SAN DIEGO THEATRE SCENE

"CURTAIN CALLS"

By Pat Launer

03/16/07

There is no more disparate presentation

Than Mud and the Comedy, Restoration,

Toss in the wackiness of the Geek

And Menopause makes it a hot-flash week.

LOVE IS A FICKLE THING

THE SHOW: Restoration Comedy, Amy Freed’s latest creation, receiving its third major production at the Old Globe, where she’s just started her stint as Playwright in Residence (through October 2008). The bawdy comedy debuted in Seattle in 2005, then went on to a Bay area premiere at the California Shakespeare Festival (Cal Shakes). Freed was a Pulitzer finalist for Freedomland; her hilarious Who-Wrote-Shakespeare play, The Beard of Avon, was commissioned by South Coast Repertory Theatre and was an undergraduate production last year at UCSD

THE BACKSTORY: The 17^th century English Restoration came after Shakespeare’s time (he died in 1616), immediately following the repressive regime of Oliver Cromwell and the Puritans, who condemned theater as decadent and for 20 years banned all theatrical productions. When the theaters reopened in 1660, all hell broke loose. The Restoration comedies were famous (or notorious) for their hedonism and rude, lewd sexual explicitness, qualities encouraged by the rakish King Charles II and his lascivious entourage. The Restoration was also notable for allowing women to perform onstage for the first time. This was the inception of the celebrity actor and the first professional female playwright (Aphra Behn).

Bronx-born, Chicago-raised Freed admits that she’s always loved Restoration comedies, especially the clothes (see my interview and feature on Freed in this month’s San Diego Jewish Journal). For Restoration Comedy, she conflated two comic hits of 1696: Colley Cibber’s Love’s Last Shift, or Virtue Rewarded, and its (more enduring) sequel, written by John Vanbrugh: The Relapse, or Virtue in Danger.

THE STORY: The action centers on a compulsive skirt-chaser named Loveless, whose wife, Amanda, is virtuous, even though he abandoned her ten years ago, intent on sleeping his way across Europe. Thinking his wife is dead, Loveless returns to London after his decade of debauchery, penniless but no less sexually ravenous. When his old friend Worthy realizes he’s back, he conspires to reunite the still-pining Amanda with her beloved (but unWorthy) Loveless. Worthy is himself enamored of Amanda, but he helps her learn to unleash her inner wild-woman in order to win back her man. She adopts the look and moves of a prostitute and snags her husband again, though it turns out she can only hold him for a short time. Meanwhile, we get introduced to a raft of wacky townsfolk, who ramp up the comic volume, but distract from the central plot in the second act.

Taking off from the Restoration use of character-defining names, we meet Sir Novelty Fashion (a role that was assayed by playwright Cibber himself), as well as the lusty Hillaria and ditsy Narcissa. There are all kinds of couplings among the wildly exaggerated characters, with the underlying message (if you want to find one in all the inanity and insanity) that there are many incarnations of love (illustrated, toward the end, by the various habits of other members of the animal kingdom), and we should all be tolerant of differences in sexuality and sexual preference. Presumably, that dictum includes 21^st century politicians and religious leaders. The play is witty and literate, silly and sometimes slyly subversive. Luscious stuff.

THE PLAYERS: The cast is thoroughly delightful; there isn’t a weak link in the bunch, which includes seven lucky and talented students from the Old Globe/USD MFA program (mostly playing footmen and whores, but who’s keeping tabs? It’s a great opportunity). Tony Award-winning director John Rando (Urinetown, 2002), loves silly and goofy (cf. his Comedy of Errors at the Globe in 1997), but he keeps his anachronisms in check (the hair dryer being hauled out of the trash was funny; the bong was outrageous!), and keeps the pace lively and the humor level high but not over the top. The play drags a little in the second act, with the Novelty Fashion sidestory, which is less interesting than the main plot. But the evening swirls by and it’s wonderful fun.

Marco Barricelli is a hunky, appealing Loveless, with just the right edge of snarky humor and sexiness. Striking Caralyn Kozlowski has played the role of Amanda since its inception and she’s pitch-perfect in every scene, morphing delightfully from the modest wife to the unrestrained seductress and back to prissy again. Peter Frechette is aptly honest and lovesick and Worthy, and he makes for an excellent balance between the estranged marrieds. Danny Scheie is a hilarious nutcase as Lord Foppington, aka Sir Novelty Fashion. Where he got that speech pattern/accent, I’ll never know (Madam is pronounced “Miyeh-dum”), but it’s a hoot. Kimberly Scott is constantly laughing as the blowsy Hillaria, though she also provides ballast to Amelia McClain, oversexed in two roles, as the flea-brained Narcissa and the harridan Hoyden. Jonathan McMurtry takes on four widely differing characters, most amusingly, a one-eyed, hunchbacked troll who escorts Loveless to the underworld, to find his waiting wife-in-disguise.

THE PRODUCTION: The design work is superb. Ralph Funicello has created a gorgeous, mobile set that looks like a Watteau painting, with suspended cherubs occasionally dropping into the action. The whole stage is flanked by a series of gilt-and angel-adorned arches that draw the eye back to a sky-full of fluffily romantic clouds. York Kennedy’s lighting is stunning, Paul Peterson’s sound is lovely and Michael Roth’s music is evocative. You just can’t take your eyes off Robert Blackman’s dazzling costumes, which include lace and frills and froufrou and frippery and wild, coiled/curly wigs, one of which, for Sir Novelty Fashion, drapes down to the floor. The production is beautiful to behold – and darn funny, too.

THE LOCATION: The Old Globe Theatre, through April 8

FLASH IN THE PAN

THE SHOW: Menopause, the Musical , the perennial that’s been running for the past five years, in more than 100 cities and 10 countries; book and lyrics by Jeanie Linders

THE STORYY: Story? I don’t think so. Four very different women come together at a Bloomingdale’s lingerie sale, fighting over teeny tiny underpants. They meet again in the bathroom, the beauty parlor, the café, and commiserate. They have flashes (and sing about them repeatedly). Then they get the women in the audience to come up and join them in a kick-line. This is pretty basic, tame, unimaginative stuff. It should be funny. A lot funnier than it is.

The lyrics are pedestrian at best, downright awful at worst. Twenty-five familiar Boomer-era songs are re-written with menopausal meaning. Some are mildly clever (“I’m having a hot-flash”” is cute… but do we have to hear it in its entirety.. twice?). Other good ones are an ode to plastic surgery: “”Please Make Me Over” and the dieter’s dilemma, “Lookin’ for Food in all The Wrong Places.” The less-inspired include: "I Heard It Thru the Grapevine You No Longer Will See 39" and the disco favorite, "Stayin' Awake! Stayin' Awake!" Yawn. Some are embarrassing (“Drippin’ and Droppin’,” a ladies room lament to the tune of “Wishin’ and Hopin’”). The most lame lyrics of all come in the finale rewrite of “YMCA” -- as “This is Your Day.” It felt very much like a camp skit, penned late one night, over some inebriant or other. In fact, that’s pretty much how it evolved: It was, the press releases say, “inspired by a hot flash and a bottle of wine.”

It’s amazing that it’s gotten this far on so little. Just goes to show how much women need to feel that they’re not alone in their suffering. If only there were one fresh insight. Well, the medley-homage to the vibrator wasn’t bad (“Good Vibrations,” “What’s Love Got to Do With It” and “Only You”). But there isn’t much else to grab onto, so to speak, nothing you haven’t heard before… more insightfully or amusingly. Too Old for the Chorus, But Not Too Old to Be a Star, which ran in 2005 at the (late, lamented) Theatre in Old Town, courtesy of Miracle Theatre Productions, had a lot more to say, and it put the MEN in Menopause too. But the women keep coming (some with their mates) to see this unfathomable phenom, and they were howling with delight the night I was there. Was it not hot in there, or was it just me?

THE PLAYERS/PRODUCTION: The mostly-local cast is directed by Kathryn Conte, and choreographed (if you could call it that; very low-level movement) by Patty Bender. The prototypical characters, named Power Woman, Soap Star, Earth Mother and Iowa Housewife, require larger-than-life performers. These women are talented, but with the exception of Melinda Gilb as the clueless housewife, and occasionally (especially in her Tina Turner turn) power-voiced SF-based Anise Ritchie, they just aren’t expansive enough or funny enough. But each has a potent moment in the spotlight: Alex Apostolidis in “Drippin’ and Droppin’” and Karen Schooley (repeatedly) in “Tropical Hot Flash” (adapted from Irving Berlin’s “Havin’ a Heat Wave,” which premiered in 1933 – not exactly a Boomer song, though Marilyn Monroe made it popular in the movie “There’s No Business Like Show Business” in1954 -- still pre-Boomer). So, go if you want. Laugh if you can. Menopause is here to stay… through the summer, at least. Just, as Sam Goldwyn said, “Include me out.”

THE LOCATION: At the Lyceum Theatre, through August 26

MENAGERIE à TROIS

THE SHOW: Mud, by Maria Irene Fornes. Premiered in 1983 and garnered one of the playwright’s eight Off Broadway Obie Awards. This local production was initiated by actor Julie Sachs, who saw the play a dozen years ago, and said the script has haunted her ever since

THE BACKSTORY: Acclaimed playwright Paula Vogel (whose How I learned to Drive and The Long Christmas Ride Home are about to open, at Lynx and Diversionary, respectively) once said: "In the work of every American playwright at the end of the 20th century, there are only two stages: before she or he has read Maria Irene Fornes -- and after."

Despite a prolific output (more than 40 plays in 40 years), Fornes has never moved from Off Broadway On, instead sticking to the fringe theaters that gave her a start in the ‘60s. She claims she’s never wanted to go mainstream, but she also resents being regarded specifically as a Cuban or lesbian or feminist or Hispanic playwright. She is, nonetheless, all of the above. But that isn’t what defines her influential work. Her gritty, poetic plays reveal the inner lives of their characters in an amazingly direct, lyrical and philosophical way, without being sentimental or doctrinaire.

THE STORY: Mud is a stark, beautiful and painful story, told in a sequence of 17 scenes. Like many of her other works, it focuses on one woman’s inchoate desire for fulfillment and betterment, a yearning that disturbs her world and ultimately destroys her. With its dirt-poor setting, trio of inglorious characters and life-changing accident, it’s Sam Shepard meet Ethan Frome. A lethal erotic triangle, three characters trapped by their own poverty, ignorance and appetites, with a ghastly ending that’s a chilling conflation of Shepard’s Curse of the Starving Class and Edith Wharton’s 1911 novella. This is one searing, claustrophobic play, both tender and cruel, poetic and violent.

In a squalid, ramshackle cabin, hard-working Mae is dirt-poor and uneducated. She’s lived since childhood with Lloyd, a hulking, impotent dullard who tends the pigs (and sometimes does more than that with ‘em), and has shared her life as brother and lover, ever since her father brought him home years ago. Mae’s illiterate, but she’s studying reading and arithmetic, striving for a less hollow existence. She believes she’s found salvation in Henry, a somewhat more educated townsman who speaks well and gets her to think (even if she can’t remember what she learns). She invites Henry to move in, and Lloyd is relegated to the floor. The two men circle each other like bloodthirsty animals. Lloyd baits, Henry condescends. There are accusations of theft. And then a freak accident changes the entire dynamic, leaving both men totally dependent on Mae. What she thought would free her only drags her further down. The play could be viewed as a biting political commentary on poverty, the lack of societal support for those who try to elevate their station and the hypocrisy of insisting that the indigent should just pull themselves up by their bootstraps. The shocking and gut-wrenching ending pulls into sharp focus one desperate human soul, grappling with self-awareness, striving for dignity and self-improvement, thwarted every step of the way.

THE PLAYERS/PRODUCTION: Having lost its downtown home (but planning a comeback, with a consortium of homeless theaters – see below), ion theatre has returned to the Academy of Performing Arts where they staged Marat/Sade in 2005. Co-founders Claudio Raygoza and Glenn Paris have done it all -- producing, directing, designing and starring. The set is on a raised platform whose sides drip with blood and apparently, human viscera (though they could be pig entrails), gratuitous harbingers of the carnage to come. The lighting is aptly dingy, squares of light struggling to break through the dusky shadows. Mae spends a good part of the protracted first scene ironing (symbolically trying to iron out her life?). Like the inter-scene intervals, the opening moments lag. The pace of this vacant life is slow; we get it. But, under Raygoza’s direction, the long tableaux, however striking, and the slo-mo moves into position for the next scene, drag the action and interfere with the storytelling, which is a series of sepia-toned snapshots that build to a grizzly climax.

The three performances are potent, but there are a few questions about characterization. It wasn’t clear why Raygoza’s hulking, inarticulate Lloyd stutters so badly in one scene but never again. He is suitably bestial, though not palpably driven by fear and longing. Julie Sachs’ Mae is heart-rending as she stares off into the distance, hoping for something or someone to save her. Paris’ Henry, the somewhat literate, somewhat dignified and somewhat brutal would-be philosopher, is stodgy and pedantic; his physical decline in especially well executed. The emotional energy is strong among this desperate trio, though the sexual tension is underplayed. As the three get closer together, as the stakes get higher, the intensity increases and we are drawn inexorably, as are the characters, into the deadly vortex.

THE LOCATION: ion theatre at the Academy of Performing Arts, on Alvarado Canyon Road, through March 25. See the “ion update” below for the company’s next steps

PROPELLER-HEADS, UNITE!

THE SHOW: My Life as a Geek, written by Plutonium Theatre’s Matt Thompson and Ted Reis, to showcase Reis’ prodigious comic talent, ran for an all-too-brief four performances, at 6^th @ Penn Theatre. But the gameplan is to take it to ComiCon this summer. That’d be perfect. They’ll howl.

Reis and Thompson are a terrific team; Thompson’s last effort for the funnyman was the nutty/quirky Hemingway’s Rose, which played at 6^th @ Penn in October. Now the self-confessed nerds have come up with the geek-conceit. “Write what you know,” Thompson says in his Director’s Notes. And clearly, these guys know. Not being a member of the dork brigade, I was often left in the dust. The sci-fi, superhero references flew by fast and furiously; I needed consecutive interpretation. But the rest of the audience got it all; belly-laughs abounded.

Reis can do any accent, character, dialect or movie star imaginable, and shift among them in a nanosecond. In one discourse, he portrayed every character in “Star Trek.” He does a mean DeNiro. And then there’s the murderous Greek butcher, the embittered Acting professor and a zillion others, as he visits with us as Charles Frothingham the First, a card-carrying geek who can’t make eye contact and spends hours in the bathroom practicing social interactions, at which he invariably fails. He’s addicted to comic books and old TV programs, in addition to Star Trek, Star Wars and a bunch of other movies and shows I never even heard of. But Reis gleefully brings us all along for the ride (including a little audience participation), as he tells his sad saga of being a mercifully funny drip who finally finds his way (and kisses a girl), and achieves a happy ending and a satisfying life. The ridicule, the prom, the missteps, the Math-letes. Nerd Heaven. And all too too funny. You may have heard geek stories before. But you haven’t heard them told half this entertainingly.

Reis is as fleet of foot as of tongue; his physical comedy is superb, whether it’s dancing or mime, or contorting his Gumby-flexible face into vastly different personalities. This is his second O.P.S. (one person show, in case you aren’t among the abbreviation-and-acronym-addicted), and it’s a sensational vehicle for him. The writing is clever and the story moves like the wind. It might be better as a 90-minute one-act, rather than including an intermission. But maybe Reis needs a break; he barely gets a breather. Like an antic, megamouth Robin Williams, his talent might be too expansive to be contained in a conventional play. But if he’s given some latitude, watch out! He actually did a damn fine job with a small gangster cameo in the reading of Something Cloudy, Something Clear at Diversionary last month. You really have to see this guy go at it. He’s a thoroughly engaging and appealing actor who manages to make your head spin and your heart break at the same time. One of the funniest performers in town. Catch him when you can – even if it means (heaven forefend!) going to ComiCon.

Ion update: “THE COALITION” of Small Theaters

Claudio Raygoza and Glenn Paris, co-founders of ion theatre, haven’t stood still for a second since they lost New World Stage, the 9^th Avenue space they so lovingly built. In the middle of the run, they moved their production of The Grapes of Wrath to the 10^th Avenue Theatre, which was refurbed by Eveoke Dance Theatre and Sledgehammer. Then the survival of that space was put in jeopardy, too. So the three companies, along with Stone Soup Theatre and Vox Nova, banded together as The Coalition. They’ve been meeting since January, trying to lay out a master plan for collectively finding a space for peripatetic theaters. Now it looks like the 10^th Avenue Theatre will still be available; the Senior Center across the street has rescinded its hostile takeover, and the landlords are interested in maintaining the facility as a theater, though codes don’t allow the upper floors to be used for performances (rehearsal, gallery, classroom and office use are fine).

The Coalition has plans for productions at 10^th Avenue for the next couple of years. Eveoke and Sledge would like to maintain their downtown presence over the long haul; they’re currently negotiating a lease. But the downtown challenges remain, primarily parking, especially when there’s a game at the ballpark.

Upcoming Coalition member plans include the following: Sledge’s Beckett installation and new musical, Bull Spears; Stone Soup opens Strindberg’s Miss Julie in July. Ion will mount Glenn Paris’ all-male Punks, inspired by Genet’s The Maids, and at the 6^th Avenue Bistro at Broadway & B St, they’re bringing back their funny production of All in the Timing, with the entire original cast: Kim Strassburger, Jonathan Sachs, Andrew Kennedy and Laura Bozanich (who’s delaying her move to New York in order to be part of the reprise). It’s scheduled for an open-ended run. They’ll follow with another Genet adaptation, this one by Raygoza; Un is a futuristic, sci-fi take on The Balcony (and, with more gender-bending, this one has women, too; Genet wrote his first commercial success for men only).

At the same time, the group has been speaking to Alan Ziter about the potential for theater space at NTC. Ziter is interested in partnering with small theaters to create a venue like the new Dance Place. The advantage in getting in on the ground floor, say Paris and Raygoza, is that they’ll be involved in the design of the new spaces. In a recent meeting with they two, they emphasized that this is a collective effort; they’re not leading the charge. The Coalition’s meetings and plans have all been collaborative.

Meanwhile, all the groups are planning a big ‘Welcome Back to 10^th Avenue’ presentation. And they’re still trying to get the City to be more welcoming to performing arts venues. Cities such as Seattle, St. Louis and Chicago have partnered with performing arts groups to create venues for small theater companies. The hope is that San Diego will ultimately do the same.

And in case that isn’t enough, ion is planning a major Ibsen project they’re calling “ion’s intimate ibsen,” which will entail monthly readings of all 12 of the Norwegian master’s plays. Rosina Reynolds will be the artistic director; she, Paris and Raygoza will divvy up the directing duties. The smaller pieces may be performed in private homes. First up will be a reading of Ghosts, featuring Reynolds and Raygoza, directed by Paris.

Very prodigious plans,.. and hopeful news for small homeless theaters. Keep your fingers crossed….

NEWS AND VIEWS…

… If you missed “The Legacy of Luis Valdez, Father of Chicano Theater,” the documentary that I wrote and co-produced with City TV’s multi-talented station manager, Rick Bollinger, at the San Diego Latino Film Festival, the 20-minute film will be shown this week on CityTV, Cable 24 on Cox and Time Warner. Hope you can check it out (though it won’t be as exciting as seeing Luis and his familia, and all the scenes from his actos and local productions, on a large screen). Here’s the schedule: Friday 3/16 2:30pm; Sat. 3/17, 5:30pm; Sunday 3/18, 2:30, 5:30 and 8:30pm. ¡Pásatelo bien! (Enjoy!)

.. Foreign Bodies are descending on San Diego, with the world premiere play by acclaimed New York playwright Susan Yankowitz, erstwhile collaborator of the legendary Joseph Chaikin and the influential Open Theatre. Her new thriller is being read as part of the inaugural season of Vox Nova, which is dedicated to showcasing new work. Kirsten Brandt, former artistic director of Sledgehammer Theatre, directs the reading, which focuses on guilt, innocence and human sexuality. Monday, March 26, 7:30pm in the Lyceum Theatre.

…And on the same night, March 26 (also at 7:30pm), there’ll be a reading at Cygnet Theatre, of Thornton Wilder’s Great American masterwork, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Our Town. Timed to coincide with Cygnet’s production of Wilder’s The Matchmaker, the reading will be directed by the company’s associate artistic director, George Yé.

.. Spring Re-Awakening… Every year since 1992, on the weekend closest to the Spring Equinox, actor/writer David S. Cohen recites Walt Whitman’s immortal poem, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.” The piece was written as an elegy for Lincoln and all the slain soldiers of the Civil War (many of whom he nursed in Washington Army hospitals). Cohen presents it in a touching, heartfelt manner, as a ritual remembrance for one special individual r, and for all those who have been lost to AIDS. This year, he honors pioneering editor of gay literature Bill Whitehead. And in keeping with a literary theme, Ever Returning Spring will be held at the San Diego Writer’s Ink space downtown (710 13^th St., between F & G streets; Studio 210), this Sunday, March 18 at 2pm. Admission is free; attendees are asked to bring a purple flower to dedicate to someone they’d like to remember who was lost to AIDS.

…JT shifts… with the recent, lamented departure of Michael Anthony from San Diego Junior Theatre (for health reasons), the GM reins have been taken up by Desha Crownover, who has served as director, musical director and teaching artist at JT for 0 years. She is also co-founder of SDJT’s Conservatory Program for aspiring high school artists. She’s currently co-directing (with Glynn Bedington, whose two daughters are onstage) the company’s production of To Kill a Mockingbird, which runs March 16-25. And she’s also serving as assistant director to Seret Scott on the Globe’s upcoming production of August Wilson’s Two Trains Running, opening April 21.

…Renny Redux… Playwright Janet S. Tiger will discuss her play, Renny’s Story, an inspiring true tale of Holocaust survival, on Sunday, March 18 at 10am at Ohr Shalom Synagogue (3^rd & Laurel); admission is free. Renny Grynblatt Kurshenbaum, now in her 80s, disguised herself as a Catholic farm girl, fought in the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and escaped from a death camp. But the mystery the production seeks to resolve is: Whatever happened to her young son? Kimberly Kaplan will perform an excerpt from the one-woman show. The full play will be performed at Ohr Shalom on April 8 and 21.

… Mark your calendar… or PDA, or whatever… for the 2^nd annual San Diego Student Shakespeare Festival… Saturday, April 28. More than 200 students representing 20 schools will perform Shakespearean sonnets or scenes on various stages along the Prado in Balboa Park (each school gets a 15-minute time-slot). Festivities begin at 12:30 with a procession headed by verbivore Richard Lederer as Grand Marshal. The awards -- for best dramatic presentation, comedy presentation and collage presentation at each grad level -- will be announced at 4pm. Admission is free. Be there.

… DID YOU KNOW?... Here’s a little data (might be used for funding ammunition!) from the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture [this info relates primarily to the 82 non-profit organizations funded by the Commission’s Organizational Support Program (OSP)].

In 2006, more than 3.9 million people attended arts events in SD county. The 82 arts organizations employed over 4200 people, provided direct expenditures of a combined $135 million and attracted 1.8 million out-of-town visitors, who contributed upwards of $442 million to the local economy. Although Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT) receipts, which fund the Commission, have grown by more than 50% since 2002, the Arts and Culture budget has been reduced by 30%. San Diego can do better than that.

.. and San Diego should have done better with the Suzan-Lori Parks extravaganza, too. Her 365 Days/365 Plays project is the largest theater collaboration in U.S. history. Four years ago, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright decided to spend a year writing a play a day. Selections from the cycle are currently being performed as a national festival, in cities and communities around the country. The project began Nov. 12, 2006 and continues to November 12, 2007. More than 25 Los Angeles theater groups, large and small, are participating. How did San Diego miss the boat entirely??

'NOT TO BE MISSED!' (Pat’s Picks)

Restoration Comedy – funny, bawdy, well acted, gorgeously designed and costumed; the Restoration rides again… and women come out on top!

The Old Globe Theatre, through April 8

Three Sisters – beautifully detailed, well acted production that mines the humor underneath the pathos

New Village Arts at Carlsbad Jazzercise, running in repertory with The Three Sisters, through March 18

Crimes of the Heart – a whole lotta humor and heart, outstandingly directed and performed

New Village Arts at Carlsbad Jazzercise, running in repertory with The Three Sisters, through March 18

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? – the stellar New York/London production, featuring killer performances by Kathleen Turner and Bill Irwin

The Ahmanson Theatre in L.A., through March 18

Glengarry Glen Ross – perfect Mamet pacing by a crackerjack ensemble

6^th @ Penn Theatre, EXTENDED through March 25

Fiddler on the Roof – wonderful nostalgia, wonderfully sung

At the Welk Theatre, through April 1

(For full text of all past reviews, use the Search engine at www.patteproductions.com)

Grab a green beer, a shamrock and a shillelagh and head to a theater… in honor of my namesake, St. Pat.