Pat Launer on San Diego Theater
By Pat Launer, SDNN
April 9, 2010
Death
of an Icon: Craig Noel (1915-2010)
The loss of Craig
Noel, at age 94, marks the end of an era for
I adored Craig; he
was smart, funny, knowledgeable, opinionated. He had amazing stories and
memories, of stars and productions, snafus and successes. And up until
recently, he recalled all the years and names and details. To spend time with
him was a joy; he was modest and unpretentious, but you still felt like you
were in the presence of
In 2000, I gave a
Patté Award to Craig, the first annual Shiley Award for Lifetime Achievement,
for his 60 years of indefatigable, inventive, nurturing and life-affirming
contributions to
I’d like to share
the piece I wrote about him in 1996, when he was 75. I think it captures the
delightful man he was, and the prophetic thinker we’ll miss.
The drugstore soda
jerk watched the actors come in from the theater in the park. They reminded him
of his own first experience on a stage: as a deep-voiced troll in a
kindergarten play. The kid grew up, but he never lost sight of that park or
that theater. This month, as Craig Noel turns 75, he celebrates a 53-year
association with the Old Globe Theatre, and a lifetime in
"My
playground has always been
During the
California Pacific International Exposition at the Park (1935-6), he worked as
a camera-rental clerk, and whenever he had time off, he caught the 50-minute
versions of Shakespeare plays performed at the Old Globe. When the Exposition
closed and the Globe became a community theater, Noel acted in its very first
production (“The Distaff Side,” 1937). His last performance was in 1975, in
Jack O'Brien's production of “Our Town” (eerie coincidences: that was '75, now
he's 75, and the Globe is doing “Our Town” again this summer -- sans Noel). He became resident director in
1939, and, some 200+ plays later, he has barely slowed down. His most recent
directorial efforts, including “And a Nightingale Sang,” were highly praised by
local critics. There was the distinctive signature of Craig Noel -- a warm,
lush, detailed production highlighting the work of a lesser-known playwright,
in this case, the Scottish-born C.P. Taylor.
Noel has always
enjoyed bringing new names and styles to San Diego audiences. In the early
‘60s, he extended the Globe's spring seasons into the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary
Art, introducing the works of Beckett, Ionesco, Pirandello, Brecht and Albee.
This experiment continued at the Falstaff Tavern (remodeled and renamed, in
1969, the Cassius Carter Centre Stage). In 1974, Noel set into motion the Play
Discovery Program and the Globe Educational Tour, and in 1983 he launched
Teatro Meta, the Old Globe's bilingual theater division. Much earlier, in 1949,
he had established the world-renowned Shakespeare Festival at the Globe, and
ten years later he guided the theater's transformation to professional
status. (It remains the oldest
continuing professional not-for-profit theater in the state).
Noel's influence
has been profoundly felt, not only at the Globe, but also within the local and
national theater community. In 1984, to celebrate his 50th anniversary in
professional theater, he was honored by governments and regional theaters
nationwide. And three years later, a San Diego Mayoral Proclamation declared
1987 "The Year of Craig Noel," a tribute to his 50-year association
with the Old Globe. [2010 update: In 2007, he was awarded the National Medal of
the Arts].
And now we come to
another milestone. Seventy-five. Craig Noel waves the matter away. He is still
spritely and impish, and he still has big plans. "I wish we could devise
some way to cover the Festival Stage so we could have it year round. It's our
largest revenue-maker, because of its seating capacity (he rattles off the
numbers: 637 seats in the outdoor Festival Stage, 420 at the Globe, 245 in the
Carter), but we can only use it for half the season.
"But my
biggest irritation is the ravaging of the Park." (He's still concerned
about his playground). "When I was
a boy, 1400 acres was all park. The hospital, the schools and the freeways have
kept nibbling away at it. Now there's
this incredible parking problem...” Noel reaches behind the sofa (next to which
Bijou has surreptitiously managed to find and finish my glass of water), and he
whips out a full-color artist's rendering of the Official Craig Noel Balboa
Park Solution (my title), an elaborate depiction of what he calls
"parcades," three stories of under-bridge parking with a pedestrian
mall. He looks at it wistfully; "It's a wonderful plan, but who's gonna
pay?" He always worries about the finances, though he claims "It's
the stuff I don't like to do. The fun part of the job is directing." And
Noel has no plans to curtail that. "I think I'll know when I shouldn't
direct any more," he says thoughtfully but with confidence. That time,
judging by his recent reviews, has obviously not arrived.
What has arrived
is this inescapable birthday, and for once, the Executive Producer is allowing
the Theatre to make something of it. This year's major fundraising event, the
Globe Gala '90, is billed as "A Birthday Fantasy" -- 'the biggest,
grandest birthday celebration ever to hit San Diego.' "Everything will be larger than
life," bubbles Gala Manager Bridget Cantu Wear, the Globe's Associate
Director of Development. "There'll be big balloons, blowups,
walk-throughs, klieg lights. Color,
confetti, and fog and streamers. Everything to make someone feel like a kid
again."
There's definitely
something of the kid still evident in this shy, unassuming septuagenarian.
Craig Noel pauses and says it's time to get back to work. Bijou is immediately
at his side. They saunter off together, a boy and his dog. ~PBL, 1996
I
am Woman, Hear Me Roar (or not)
THE
SHOW: “The Heidi Chronicles,” winner of the Pulitzer
Prize and the Tony Award for Best Play by Wendy Wasserstein, at
Heidi Holland isn’t exactly your Everywoman. She isn’t someone you’d like
to be, or maybe even know. Sure, she’s smart, witty and well educated; an
excellent art historian and perhaps a pretty good friend. But she’s perpetually
unhappy and unfulfilled, “bored, depressed and anxious,” as her friend Peter
says.
In Wendy Wasserstein’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1988 play, she’s searching
for her identity, for her place in the world. She may be the titular
centerpiece, but she’s always on the sidelines of the seminal events happening
around her, as she stumbles through three tumultuous
decades, from the 1960s to the ‘80s. She chronicles an era, from the
flirtations of high school through consciousness-raising groups and feminist
demonstrations to Baby Boomer females’ wanting to have it all and falling far
short, settling, compromising and descending from idealism into
disillusionment.
What’s most annoying about Heidi, in
addition to her ineffectual nature and her tendency to instruct by means of art
history lectures, is her supremely non-feminist need for a man to define her
identity and her happiness. At the end, she settles for a baby, without a man.
This is, in fact, the same trajectory of the life of Wendy Wasserstein, loved
by all who knew her, but always single, searching and lonely. In the end, she,
too, settled for a child sans husband. In 1999, at age 48, she gave birth to
Lucy Jane Wasserstein, the result of a very difficult premature delivery which
Wendy chronicled in an essay collection, “Shiksa Goddess.” Seven years later,
Wendy was dead, a victim of lymphoma. The lights were dimmed on Broadway in her
honor.
Most of her plays were frankly
autobiographical. And they all bear her distinctly New York, Jewish, Boomer
sensibility. Which is exactly what’s missing from the
Okay, maybe these are picky points. There
are, unfortunately, more serious missteps. One of the more enjoyable and
entertaining aspects of this walk down memory lane is the wild fluctuations in
clothes and hairstyles. None of that is reflected here. As Heidi, Kristianne
Kurner wears the same Heidi-inappropriate low-cut dress throughout -- for a high school dance, a professional
lecture, a midnight trip to a hospital. Makes no sense. The other characters
don’t vary much, either (costumes by Renetta Lloyd).
Music is intrinsic to the piece. Throughout
the play, Wasserstein specifies the songs that trigger emotions and memories,
from “The Shoop Shoop Song” to Sam Cook and the Beatles. Here, the decision was
made to have Linda Libby, a fine singer and talented musician, to sit
stage-left with two guitars and sing all the songs herself. But that robs us of
the very nostalgic familiarity of the very voices that recall our bittersweet
experience of the eras depicted in the play.
Kurner plays Heidi fairly flat, without
sufficiently highlighting her quick-thinking, razor-sharp humor. DeCarlo is not
as charismatic or irresistible or Jewish or obnoxious as Scoop needs to be.
Heidi’s long-term friend Susan (Jacque Wilke) is the one who changes the most
in the play -– from boy-crazed teen to Midwest shepherdess to high-octane
Hollywood type, but we don’t see or feel those changes. Same for the rest of
the cast (Kelly Iversen, Frances Regal, Sunny Smith, Anthony Phifer) in various
roles. They all seem like cardboard cartoon characters, though Regal totally
nails the shallow, distracted TV interviewer. The only one who creates a
multi-layered personality is Brian Mackey as Peter Patrone, the gay
pediatrician and Heidi’s closest friend (the role played, in life, by
playwright Christopher Durang, who was Wendy Wasserstein’s best-bud from their
Yale days to her death). Everyone else is playing the surface; there’s no
shading or subtext, which keeps us from engaging or caring.
The serviceable set (Tim Wallace), one wall
of brick and one of empty painting frames, is pleasantly lit (
THE LOCATION:
THE DETAILS: Tickets: $22-30.
Thursday-Saturday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 3 p.m.,
Sunday at 2 p.m., through April 25
Talking,
but not Understanding
THE
SHOW: “The Language Archive,”
a world premiere comic/romantic fantasy, at South Coast Repertory
If language is your love, your interest or your obsession, “The Language
Archive” is your kind of play. It’s smart, witty, fanciful, and filled with the
vagaries of living and dying languages, and the crushing difficulty of truly
being understood. The premise of this world premiere romantic comedy is
something of an exercise in irony.
George (Leo Marks, zhlubbily, cluelessly appealing) is a brilliant
linguist who has an extensive archive (stunningly detailed set by Neil Patel,
gorgeously lit by Mark McCullough, all in bookish browns) filled,
floor-to-ceiling, with books, records and tapes of languages that are dying
out. His professional passion is communication (“every two weeks, a language
dies”), but in his personal life, he’s dreadful at the task. He can’t figure
out why his wife, Mary (Betsy Brandt, intriguingly offbeat), weeps all the
time, just “slumps over” in tears, even while she’s washing the dishes or
paying the bills. He’s talking to us, the audience, or maybe to himself, but
Mary gives us an immediate sense of the whimsical tone and tenor of the piece
when she says, right up at the top, “George, I’m right here. I can hear
everything you’re saying.” George accuses her of leaving “bad poetry” all over
the house; she denies it. She does, in fact, plant cryptic, sometime haiku-like
pronouncements that he fails to comprehend. And then, she leaves him. He’s
bereft, but also silent. He can’t begin to express his true feelings.
Meanwhile, in two parallel plots, there’s his lab assistant, Emma (Laura
Heisler, mousily effective), who’s told she’s blocked up because she doesn’t
tell George she loves him. The only way she can do that is to learn Esperanto
to impress him. And then there’s Alta and Resten (Linda Gehringer and Tony
Amendola, wonderful as a quirky array of characters, living and dead), the last
two speakers of the Elloway language, who are flown in to George’s lab so he
can record something unique: the last vestiges of conversation, not just
monologues from the sole, no-longer-fluent survivor of a culture or way of
life. But when the aged Alta and Resten, who look like bundled-up, babushkaed
Eastern European refugees (costumes by Rachel Myers), arrive, they’re in the
midst of a fight. And they only argue in English.
“Our language is too sacred for
that kind of angry talk,” they say. “It is the language of our hearts. Mean,
ugly things are what English is perfect for.” Their ongoing argument is about
“who takes the window-seat” -- on the plane and in life.
The play is not just about the vagaries of language and life; it’s very
much about love, and how painfully difficult that is to communicate, in any
tongue.
Things don’t progress the way you’d think. Julia Cho’s clever writing
keeps the action unpredictable; she repeatedly throws absurd characters and
situations into the mix, keeping us amusingly off-balance. It’s a delightful
piece of work, but it doesn’t seem quite finished, doesn’t break enough new
philosophical ground, though the potential is clearly there. The ending, with
each character telling the audience how s/he wound up, feels trite and
unsatisfying. But there are many comical and instructive moments and hopefully,
the play is still evolving. Commissioned by the Roundabout Theatre in New York,
it’s already been honored with this year’s Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, a
prestigious award that recognizes
“women who have written works of outstanding quality for the English-speaking
theatre.”
South Coast Rep has always had an excellent
eye for new work. Mark Brokaw is an inventive director. Steven Cahill’s
enchanting original music features a fascinating range of percussive sounds and
instruments. Cho has already developed a following; she’s the creator of a
number of plays, most of which have been produced on the East coast, though
this is her fifth production at South Coast. Her work has yet to be seen in San
Diego (though almost all the cast members have performed here); hopefully, that
state of affairs will be rectified soon.
THE LOCATION: South Coast
Repertory, 655 Town Center Dr., Costa Mesa. (714) 708-5555; www.scr.org
THE DETAILS: Tickets: $28-65;
Tuesday-Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Thursday-Saturday at 8:00 p.m., Saturday and
Sunday at 2:30 p.m., through April 25
THE
BOTTOM LINE: Best Bet
Ta-Ran-Ta-Ra
THE
SHOW: “The Pirates of Penzance,” the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta classic,
at Lyric Opera San Diego
If you’ve ever wondered about the difference between operetta and musical
theater, this is your opportunity to conduct a personal experiment. There are
two current productions of “The Pirates of Penzance” on San Diego stages, and
they each take a decidedly different slant on the same material.
I’ve already reported on the production at the Welk (http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-03-24/things-to-do/theater-things-to-do/american-duet-boeing-boeing-plus-more-theater-reviews-news),
a big, brash, over-the-top musical theater extravaganza in the vein of the
acclaimed 1982 New York revival (the show hasn’t been seen on Broadway since),
which starred a swashbucklingly spectacular Kevin Kline and a stiff but vocally
brilliant Linda Ronstadt.
In
distinguishing the two forms, Stephen Sondheim once said, "I really think
that when something plays Broadway it's a musical, and when it plays in an
opera house, it's opera. That's it. It's the terrain, the countryside, the
expectations of the audience that make it one thing or another."
Lyric opera
straddles the two genres, and might produce musicals, operas and operettas, but
typically employs operatic performers, who are usually singers first and actors
secondarily. Musical theatre performers are often actors first and then singers
and dancers. Someone skilled at all three is called a “triple threat.” So,
there’s your primer.
At the Welk,
there’s quite a bit of movement and dancing, and some really skilled dancers at
that. At LOSD, the choreography (uncredited) is rudimentary and far from
expertly executed. The singing is excellent (though as Mabel, the wonderful soprano
Megan Weston can rarely be clearly understood – a much more common occurrence
in opera than in musical theater).
The Lyric
Opera production has far less humor than the Welk’s (though the Police are
bumblingly amusing) and there’s considerably less swash being buckled by the
pirates. In fact, there’s an odd conceit here. Riffing on the final-act comment
that these pirates “are all noblemen who have gone wrong”), this production,
under the direction of conductor
Once the
pirates (headed by robust bass-baritone Ashraf Sewailam) are appropriately
geared-up, they’re much more credible. Fran Hartshorn is engaging as Frederic’s
nurse Ruth; she displays some excellent vocal flourishes and considerable
panache when she turns piratical.
Overall,
though, the staging is static and traditional, with unimaginative lineups for
most group scenes. The impressive, 24-piece orchestra is in fine form,
especially the strings (the percussion sections sound a bit spare).
So, do your own
musical genre research. You decide how you like your operettas – and your
entertainment.
THE LOCATION: The Birch North Park Theatre, 2891 University Ave. (619) 239-8836; www.lyricoperasandiego.org
THE DETAILS: Tickets: $32-52.
Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2:30 p.m., through April 11
OMG
THE
SHOW: “Legally Blonde, The
Musical,”
the
touring production, at the Civic Theatre (Broadway San Diego)
I hate to sound sexist, but the premise of “Legally Blonde,” the movie or
the musical, is highly unlikely. Ditsy, clothes-obsessed, Malibu sorority girl,
terminally blonde and addicted to pink, gets dumped by boyfriend and vows to
follow him to Harvard. She’s never cracked a book, but thanks to a boffo
musical performance in front of the stodgy, startled (but not untitillated)
admissions committee, she gets in, snags the coveted internship, rebuffs a
harassing professor, scores big at the Important Trial, walks away from the guy
she came for and gets a much better guy at the end. Oh yeah, that’s gonna
happen.
But this is musical theater, and fantasyland, and a great big ball of
cotton candy fun. No further thinking or analysis required.
The touring production, which parked itself briefly at the Civic Theatre,
courtesy of Broadway San Diego, was mindless, silly, irresistible
entertainment. Becky Gulsvig has a bit of Kristen Chenoweth about her, but
she’s cute, pert, blonde (duh!), funny and impressively talented at acting,
singing and dancing. Jeff McLean has just the right handsome, small-minded
arrogance as her first beau, the supercilious and self-serving Warner
Huntington III; and D.B. Bonds is perfect as his antithesis, the smart,
good-hearted and unprepossessing Emmett, who gets a Total Fashion Makeover by
Elle, natch. Tiffany Engen showed fine comic and vocal chops as the lonely
hairdresser Paulette, and Ven Daniel was a hoot as the man of her dreams, a
hunky, amusingly robotic UPS guy. Speaking of hunks, some of those chorus guys,
with their washboard abs prominently displayed,
were nothing short of jaw-dropping – in looks and athletic/acrobatic dance
moves.
This was a first-rate production in every way, except that the orchestra
(which included ten locals plus four touring musicians), sounded surprisingly
tinny and distant. The acoustics in the Civic are so unpredictable. But the
hordes of little pink-clad girls didn’t mind, and neither, apparently, did
their parents. What was really surprising was how many adults came without
kids. Well, you know how it goes: tough times call for empty calories. And
sometimes, that’s nourishment enough.
Production closed.
NEWS
AND VIEWS
… Another
Globe passing. The premature death
of Raúl Moncada, who dedicated a good part of his life to the Old Globe, was
eclipsed by the passing of Craig Noel this week. Born and raised in Cuba,
Moncada attended high school in Massachusetts and went on to major in Speech
and Theatre at the University of
Illinois. He was a soloist for The Synthetic Theatre dance company, and acted
and stage managed in theaters around the country. He was a personal
speechwriter for Ricardo Mantalban. Arriving at the Globe in 1983, he stage
managed more than 50 productions, and also served as Multicultural Program
Associate, Literary Associate, Education associate and director of Teatro Meta,
the bicultural outreach program. He wrote the Globe’s first “Pastorela” (1991)
and translated more than 20 Spanish-language plays, several of which were
produced at the Globe. He established a playreading program in Buenos Aires and
produced the Latino Play Discovery Series in San Diego. He spoke a multitude of
languages, was passionate about international photography and original art, and
brought a great deal of energy, enthusiasm and cross-cultural connections to
San Diego. RIP.
… From New
York to San Diego and Back: “Yank!,”
the delightful musical story of forbidden (read: gay) love during WWII, that
was presented at Diversionary Theatre in 2008, is moving on to Broadway after
its extended Off Broadway run. Citing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” military
policy as an inspiration, the producers of the tuner by Joe Zellnik (music) and
his brother David Zellnik (book and lyrics), plan to bring the show to the
Great White Way during the 2010-2011 season. One of the leading roles was played
by Ivan Hernandez, now a busy
Broadway performer, who’s a graduate of the MFA program in musical theatre at
SDSU. No details yet on the cast, director, dates or theater.
… Getting
your musical theater fix: Sony
Masterworks has launched a new site, masterworksbroadway.com,
which preserves and documents the history of Broadway musicals, including a
catalogue of more than 400 cast recordings, from 1947 to the present. There are
also hundreds of never-before-seen recording session photos, a weekly blog by
noted theater journalist/author Peter Filichia, a streaming library of cast
recordings and podcasts with Broadway notables including Stephen Sondheim,
Angela Lansbury, Bernadette Peters and others. The month of April, there will
be a “You Gotta Get a Gimmick”
sweepstakes, with a prize given away every day. The prize offerings include a
trip for two to see a Broadway show and the entire masterworks Broadway catalog
(over 275 CDs). So stop hoofin’ and start clickin’.
… Strindberg
and Ibsen, together again: After several attempts to stage the steamy
August Strindberg classic, “Miss Julie,”
Stone Soup Theatre has finally found
a home for its production. The searing 1888 drama of class, lust and the battle
of the sexes will be presented as a companion piece to North Coast Repertory
Theatre’s production of Henrik Ibsen’s “Ghosts,” which opens this weekend. Two
Scandinavians, back to back. Stone Soup’s 90-minute production of “Miss Julie,”
based on a translation by SDSU professor emeritus A.C. Harvey, who also translated
the Ibsen work, will be directed by
… Up close
and personal: Mo’olelo Performing
Arts Company is inaugurating its
new Tuesdays at The 10th program,
a series of monthly events designed to connect artists and audience. First up
is “Wine, Cheese and Wisdom with actor
… Sanskrit
drama: Chronos Theatre Group is
presenting the epic Indian love story, “Shakuntala”
by Kalidasa, translated in 1912 by Arthur W. Ryder. The cast of ten, directed
by
PAT’S PICKS: BEST
BETS
v “The Language Archive” – clever new
work, excellently produced
South
Coast Rep, through 4/25
v “Sweeney Todd” – a glorious production
of Sondheim’s goriest (and most lyrical) musical
Cygnet
Theatre, extended through 5/9
Read
Review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-03-31/things-to-do/theater-things-to-do/sweeney-todd-plus-more-theater-reviews-news
v “Speech and Debate” – hip, young, and
very well done
Diversionary
Theatre, through 4/11
Read
Review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-03-31/things-to-do/theater-things-to-do/sweeney-todd-plus-more-theater-reviews-news
v “An American Duet” – two provocative
plays in repertory, both excellently executed
ion
theatre, through 4/17
Read
the Review here: http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-03-24/things-to-do/theater-things-to-do/american-duet-boeing-boeing-plus-more-theater-reviews-news
v “The Pirates of Penzance” – overblown
and over-the-top, with over-the-moon singing
The
Welk Resorts Theatre, through 5/2
Read
the Review here:
http://www.sdnn.com/sandiego/2010-03-17/things-to-do/theater-things-to-do/romeo-and-juliet-pirates-of-penzance-theater-reviews-news
Pat
Launer is the SDNN theater critic.
To
read any of her prior reviews, type ‘Pat Launer,’ and the name of the play of
interest, in the SDNN Search box.