. El Molino Avenue).

The event is from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. and the doors open at 8:30 a.m.

All tickets are $5.00 general admission, and are available for purchase online at www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org, by phone at 626-356-7529 or by visiting The Pasadena Playhouse Box Office.

For more information, contact The Pasadena Playhouse Development Office at HSTF@pasadenaplayhouse.org or 626-921-1156. Information on all current Outreach and Development events is available by visiting www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org.

Tennessee in the Summer: Hot Stuff

Joe Besecker’s dramatic romance with the life of playwright Tennessee Williams directed with a fluid hand by Sal Romeo currently comes to life at the Sidewalk Studio Theatre in Toluca Lake. I have not vetted how accurate Besecker’s research has been, but the creative effect of showing Williams as the boozy egomaniac he might have been and simultaneously as a sexually charged barefoot nymphet clad only in a slip lends electricity and insight to Tom’s journey.

Lacey Anziec’s simple set with empty picture frames, shabby furniture and mottled gray walls is strewn with discarded pages; well illuminated by Paige Selene Luke’s simple lighting design. The pages, ripped from his old Remington, are rejected attempts by Williams (powerful Jack Heller) and his alter ego, The Woman, (lithe and sexual Tamara Braun) to continue to work as he struggles with drugs and alcohol; success and failure. The pressure of Williams coming from a family of lunatics at once gives insight into possible sources for Amanda, Blanche and Maggie the Cat: each of whom appear here in other forms. Rose (Williams’ psychotic sister) is portrayed gently by Louise Davis who also limns the Nurse and Tennessee’s mother, the equally batty Edwina.

Set initially in 1972, Williams struggles with issues of bad reviews of his Small Craft Warnings and is taunted by his alter ego, The Woman, posing seductively in a window facing out from a New York hotel room. She lures a boy to come up to play. The voice of Williams seems to be channeled by Besecker using phrases like “my writing is the universe” and “I want to get my goodness back” which may have been direct Williams’ quotes. Romeo’s pacing and stage pictures, especially the image of the crucifixion of The Woman confined in a mental hospital for his over indulgences ties the work together.

Robert Standley finds three strong attitudes with his Youngman, Frankie (Merlo) and Dakin, Tom’s brother. Frankie and Tennessee meet at a party where the young Sicilian hunk offers himself to the writer on a silver platter. They stay together for fourteen tumultuous years with Frankie at once a trifle and also the Love of Tennessee’s life, though shared with a myriad casual lovers who never seemed to quench the writer’s insatiable sexual appetites.

Not for the prudish, the work in this production is professional and deserves an audience. The closeness of the seating to the stage allows for subtle and moving moments as well as literally feeling the heat of the characters as they smolder and occasionally burst into flame.

Whether or not to take the story literally is optional. For any student of Classic American Theatre, even the casual mention of “Streetcar” or “Menagerie” are enough to become immediately enveloped in the larger than life characters who, at once, are familiar and completely honest and truthful to their stories. It’s about the drama of the Drama, after all, and Tennessee Williams will remain, himself, a Classic American Dramatist.

The turmoil suggested in Tennessee in the Summer is testament to where the Drama must have come from. The play presents an equally fervent illustration of the passions, not always uplifting, that created its tragic hero.

TENNESSEE IN THE SUMMER

By Joe Besecker

Directed by Sal Romeo

Sidewalk Studio Theatre

4150 Riverside Drive

Burbank, CA 91505

Fridays and Saturdays at 8PM

Sundays at 3PM

April 13 – May 20, 2012

Tickets: $20

For information and tickets: 800 838 3006

www.Brownpapertickets.com

or

818 558 5702

www.sidewalkstudiotheatre.info

The Bungler! What a Farce!!

(l-r foreground) JD Cullum (Mascarille) and Michael A. Newcomer (Lelie) PHOTO CREDIT: Craig Schwartz

A Noise Within, it seems, has to the Restoration been and dedicates two plays: this Bungler by Molière and coming up Illusion by Corneille which sadly does not rhyme, but in good time will be revealed that couplets rule The Bungler and not unlike George of the Jungl(er) swings in farce, some Commedia tossed in for which director Julia may try to fool ya with some fair tricks, the outcome of the which may leave her audience in stitches, if not rolling in the aisles as her company beguiles.

Richard Wilbur’s translation of Molière’s The Bungler begins sans mots justes with Tuba Guy (could it be David O Composer/Musical Director??) on his tuba heralding what’s to come: French farce and then some. A nod immediate must be bowed to John Iacovelli (design quite swelly and Ken Booths lights, forsooth.) Their festive scenery that sets the stage with silly moving greenery and quick unsubtle tech works by Andrew Ellis whose many cues he never shirks . I just now found a credit for the tuba man. With Mr. O I'm now engaged and have became a fan.

The argument’s impediments are few. The actors are not new to farce and Wilbur’s sentences all parsed with couplets carry on quite well of course.

Okay.. The Bungler, Lelie (Michael Newcomer plays the part) is a fun play with all the elements of farce that made Molière a star. Costumes, lights, mixed up stuff all folderol with rhymes and fine use of the somewhat Brechtian approach moves apace. You can’t tell the characters without a program and even then, remembering who is whom may be a challenge. It’s all tied together by charming and conniving valet Mascarille (fluid and funny J.D. Cullum) whose every scheme to help his master, Lelie, find his way to love and happiness is thwarted one way or another by the poor Lelie himself.

For the life of me I cannot put the other actors with their characters, but encourage lovers of Molière to make their way to Pasadena (where the grass is greener) to applaud this romp. If the original play in French was in rhyme, translator Richard Wilbur has captured that essential element beautifully. Director Roderiguez-Elliott keeps the flow flowing flowily and a good time is had by all!

The Bungler

By Molière (Translated by Richard Wilbur)

In Repertory with Antony and Cleopatra and The Illusion

Through May 27, 2012

A Noise Within

3352 East Foothill Blvd.

Pasadena, CA 91107

Tickets and Information: 626 356 3100 Ext. 1

www.anoisewith.org

$46.00 Top

Circle X Goes Naked Before God

Naked Before God, Circle X Theatre’s World Premiere at [Inside] the Ford is slightly reflective of the issues in the raunchy cable sitcom Californication. There are laughs and an odd family situation that just might work for Reality TV.

Playwright/Director Leo Geter has conceived a situation steeped in silly dramatics that hits the stage at sixty miles an hour and for two fast paced acts seldom lets up. There are sex jokes, plot twists and moments of base stupidity.

Kristen (effusive Jennifer A. Skinner) and Vinnie (spot on Larry Clarke) are former Adult Film stars, who, through a miscalculated on set ejaculation twenty years ago have created a son, (a studly, not gay, gay porn star wannabe who doesn’t have the shoulders to be a ‘top) Duncan (Morgan McClellan), who is now almost nineteen years of age.

In the first five minutes, dildoes retrieved from a pot of boiling water foreshadow what’s to come. Duncan, after filming his first audition (it’s for the Internet!!) brings home his sex scene partner “Nick from Kansas” (equally studly Christopher Foley) who says he’s on the lam from his angry uncle back home for having sex with his, Nick’s, cousin who isn’t related by blood. Really?

Why this ménage is set in Phoenix is not clear. It’s equally hot in Chatsworth in the summer time as heat has something to do with risky business in the second act involving helicopters and the Afghan translator, Octavio (Aly Mawji), holding folks at gunpoint in the back yard by the pool.

The plot gets curiouser and curiouser (my spell check would like to substitute “curio user” and “carouser” here!!) with the arrival of news of … well, that would be a spoiler alert that leads to more histrionics from Kristen whose only excuse for going over the top is that she is… AN ACTRESS !!!! Christian radio personality, Barry (William Salyers) and Jen Kays as Duncan’s preggers wife, Carly, keep up the frantic pace. To his credit, director Geter manages to have his actors all on the same page. Performances are dedicated and consistent.

Circle X tries new things. Good on them. This World Premiere is from their writers’ group attached to the company. It is a bold first effort. Naked Before God, a broad farce, is immature and masturbatory, which may have been the goal. Decent tech credits from Brian Sidney Bembridge.

Naked Before God

Written and directed by Leo Geter

Presented by Circle X Theatre Company

Opened Mar 24, 2012

Plays Thur-Sat 8 pm; Sun 2 pm and 7 pm

Through Apr 28, 2012

Tickets: $25

[Inside] the Ford at the Ford Theatres complex,

2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood 90068

323-461-3673 (323-GO-1-FORD). www. FordTheatres.org.

***Recommended for mature audiences, 17+

World Premiere The Many Mistresses of MLK

Ensemble Studio Theatre L.A.’s world premiere of The Many Mistresses of Martin Luther King by Andrew Dolan is a very well placed step toward keeping the essence of important theatre alive. At rise Janine (beautiful Judith Moreland) addresses the audience: a lecture hall full of students who may (or most likely may not) have done their homework. She discusses the essential job of the Chorus in Greek Drama and in so doing, she acts, at least in part, as the Chorus herself.

Dolan’s play is about race. The title of the play mirrors the title of a novel written by the maverick college professor, Simon, intensely portrayed by Philip Casnoff. The book, also provocative, discusses the indiscretions of Reverend King through the eyes of his paramours.

Director, Rod Menzies’s, gentle hand elicits the best from his players. A fine cast brings the text to life. They embody their characters beautifully. The only problem with the script has to do with time. In the first scene we discover the relationship between Simon and the terrific Tracey A. Leigh as Lashawna in full bloom. Then, oddly, with a scene change, student Lashawna arrives at the professor’s home to turn in a late assignment. Flashbacks and oddly disjointed scenes eventually come together, but the linear pathway has been abandoned, leaving the audience to do more work than might be necessary. Not that a challenge to chronological order is a bad thing, but in a couple of circumstances, figuring out Who’s on First becomes the focus when in a more linear presentation, the basic argument might have made more sense. It seemed to be a device for the sake of the device. Though the considerable age difference between Lashawna and Simon might have some tongues wagging, the fact that Lashawna is a black woman and Simon is white man might also add to the chatter.

Time slips and slides. Two couples, Lashawna married to Simon and Janine to Augustus (Carlos Carasco) are all teachers at an unnamed university. They socialize. In a minor subplot, Simon’s teen daughter, lost to divorce, is drawn to Janine and Augustus’s twenty year old son. Friction regarding race and stereotypes emerges with the introduction into the household of Lashawna’s brother, Anquan (Theo Perkins), an aspiring basketball player and petty thief.

This is a heady play with ironic twists and turns, mostly well laid out. Though not impossible to follow, references to the assassination of MLK in 1968 and Simon’s book coinciding with his book tour regarding the supposed sexual dalliances that the Civil Rights leader climax with heavy emotional results.

Excellent set by scenic designer, Tom Buderwitz. Well executed lighting by J. Kent Inasy.

World Premiere

The Many Mistresses of Martin Luther King

By Andrew Dolan

Presented by Ensemble Studio Theatre L.A.

Atwater Village Theatre

3269 Casitas Avenue

Atwater Village, CA 90039

Through April 29, 2012

www. ensemblestudiotheatrela. org

Phone 323 644 1929

$25.00 Top