Pat Launer on San Diego Theater
By Pat Launer, SDNN
Thursday,
August 13, 2009
READ REVIEWS OF: “Herringbone,”
“The Mystery of Irma Vep,” “Time Flies”
MINI REVIEWS: “Musical Theater
Divas”
Split
Personality
THE SHOW:
“Herringbone,” a one-man musical by Tom Cone, with music
by Skip Kennon and lyrics by Ellen Fitzhugh, at the
La Jolla Playhouse
It became an obsession. Tony Award-winning actor B.D. Wong first saw
“Herringbone” in the early ‘80s, when he was just out of high school. He was
amazed by the skill required of an actor to play 11 characters in a solo
musical. The piece never left his mind. He first performed it in the early
1990s, and twice since. He delved ever deeper, under the guidance of acclaimed
director Roger Rees, who did such magical work earlier this year at the
Playhouse with “Peter and the Starcatchers.” The two
wanted to take another crack at the punishingly difficult play.
And it’s not just difficult for the actor. This is one dark, quirky,
complex, even creepy piece of theater. It’s definitely not to everyone’s taste.
First, the story edges toward the bizarre.
George Herringbone (he took on the name after his parents bought him a
suit of said fabric) was 8 years old during the Depression. After winning a
speech contest, he’s told he has some talent. His parents, disappointed that
they didn’t receive the cash landslide they’d expected from a recently deceased
relative, decide to use their little boy as a potential money-maker. So they
take him for lessons from a former vaudevillian (the very man who’d first
recognized George’s talent), and during their interactions, the dead partner of
the ‘instructor,’ a wisecracking 37 year-old midget hoofer who was killed in
the line of duty (flying through the air as part of the act), inhabits his
body.
So this 8 year-old becomes a fabulous – and famous -- tap-dancer. Trouble
is, he can’t stop dancing. And he’s got this raunchy,
foul-mouthed midget inside him, controlling his life. Mercenary Dad is all
about the money they’re making, so it’s okay by him, despite the fact that
George’s sanity is starting to unravel. Genteel-Southern Mom has some
reservations, but she goes along with the reprehensible plan. Then there’s the
scheming ‘mentor,’ the skeptical grandma, a lawyer, a salesclerk and Dot.
The whole story comes to a dramatic head when Lou decides to bed Dot;
this is where the creepy part comes in. Dot, who knew Lou years before, is
dubious but still willing to hit the hay with Lou in the body of a young boy, a
boy who’s struggling to survive the lurid scene. This is Wong at his most
brilliant, having a three-way battle of the will, all by himself. It’s a
stunning theatrical moment, but the situation is deeply disturbing.
There’s also the issue of the music, an array of often mostly minor-key
songs that make it sound like they’re either disconcertingly atonal or Wong is
consistently singing flat. The songs drive the action, more or less, with Wong
telling us George’s story from the perspective of adulthood. The piece is
bookended by the memory number, “One of Those Years,” as in, “Did you ever have
one of those years?” Well, no actually. Not one like this.
So you have to suspend disbelief, as Wong jumps in and out of the action,
crossing the fourth wall at times to re-take a line or make an entrance again, commenting
on what he’s doing as well as what was happening in his life. Sometimes this is
effective; sometimes not.
As someone who sees an awful lot of theater (some of it awful, to be
honest), it’s refreshing to see something so completely different, performed so
very well. Of course, Wong, who was unforgettable in his award-winning turn as
a Chinese beauty in “M. Butterfly,” is onstage the whole time – singing,
dancing, cavorting, and switching characters in a nanosecond, sometimes
mid-phrase. He does sweat, though -- and he’s
not even wearing the titular herringbone; he’s in pinstripes instead (created
by the Broadway master of costuming, William Ivey Long). Still, this makes it
appear a little more effortful than it should.
Behind the structural conceit, the play is about the many faces and
facets each of us possesses. The good and bad in everyone.
And the need, at some point, to take control of your life.
The straw-hatted pianist, music director Dan
Lipton, assisted by bassist Benjamin Campbell and Brad Briscoe, does fine work.
So do the lighting (Christopher Akerlind) and sound
(Leon Rothenberg) guys.
All told, it’s a thrilling performance. An oddball of a
play. An offbeat musical. Which
may or may not add up to a satisfying evening of theater for you.
THE LOCATION: The Potiker
Theatre of the La Jolla Playhouse, on the campus of UCSD. (858) 550-1010; www.lajollaplayhouse.org
THE DETAILS: Tickets:
$30-65. Tuesday and Wednesday at 7:30 p.m.;
Thursday-Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.,
through August 30.
Vamping with
Vampires
THE
SHOW: “The Mystery of Irma Vep,” the 1984 Charles Ludlam at the Old Globe
Charles Ludlam was a little ridiculous. Well, that was the name of his
group, anyway – the Ridiculous Theatre Company. The title often applied to his
plays, which combined elements of gothic novels, Shakespeare, Wagner,
popular culture, old movies, and anything else that he could milk for a laugh. Ludlam typically appeared in his own creations, usually in
the women’s roles.
His most enduring legacy (he died of AIDS in 1987, at age 44) is “The
Mystery of Irma Vep,” in which Ludlam
performed with his long-time partner, Everett Quinton. It was a tour de force
that won an Off Broadway Obie Award and was hailed
(by the New York Times and Time Magazine), as one of the best plays of 1984.
During the early 1990s, “Irma Vep” became one of the
most produced plays in
The gothic spoof begins, aptly enough, on a dark and stormy night, and it’s
rife with melodrama, farce, vaudeville and satire. Lord Edgar, an Egyptologist,
is the owner of the foreboding Mandecrest Manor,
isolated on the English moors. Edgar can’t seem to get over his dead wife,
whose portrait retains a place of prominence in his home. But he blithely brings
in his new spouse, the skittish Lady Enid, who is resented by the suspicious
housekeeper, Jane, though the swinish swineherd, Nicodemus, comes to feel for
her. Somewhere, beneath the madness of werewolves and vampires and mummies,
there’s a message about liberating oneself from one’s past. The political
undertones about Western imperialism are buried in this production, as are some
of the wink-nudge references to Conrad, DuMaurier,
Jane Eyre and Baby Jane (though there is one definite nod to “Nosferatu”).
Silliness and slapstick abound, which brings us to the central problem.
There’s just too much gravitas at the Globe and too much inanity in the play
for this to be a gratifying match. On top of that, the piece is being done in
the (temporary) arena theater, which seems to be a case of dramatic masochism.
The plot, such as it is, is just too preposterous for words. The greatest
dollop of humor comes from the lightning-fast costume changes, as well as some
of the barely-offstage business, such as monstrous claws and rabid dogs at the
window. When you’re in the round, there are no windows.
Director Henry Wishcamper and his two competent
actors do the best they can under the constraining circumstances, but some of
the sharpest humor is lost. They’re forced to add another player (the silent
Third Man) and repeatedly break the fourth wall, commenting to the audience
about the difficulty of getting from one side of the stage to another. Both
these tactics are funny the first time.
The costumes (Jenny Mannis) are comical. The set (Robin Vest) is stuffed to
the gills with… stuff: candelabra, red velvet curtains, a zebra rug, animal
heads, wood banisters, candles, a knight’s armor, and of course, portraits of
the ‘family,’ including the one of Irma that magically drips blood in the
murderous second act. The sound (Paul Peterson) is outstanding, what with its
gales and screams and wolf howls. The lighting (
Broadway veterans Jeffrey Bender and John Cariani
are quite entertaining, but they’re never drop-dead hilarious, which could
certainly be said of local actor
Trim, lanky Cariani is excellent as the twisted
Jane Twisden and Lord Edgar, whose self-strangulation
scene is the funniest of the evening.
It feels long; 90 minutes of this kind of craziness would be quite enough.
The on-and-offstage dash certainly adds to the pandemonium, as well as the
running time, though the aisle stairways are used to comic effect. And audience
interaction is always good for a laugh. But this production is not quite
crazy/funny enough, not campy or vampy or even farcically dead-serious enough,
which leaves us with the impression that the effort is, well, beneath the
Globe.
THE LOCATION: The Old Globe’s temporary space at the San Diego Museum of Art’s
James S. Copley Auditorium, in
THE DETAILS: Tickets:
$29-59. Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday at 7
p.m.; Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m., through
September 6.
May(fly)-December Relationship
THE SHOW: “Time
Flies,” the final part of the first Summer Comedy Festival
at
New York Magazine once called David Ives one of the "100 Smartest New
Yorkers." The witty playwright has made his reputation on short, sassy,
language-drunk playlets that comment satirically on
life, history and everyday annoyances or occurrences, seen from a comically
twisted perspective. His masterwork is “All in the Timing.” “Time Flies” is a
pale copy. But a wonderful ensemble of
eight at
The highlight is the title piece, about the
first date of a pair of mayflies (highly entertaining and amusing Tim Parker
and Rachel Robinson). Thanks to a TV nature-special with David Attenborough
(droll, pith-helmeted Wendy Waddell), they learn that they only have one day to
live, so they’ve got to make the day, the date – and the passion -- last.
‘Tempus Fugit’ enters their clever dialogue, though neither of them knows what
it means. The buzzing attraction between the two is palpable (and audible!), as
they bump wings and orgasmically massage each other’s
antennae.
Most of the other pieces overdo the puns
and overstay their welcome. There’s “Soap Opera,” about a lonely, Maytag-like
Maypole washing machine Repairman (Adam Brick) who falls in love with his
washer. And why not? Rachael VanWormer
looks pure, fluffy-white, soap-bubble beautiful emerging from the machine.
Johnson, Waddell, Parker and Sam Floto give comic
support as a variety of wackos who try to talk the
Repairman out of his infatuation; Johnson is especially good as a French
waiter.
“Mystery at Twicknam
Vicarage” is, ironically, a kind of sendup of Charles
Ludlam’s sendups (see “The
Mystery of Irma Vep,” above), where there’s a murder,
a bumbling Scotland Yard inspector, a room-full of suspects, and you can barely
keep track of who’s been sleeping with whom.
“Captive Audience,” about the control TV
exerts over our lives, feels banal. “Enigma Variations,” a goofy take on
psychiatry and identity crises, becomes tiresome in its repetitiveness, though
it’s very well directed and performed (Johnson, Parker, Brick, Van Wormer and
Waddell).
Everyone gets into the act in “Degas, C’est Moi,” in which an
unprepossessing man (Johnson) wakes up one morning and decides to be the French
Impressionist painter for a day. The fact that he doesn’t know a thing about
Degas doesn’t deter him; he meets all kinds of
The meaning of life, appreciating what
you’ve got, and a contemplation of death are themes that waft through all the
pieces. The set (Tim Wallace) and costumes (
THE LOCATION:
THE DETAILS: Tickets: $10-20.
Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m., through August 16
BOTTOM LINE: BEST BET
MINI-REVIEWS
Cabaret Corner
…“Musical
Theater Divas,” a one-night only event at North Coast Repertory Theatre,
was a sellout and a knockout. Four former SDSU students, all under the
direction of Dr.
Highlights of the evening, which was filled with magical moments, were Mengelkoch’s hysterical take on Liza Minelli
and hilarious spoof of “I Dreamed a Dream,” both from “Forbidden Broadway”;
Corey’s down-and-dirty, hot/cool blues rendition of “My Mama Done Told Me”;
Venter and Clark’s “The Wizard and I” from “Wicked,” and Clark and Corey’s
“Wicked” duet, “Loathing”; Corey and Venter’s “Take Me or Leave Me” from
“Rent”; and the tight, Lennon Sisters harmony of the encore, “Mr. Sandman.” The
accomplished musical director/pianist was Steven Withers, with Tom Versen on drums. This was one heckuva
great evening.
… Same could be said of “Broadway Today,” the special,
two-night presentation by the San Diego
Symphony’s Summer Pops. I was thrilled to have been asked to be
announcer/introducer on August 8. The Symphony sounded superb under the baton
of guest conductor Randall Craig Fleischer, and the three featured singers -- Christiane Noll, Hugh Panaro and
Debbie Gravitte --
were sensational. Gravitte had the comic
chops, and her version of “
NEWS AND VIEWS
… FREE THEATER!! The Point
Loma Actors Workshop is presenting its 2nd Annual "Theatre On The Point," a
production of Molière's comedy, “The Forced
Marriage.” Set in the 1960s and directed by Hannah Ryan,
the show will be staged outdoors on
… Mid-summer Madness: Mitch Feingold Presents is
offering “Comedy Under
Construction,” a monthly production of improv sketch comedy billed as “the
show with the You-Will-Laugh Guarantee.” The presenters are Comedy on the
Crest, an improv troupe founded in 1991 (originally called Static Cling). August
19 at 8 p.m. at Cafe Libertalia,
… Beam Me Up!:
… Divas of Domesticity: “It’s the Housewives!,” the rock
musical comedy that played to sellout houses for four months in L.A., is coming
to San Diego for a limited, four-week run. Three young homemakers form a band
for their PTA talent show, then go on to be “bigger than Brillo,”
with their own wacky brand of rock ‘n’ roll. The musical numbers, created by
two-time Grammy Award-winning guitarist Laurence Juber
(former lead guitarist for Paul McCartney’s ‘Wings’), include such domestic
ditties as “Ironing Bored,” “In Sink and At Your Disposal” and “Reynolds Rap.” September 4-27, at the Tenth Avenue Theatre, downtown. (888)
663-3729; www.ticketderby.com
… Arts Programs Adieu: Theater departments nationwide are
decreasing or disappearing, according to the New York Times. Considerable cuts
have already been made here at home, at both SDSU and UCSD. At
SpiderMan Caught in his
own web: The already fraught production of “Spider-Man,
Turn Off the Dark,” due to debut on Broadway, is
suffering “an unexpected cash-flow problem,” and work on the new musical has
been suspended. The show comes with a very high-profile pedigree: direction by
Julie (“The Lion King”) Taymor; music and lyrics by
U2’s Bono and the Edge, and a cast that includes Evan Rachel Wood and Alan
Cumming. The budget is already through the roof; the current pricetag is rumored to be over $40 million, which would
make it the most expensive musical in Broadway history. In June, it was
announced that previews would be delayed from January to February. Now all bets
are off, until further notice.
… Confirmation: This week,
the U.S. Senate confirmed Broadway producer Rocco Landesman as the next chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. Landesman, 62, has a robust agenda, including expanding the
NEA budget and reinstating grants to individual artists, which were eliminated
in 1996, due to complaints from conservative legislators about financing
controversial art. Both decisions ultimately rest with Congress. “Art,” said
the straightforward, no-nonsense Landesman in a New
York Times interview, “should be part of the plans to
come out of this recession. If we’re going to have any traction at all, there
has to be a place for us in domestic policy.” Bravo. But he acknowledged that,
in American politics, “the arts are a little bit of a target. The subtext is
that it is elitist, left-wing, maybe even a little gay.” His new slogan is “Art
Works,” which he considers a muscular confirmation that “We matter.” The motto
is meant to underscore both art’s role as an economic
driver and the fact that people who work in the arts are themselves a critical
part of the economy.
… Good theater news across the
Pond: Despite the recession, Londoners
are flocking to the theater. More
than 7.5 million theater visits were made from January to July, a 2.5% increase
over the same period in 2008. Most of the ticket sales were for musicals, but
almost two million were for straight plays, an increase of 19%. Box-office
names have helped: Jude Law’s “Hamlet,” for one, not to mention heavy-hitters
Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellen in “Waiting for Godot.” San Diegans should take a tip from the Brits; when
finances look bleak, go to the theater.
… From stage to big screen… and
small: Michael Phillips, former
theater critic at the San Diego Union-Tribune, who went on to the Los Angeles
Times and then the Chicago Tribune, switched over to the screen side several
years back, switching gears to reviews only movies. The move paid off, big
time. Phillips has just been named to take over the thumbs up/thumbs down role
made famous by Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel on the
Chicago-based syndicated TV program,“At
the Movies.” He’s been paired up with A.O. Scott, co-chief film critic of The
New York Times. Broadcasts begin September 7. These well-respected critics
should bring gravitas to the recently decidedly lightweight proceedings.
PAT’S PICKS: BEST BETS
“Time Flies” – six witty playlets, well directed and performed
“Wicked” – excellent touring production,
in all its glorious greenness
Broadway
Read
review here:
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-08-05/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-wives-wicked
“The
Glory of Living” – dark, intense, and very well done
Inner
Mission Productions at
Read review here:
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-07-29/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-glory-dickinson
“Measure
for Measure” – crisp, clear, hip, relevant Shakespeare; Poor Players does
it best
At the
Off Broadway Theatre in
Read review here:
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-07-29/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-glory-dickinson
“Godspell” – inventive, energetic and inspiring
Lamb’s
Players Theatre at the Horton Grand Theatre, open-ended
Read
Review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-07-22/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-42nd-st-twist
“Twelfth
Night” – not perfect, but perfectly good fun
The Old Globe’s
Festival Stage, in repertory through 9/27
Read review here:
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-07-08/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-coriolanus
“Coriolanus” – political and provocative
The Old Globe’s
Festival Stage, in repertory through 9/27
Read review here:
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-07-08/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-coriolanus
“Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat” – funny, colorful, well sung and danced
The Welk Resort Theatre, through 8/30
Read review here:
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-07-08/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-coriolanus
“Cyrano de Bergerac” – stunning,
magnificent production of a timeless, heart-rending classic
The Old Globe’s
Festival Stage, in repertory through 9/27
Read review here:
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2009-07-01/things-to-do/pat-launer-on-san-diego-theater-cyrano
Pat Launer is the
SDNN theater critic.
To read any of her
prior reviews, type ‘Pat Launer’ into the SDNN Search box.