"CURTAIN CALLS"
By Pat Launer
01/26/07
The Heart of a Dog is a very weird place
There
are Happy Endings in Night Music and Ace.
If
all this theater makes you feel thin-skinned
Just
stand up and aim your Nipples to the
Wind.
UP IN THE AIR, JUNIOR
BIRD-MEN
THE SHOW: Ace,
a new musical having its West coast premiere at the Old Globe. Book and lyrics by Robert Taylor and Richard Oberacker;
music by Richard Oberacker. The show debuted at the Repertory Theatre of St. Louis in
September, then moved to
THE STORY: The play was inspired by real-life experiences:
the father of co-writer Taylor trained to be a pilot,
and his mother had a near-fatal bout of depression. Both
these elements appear in the story, which concerns three generations of men who are
obsessed with flying (but we’re not supposed to know they’re related till the
very end; we do). Through a series of dream sequences, we learn of the romances
of the grandfather and then the father, each of whom went striding off to war
(WWI and II, respectively) to fulfill his destiny and his fixation on flight.
Each fighter pilot left behind an adoring wife who happened to be pregnant.
Neither man returned home. The women were the worse for wear and their sons
never knew their fathers. So now we come to Billy, the 10 year-old who’s really
the centerpiece of the play. His father, he’s been told, abandoned the family
before he was born (though why a mother would concoct that far more heinous
story, rather than telling her son his father was killed during the war, is
beyond me). Billy’s Mom never got over the loss; she spiraled downward and is
now in a psychiatric facility, trying to claw her way back to life and her son.
Billy is angry, uncommunicative, teased mercilessly by his peers, kicked out of
several schools. He’s placed with childless foster parents who try to find the
key to his unhappiness -- and inadvertently, they do. The foster father buys
Billy a model of a Flying Tiger airplane. And from then on, his life is never
the same. He starts having nighttime visitations, from a stranger named Ace,
who takes him time-traveling and reveals all the secrets of his past.
Meanwhile, Emily, a similarly geeky outcast at school, fancies herself Nancy
Drew, and sets out to solve the mystery of Billy’s nocturnal excursions
(singing, amusingly “Now I’m On Your Case”).
Ultimately, the foster
parents get Billy to interact, he finally understands his past (and his
obsession, and his nighttime visitor), he confronts his mother in a teary
reunion, Emily feels satisfied that the case is solved and all’s right with the
world. None of the females fares very well here. The social worker is a frump.
The grandmother is a shrew. The mother is a nutcase. And the foster Mom, though
she dresses like Donna Reed, is terribly undomestic
and can’t even bake a batch of cookies (an excuse for a very funny number,
“Make It From Scratch”). There are simulated dogfights
and many anthemic songs. The two love stories are
similar – and repetitive. The music also takes on a sameness, and isn’t
particularly remarkable or memorable. There’s a lost opportunity here, to make
some real comment about the cost of war and the loved ones left behind to
grieve. But it’s all glossed over, treated lightly, leaning heavily on the
sentimental. It’s hard to ignore the fact that exalting and extolling the
thrill of battle is a questionable pursuit at this particular time in our
country’s history.
THE PRODUCTION: The set (David Korins)
has the multilevel look of a giant biplane. Director Stafford Arima utilizes the space effectively, placing his ensemble
on various levels. But there is surprisingly little choreography (credited to
Andrew Palermo); it’s mostly stylized poses, even during the battle scenes. The
wartime excitement is conveyed with sound (John H. Shivers and David Patridge) and light (Christopher Akerlind).
There are some moments that cry out for a choreographed production number, like
the waltz, the military formations and those battle scenes. The ten-member orchestra, under the baton of
David Kreppel, sounds robust, and there’s a nice
array of instruments, including a cello and French horn.
THE PLAYERS: The cast is highly competent, but the characters
aren’t very deeply etched. The most compelling characters– and performers – are
the two kids, and the two who taunt them. Young Noah Galvin lives up to his
name; he’s galvanizing. He is natural, credible, unaffected. You believe every
moment of his acting, and his singing is powerful and thoroughly convincing as
well. As his bespectacled, “beanpole” sidekick, Gabrielle Boyadjian
(in real life a high school freshman), is terrific, too, and irresistible,
despite the smartass nerdiness of her character. She
has wonderful comic timing and a knockout voice. The two local kids, Ian Brininstool and Maddie Shea
Baldwin, hold their own excellently, as the school bully and his sidekick.
Michael Arden, who was something of a rock star in the ill-fated Dylan/Tharp
show, The Times They Are
a-Changin’ at the Globe last year, is aptly
dashing as the first young fighter pilot, but he doesn’t get much to bite into
here. That’s also true of Darren Ritchie as Ace, though he’s the catalyst for
all that happens. The women are all good, but generally relegated to a fairly
inconsequential position in the play. It’s a boy’s fantasy, start to finish.
THE LOCATION: Old
Globe Theatre, through February 18
THREE’S A CROWD
THE SHOW: Happy Endings Are Extra, an American premiere written by South
African Ashraf Johaardien,
has been produced in
THE STORY: The action, inspired by a gruesome gay massacre in
THE PRODUCTION/ THE PLAYERS: There’s s decided coolness and distancing
to the production, from the screen projections to the clear acrylic chairs (set by Greg Stevens).
There’s a flatness and dispassion to the performances that belies the anger,
guilt and resentment roiling beneath the placid surface. With little warmth in
the language, the environs or the interactions, it’s hard to connect. Anahid Shahrik, making a welcome
return to local stages, wears a number of sensuous outfits (costumes by
Shulamit Nelson) and Michael Purvis is a very attractive man. But in view of
all the sex talk (and some sex action), there’s very little heat, and no
eroticism, which should be a critical element of the piece. Claudio Raygoza, as
the middle-aged man in search of youth, gives an intense performance; Purvis
and Shahrik are earnest as well. Neither the writer
nor the director, Rosina Reynolds, leaves much room for imagination; we are
told and shown everything (there’s actually a lot more telling than showing in
the script overall). The projections of seminal lines from the
text foretell or underline significant points unnecessarily.The so-called shock ending
is spelled out too specifically, even after we’ve gotten (or
predicted) the grisly outcome. Trust us; we can figure it out; really, we can.
THE LOCATION: Diversionary
Theatre, through February 11
IT’S A DOG’S LIFE
THE SHOW: Heart
of a Dog, an adaptation (by Frank Galati, first produced in
1985) of a satirical novel by Mikhail Bulgakov,
short story writer, playwright and novelist of the early Soviet period. Written
in 1925, the book was not published in the
THE STORY/THE BACKSTORY: The novel, a
political parable, is a satirical examination of one of the goals of the
Bolshevik Revolution of 1917: to create a new breed of man, uncorrupted by the
past and above petit bourgeois concerns. “The Heart of a Dog” savages the rigid
Soviet mind-set, science fiction, and a pseudoscientific theory of the 1920s
that held out the promise of sexual rejuvenation through surgical
transplantation of monkey glands.
The
play’s action takes place in Moscow
shortly after 1917. Our narrator, a homeless mutt named Sharik, is captured for
experimentation by a member of the rapidly shrinking Russian intelligentsia, an esteemed doctor by the name of Philip Philipovich Preobrajensky (his
last name is derived from a Russian word that can means transformation or metamorphosis).
The well-known doctor, who rejuvenates people by hormonal manipulations, has
had great success with people in high places, though there have been some
unfortunate side-effects, like The Man With Green Hair
(but he’s pleased with his permanent erection). When the professor transplants the testes and
pituitary gland of a recently dead criminal into the scrawny body of the
dog, Sharik not only learns to walk upright and talk,
but becomes "Comrade Sharikov," the head of
the Moscow Communal Property Administration in charge of exterminating homeless
cats. With its sly analogies to Dr. Faustus, Frankenstein
and The Island of Dr. Moreau, the story has
been interpreted either as a mockery of the Soviet utopian attempt to radically
improve human nature, or as a wry comment on scientists' efforts to interfere
with nature. Either interpretation is decidedly relevant these days.
THE PLAYERS/ THE PRODUCTION: Director Charlie Oates, chair of the UCSD
Dept. of Theatre and Dance, and his capable cast, are obviously having a field
day with this work. The production retains all the satirical tone of the
original. And the tables are turned on the audience, who sits onstage,
surrounded by playing spaces, while the entire Mandell Weiss Forum is used -- including
shenanigans up and down the aisle stairs. The six-member ensemble portrays some
15 characters, each a gross exaggeration of the thuggish, mindless proletariat
and the supercilious intelligentsia. Second-year MFA student Brandon Taylor
strikes the perfectly clueless, gentlemanly tone as the Frankensteinian
genius. But the most amazing performance is by the marvelously canine Ryan
Shams, who wears nothing but little bikini briefs at first, and then the garish
outfit of the sordid, seedy man-dog he has become (yellow socks and patent
leather loafers and all). His dog-like actions are terrific, as are his howls
and canine boorishness (lifting his leg and humping at the most inopportune
moments – including in the vicinity of audience members). It’s a masterful
performance, and he’s hilarious throughout (Shams will be much missed when he
graduates this spring). We sympathize with the poor beleaguered creature – to a
point. Then, when he becomes intolerable (not only a lout, but an officious
official, to boot), we don’t mind when the professor reverses the procedure.
Let sleeping dogs lie.
THE PLAYERS: UCSD Theatre and Dance in
the Mandell Weiss Forum, through January 27
BREAST FRIENDS
THE SHOW: Nipples to the
Wind,
a two-actor show that spotlights 14 wacky women; written and
performed by stand-up comedian/playwright Paula Coco, with her aunt, Janye Anderson (who’s only a few years older). The
vignettes are set off by original music created by
THE BACKSTORY: It isn’t just a
provocative title. And don’t expect any breast-baring in the show. “Nipples to
the Wind” is an old
THE PLAYERS/ THE PRODUCTION: The show is opened by Jones, singing one of her uproarious songs, the post-plastic surgery ballad, “How Do You Like These Babies Now?” The just-released “Nipples” CD features 16 songs (most by Jones) sung by Jones as well as local singer/songwriter Deborah Liv Johnson and Connecticut singer/actor Tracey James. Jones, btw, was the lead singer and writer for the all-girl cult group, Ethel and the Shameless Hussies. She’s very funny, even when she’s just doing stand-up (“I have a new Muslim name: Seldom been Laid”). Her other witty ditties include “Is It My Chicken or My Dumplings That Keep You Comin’ Back for More?” and “I Could Get Over Him if I Could Get Under You.”
There’s a down-home, Southern sensibility to a
number of the show’s characters, from soused, Spam-casserole-making Brenda
(Anderson), the put-upon wife; to the over-turquoised
Bunny (Coco), founder/artistic director and playwright-in-residence of a
community theater who “made a spiritual pilgrimage to Santa Fe,” where she
learned to “dive in and swim in the lake of me”; to, comical,
stereotype-spewing Susie (Coco), the Little League Mom who loses it at a game
and winds up jailed for assault and battery; to Mavis (Anderson), the furry-slippered biddy who tells it like it really is in her annual Christmas letter. The extended, oversexed
school sex lecture and the school dance chaperones are a little less amusing.
In the second act,
THE
LOCATION:
The show was at the Avo Playhouse, and it’s returning to the
EINE KLEINE NACHTMUSIK
The highly anticipated staged reading of A Little Night Music, a
benefit for Cygnet Theatre, revealed
all the challenges of this rarely-seen 1973 Stephen Sondheim creation. The last
local production, as far as I can recall, was at Moonlight in 1995. It’s a punishingly difficult piece. First, it’s composed
completely in ¾ waltz time. Based on a Bergman film, with title borrowed from
Mozart, it’s set in turn-of-the-last-century
NEWS
AND VIEWS
…
See yourself – and others – at the Pattés: The pix are in!! Check out all of
…We’re here, we’re queer: Diversionary Theatre continues its “Queer Theatre, Taking Center Stage” series of new and
little-known works. Next up is the last play penned by Tennessee Williams, Something
Cloudy, Something Clear. Written in 1980, it was suppressed for a
decade after Williams' death. A potent autobiographical work framed as a memory
play, the story a doomed triangle spending the summer of 1940 on a
More
… Carlsbad Playreaders
is at it again! Their next offering is The Ladies of the Camellias, by Lillian Groag, directed by Marc
Overton and featuring Rosina Reynolds and Erika Beth Phillips (who appeared
onstage together in the Patté Award-winning Ensemble of Mo’oelo’s
Since Africa). Set in Paris, 1897,
the play tells what might have happened had two of the stage’s great divas,
Sarah Bernhardt (Reynolds) and Eleonora Duse (Phillips), crossed paths during a
time of great political upheaval. Also part of the impressive cast: Overton,
Richard Baird, Matt Scott, Brandon Walker and Kürt Norby (so excellent in Starlight’s Patté Award-winning Urinetown).
Monday, February 5, 7:30pm at the
…
…Applauz Theatre in
…ion theatre presents a reading of Awake and Sing, the 1935
Clifford Odets play about the impoverished,
dysfunctional Berger family.Glenn
…Need a Theatre? They’ve got a Space!... NTC is
putting out feelers to the theater community. They have a big chunk of space in
one of the recently renovated buildings that may meet the needs of a theater
company (or several). The potential performance venue has 2660 square feet and
up to 15ft. ceilings. It’s City-approved for occupancy up to 134. There’s adjacent
space for a lobby and backstage area, and plenty of free parking. NTC exec
director Alan Ziter would be happy to show the area
to any groups who’d like to create a new performance space. Heaven knows we
need one! aziter@ntcfoundation.org,
619-573-9315 before February 6.
…Got
Menopause? Sing out, Louise!... After years in
…
R&J, a different way:
.. Making a good impression: The Edwards Twins, celebrity
impersonators, are bringing their show to the Lyceum Theatre. Last
month, they appeared at the Birch North Park Theatre. And now, they’re baaack, as Elton John, Tina Turner, Babs
Streisand, Bette Midler,
… …A sign of the (ugly) times:
Locally
(no censorship!), The Vagina Monologues
will be performed at OnStage Playhouse in
…
Shaky start to a new year: Two of Jean Isaacs’ dancers had to be replaced just
before her Cabaret Dances 2007 premiered
earlier this month. Nikki Dunnan’s foot injury
prevents her from performing in Eveoke
Dance Theatre’s upcoming Luna – Dances of Love. For the first
several performances (the run is Feb. 2-25, at various locations),
choreographer/artistic director Gina Angelique will be stepping in. Over at the
Theatre Dept. at UCSD, there was the recent, sudden loss of the husband of
warm, caring and crisply efficient PR liaison Carolyn Passeneau.
Faculty member Jim Winker and faculty-by-association Moira Keefe (wife of
department chair Charlie Oates, a writer/performer in her own right) each lost
a parent.
But
the final blow was the shocking death of Chris
Parry, lighting designer extraordinaire, and head of the lighting design program
at UCSD. The international tributes have been pouring in. At
a memorial to Chris organized by the family last weekend, Steven Adler, Professor of Theatre and Provost of Earl Warren
College at UCSD, presented a heartfelt eulogy for his good and dear friend.
He praised his brilliance as an artist, his “wonderfully dry sense of humor,”
his abhorrence of vegetables and dislike of reading plays: “’Just tell me the
story!,’ he would demand. He [just] wanted to get his
hands dirty in tech rehearsals, where his contributions could take shape.”
Adler paid tribute to Parry as a teacher, a friend, a father and a mentor. But most of all, he extolled his work: Chris,
he said, “had the gift of designer second sight; he truly understood the
alchemy of transforming the flow of electrons into a dazzling, dimensional
world of light and shadow. …[He] had the soul of a
poet. He knew, in every fiber of his being, how to exploit his palette of light
to create the most expressive dramatic environment imaginable. Directors and
designers loved to collaborate with him, because they knew that Chris was a
selfless colleague who was fiercely dedicated to the creation of a seamless and
unified dramatic event.” What better tribute could any theatermaker
hope for?
The Department has
scheduled its own event, "A
Tribute to Chris Parry: Let There Be Light,"
which will
take place on Sunday, February 25 at 4:00pm in
the Weiss Forum on the UCSD campus. On Thursday, February 1st, the
'NOT TO BE MISSED!' (Pat’s Picks)
Yellowman
– provocative play, marvelously designed and directed, superbly acted
At Cygnet Theatre,
through February 11
(For full text of all
past reviews, use the Search engine at www.patteproductions.com)
Prepare for the Ground Hog… burrow into a theater
near you.
©
2007 PATTÉ PRODUCTIONS, INC.