"CURTAIN
CALLS" #212
By Pat Launer
09/21/07
It’s surely The Shape of Things to come:
Knockout readings that leave us numb,
From writers like Wilson and LaBute,
And Ragtime,
too, is historically astute.
THE
SHOW: RAGTIME,
one of the most memorable musicals of the end of the 20th century,
touches our history and touches our hearts. Written by Stephen Flaherty (music)
and Lynn Ahrens (lyrics), with a book by Terrence McNally, the show is based on
the brilliant 1975 novel by E.L. Doctorow. It
premiered on Broadway in 1998, and has been produced in
THE
STORY: The anthemic musical
weaves a dense tapestry from the social and political upheavals of the turn-of-the-last
century. Fictional and factual characters mingle, as the stories of three
disparate groups are interlaced -- privileged whites, disadvantaged blacks and
immigrant Jews. The movers and shakers of the era include Henry Ford, Booker T.
Washington, Harry Houdini and Emma Goldman. It’s the story of
THE
PLAYERS/THE PRODUCTION: With 45 people onstage, Starlight has mounted a stellar
production, powerfully sung.
Under the direction of
In short, if you want a sometimes chilling,
sometimes romantic, sometimes patriotic, completely satisfying evening of
musical theater, hurry up and get your ticket! This terrific production only
runs through the weekend.
THE
LOCATION: Starlight Theatre, through September 23
BOTTOM
LINE: Best Bet
BY
THE NUMBERS
THE
SHOW: The Adding Machine, the
1923 satiric fantasy of
Pulitzer Prize-winning social activist Elmer Rice.
The dark, comical cautionary tale, written in a feverish 17 days, is generally
considered to be the first American Expressionist
play. The 1969 film starred Milo O’Shea and… Phyllis Diller.
THE
STORY: The play centers on the aptly named Mr. Zero, a
number-crunching, pencil-wielding drone in a nameless/faceless store, who finds
that, after 25 years of unswerving loyalty, instead of getting a
much-anticipated promotion, he’s going to be replaced by the titular machine.
His frustration, pain, rage
-- and henpecking, soul-stealing wife -- finally push the
mild-mannered milquetoast over the edge; in a fit of pique, he murders his
boss. After his trial and electrocution, he spends his second ‘act’ in the
heavenly Elysian Fields, which are not at all what he expected.
Rice obviously thought advances in technology
would be man’s undoing. Many, of course, believe that today, despite (or
because of) our ever-expanding (and often pathetic) dependence on our
techno-toys. But the prescient play touches on other topical subjects in
addition to the de-humanizing effects of a mechanized society: xenophobia,
misogyny, sexual harassment, racism, anti-Semitism, corporate downsizing,
narrow-minded thinking and going postal. In Rice’s view, a mindless cog in a
mechanized world ultimately becomes a machine himself, programmed to do the
same thing over and over. But Mr. Zero is not just a victim of his job or his
times; he’s complicit in his downfall. He repeatedly fails to learn from his
mistakes, or to make different, more positive choices. The unexamined life, the
playwright posits, is doomed to reiteration.
THE
PLAYERS/THE PRODUCTION: The play opens with a lengthy
monologue by Mrs. Zero (Jan Leslie Harding), a whiny, condemnatory litany
spoken in an Edith Bunker voice in a (wavering)
The scene gives way to the office where Mr. Zero
works, submerged in a sort of subterranean chair, writing numbers dictated by
the sweetly naïve co-worker Daisy (Diana Ruppe). They
fantasize about running away together, but nothing is ever spoken, and she
considers escaping her unrequited love through suicide. Internal monologues are
externalized here, interspersed with outward, often antithetical
pronouncements. There are other unhappy, gossipy couples, with prototype names
like Mr. and Mrs. One, Two, Three, etc. The Boss is a sweaty over-exerciser who
can barely stop to tell Zero he’s fired. The murder occurs offstage, but we do
hear Zero’s lame, self-loathing defense at his trial. In the afterlife, Zero
meets the equally disaffected Shrdlu (a wonderfully,
chillingly robotic Joshua Everett Johnson), who killed his mother and feels he
deserves to be punished. (His name, btw, is a reference to other period
wage-slave work, the linotype, where ETAOIN SHRDLU was the layout on the keyboard, reflecting the order of
the 12 most commonly used letters in the English language).
In his heaven, Zero is offered all the beauty, art and love anyone
could want; at last, Daisy is there beside him, having succeeded in offing herself
after Zero’s death. But he can’t see beyond his claustrophobic, numerical
thinking, and he escapes in terror, only to start the whole sequence all over,
in some genetic assembly line of regeneration.
The production seems more surreal than the acting
style which, under the direction of Daniel Aukin, is
fairly realistic and straightforward. Instead of the restrictive, gray working
world one might expect, this one is garishly colored, all psychedelically pink
and orange (design by Andrew Lieberman), with a revolving center section. And
the circles and platforms surrounding those sunken chairs are able to ascend
heavenward (like the tire at the end of Cats). A disco mirror-ball twirls in Elysium; hot
pink feathers fall from the sky. With 1920s-style clothes (Maiko Matsushima)
juxtaposed with exercise bikes and the occasional electronic device, it’s quite
a timeline hodgepodge, and though it’s jarringly attractive, the production
doesn’t really match the tenor or tone of either half of the dichotomous piece.
There is so much to relate to thematically, but
it’s hard to connect to these gutless and unchanging characters. Even at 90
minutes, we get restless; the mind wanders. The significance of the play, at
least in the context of this production, lies more in its historical influence
than its timely relevance.
THE
LOCATION:
ROCK-‘EM,
SOCK-‘EM
… Jack Missett, who recently took over Carlsbad Playreaders, isn’t afraid to take chances, to push his
audience, to shock them or shake them. Bravo! He starts off his new season with
a bold, startling and disturbing play (that made just one couple flee for the
exit… but just one).
The Shape of Things, a dark comedy by the
king of deep, dark comedies, Neil LaBute, premiered
in
Questions abound in the taut, whip-smart text:
What is art? Intimacy? Friendship?
The line between passion, creativity and psychopathology?
And what is one willing to do, change or relinquish in the name of love? At 44,
LaBute can no longer be considered a wunderkind, but he still has the edgy,
unsettling themes and dialogue of a youthful, latter-day Mamet
on mind-expanding drugs and poison happy-gas. American Theatre magazine called him “a mad moral fabulist serving
stiff tonic for our country’s sin-sick souls.” LaBute
upends all our beliefs and ethics, turns human relationships inside-out. His
work is thrilling stuff, really, if you can take it. As brutal as his plays can
be, they unequivocally make you think, because there’s something of his
ruthless extremists in all of us.
Director Eric Bishop drew from his current and
former students at
This is a play and playwright more San Diegans
should see; so far, only LaBute’s bash has been mounted locally – in a
stunning production at UCSD and more recently at Carlsbad Playreaders.
Producers, take note: Nab this play -- and cast -- and
put them up onstage for all to see.
Next up at Carlsbad Playreaders: The Pulitzer Prize-winner of 1995, The
Young Man from Atlanta, by Horton Foote, directed by Francis Gercke. October 29 in the Dove Library.
…
It may be September, but the tribute to August continues. The collaboration
between Cygnet Theatre and the San Diego Black Ensemble Theatre has
begun a second series of staged readings of the work of the late, great August
Wilson. King Hedley II was the ninth in
Hassan
El-Amin, an early protégé of the late local
powerhouse, Floyd Gaffney, did an outstanding job as the stubborn, volatile and
doomed title character. El-Amin, who performed in the
national tour of The Lion King, was
last seen in San Diego in potent performances in Gaffney’s Tambourines to Glory (2003) and the San Diego Rep’s King Lear (2005; he played Edmund). He
managed to bring a certain gruff musicality to all his lines. The rest of the
cast was equally excellent: Monique Gaffney as King Hedley’s long-suffering
wife; Antonio TJ Johnson (who also directed) as the slippery-smooth con-man,
Elmore; Grandison M. Phelps III as the unreliable
sidekick, Mister; Mark Christopher Lawrence as the non-believing believer,
Stool Pigeon, the Bible-spouting spiritual conscience of the play; and Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson, upright and stalwart as the no-nonsense,
take-no-prisoners matriarch, Ruby, who won’t let anyone stand in the way of her
last chance for happiness. There are four more plays coming in this fantastic
series. You’d be nuts to miss any of them.
NEWS
AND VIEWS…
… MY big News of the Week… Daniel Vasco
(my hot Colombian pro partner) and I WON First
Prize in the Waltz competition at “Malashock
Thinks You Can Dance,” Malashock Dance’s knockout, sold-out, 20th
anniversary fundraising event. It was a killer evening, and we Rocked! See more pix (and re-read my Dance Blog), all about the prep leading
up to the big event, on my website (www.patteproductions.com).
The other contestants were great, from Sempra
Energy’s high-energy Molli Cartmill (who won for Cha Cha) to Rana Sampson, First Lady
of San Diego (wife of the Mayor), who was gracious and charming to everyone. We
all had a super time backstage in the Green Room, watching all the action on a
large flatscreen. It was obvious that each of us worked
so hard to make this happen, and to make it a success. Mary Murphy, judge on
Fox TV’s “So You Think You Can Dance,” was the host, Kristy Gregg (San Diego
National Bank) was the MC, and the judges were a hoot: Dea
Hurston, Lew Klein and
Monique Marvez. But it was the audience that voted
for the winners – with individual, hand-held electronic voting devices. Very high-tech. The setting, the spanking-new Irwin M.
Jacobs Qualcomm Hall (500 seats) was a stunner.
Everyone had a terrific time, and we were happy to support youth and
arts… all proceeds go toward Malashock’s extensive
education and outreach programs. For me, waltzing with a passionate, energetic,
flexible, wonderful dancer like Daniel was sheer bliss. To quote the Jersey
Boys, Oh, What a Night!
.. Now, it’s time for you to cast YOUR vote… for Best Theater in
… FYI, FNOT: For the
first time, the San Diego Performing Arts League will be participating in the
national FREE NIGHT OF THEATER (FNOT), the Theatre Communication Group’s
three year-old audience development program that offers, as promised, Free
Tickets. Tix must be used for performances from
October 18-November 2. More than a dozen local theater groups are taking part.
Reserve your seats, starting on October 2, at www.sandiegoperforms.com. This year’s
program will take place simultaneously in 25-30
… The Film's the Thing.
That’s the title of the new series subtitled Shakespeare on Screen, co-presented by the Old Globe Theatre and
San Diego Shakespeare Society. This week kicked off with actor Diane Venora introducing Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo and Juliet.” The rest of the
Thursday night series is as follows, with local performers doing brief scenes
before each showing: Sept. 27, Ian McKellen in
“Richard III”; October 4, Akira Kurosawa’s classic, “Throne of Blood” (a riff
on Macbeth) and Oct. 11, Tom Stoppard’s “Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern are Dead.” Free to MoPA members/$6 for the general public.
… Five dances, three
venues… Mojalet
Dance Collective, under the aegis of the SDSU School of Music and Dance,
will present five works by artistic director Faith Jensen-Ismay, with live
original music by Noby Lehmann
and Rhythm Talk. Sept. 28-30, performances will be at the SDSU Studio Theatre
(ENS 200); October 10, the dancers move to the El Camino High School Theater in
… Onward and upward… Ivan Hernandez, the
adorable SDSU alum who appeared as the title character in Zhivago at La Jolla Playhouse,
and won positive notices at New York City Opera in The Most Happy Fella, has just joined the
Off Broadway cast of The Fantasticks. He’ll temporarily replace Burke Moses in
the pivotal role of El Gallo. Fantastick!
'NOT TO BE MISSED!'
(Pat’s Picks)
Ragtime – a strong, stirring production, with all the passion, energy, drama and boffo singing this moving story of
Starlight Theatre,
through September 23
Bronze –
6th @ Penn
Theatre, off-nights through September 26
Communicating Doors – murder, mayhem, mystery, time travel and a dominatrix
– who could ask for anything more? Intriguing script, terrific production
Cygnet Theatre, through
September 23
Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy
Dean – marvelous ensemble,
darkly comic production
6th @ Penn Theatre,
through September 30
Susan and God – airy but well-done fun; Sarah Zimmerman is luminous
Lamb’s Players Theatre,
through September 23
Two Gentlemen of
The Old Globe’s Festival
Stage, in repertory with Hamlet and Two Gentlemen of
Verona, through September 30
Measure for Measure – beautiful, comprehensible, relevant, flawlessly directed and performed
The Old Globe’s Festival
Stage, in repertory with Hamlet and Two Gentlemen of
Verona, through September 30
(For full text of all of
Pat’s past reviews, going back to 1990, use the Search engine at
www.patteproductions.com)
Pat
© 2007 PATTÉ PRODUCTIONS, INC.
For more than 20 years, Pat Launer has been the only regular broadcast theater critic in