Judy Richter

Mikhail Baryshnikov was one of the greatest male ballet dancers of his time. Now that he’s in his 60s, he has taken his talents to other ventures, such as his Baryshnikov Productions.

Most recently, he’s starring in the venture’s “Man in a Case,” adapted from two 1898 short stories by Anton Chekhov and presented by Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

In the first story, “Man in a Case,” Baryshnikov plays Belikov, a teacher of Greek who’s so rigidly moralistic that he casts a pall over everything and everyone. He briefly comes out of his shell when he meets Barbara (Tymberly Canale), the outgoing sister of a newly arrived teacher, Kovalenko (Aaron Mattocks). Unfortunately for Belikov, the relationship doesn’t work out.

In the second story, “About Love,” Baryshnikov plays a lonely man who falls in love with a friend’s wife, also played by Canale. Even though the attraction is mutual, the relationship ends because she leaves when her husband takes a job in a different town.

The stories were adapted and are directed by Paul Lazar and Annie-B Parson, founders of Big Dance Theater. Parson also choreographed the interactions between Baryshnikov’s and Canale’s characters.

Much of the production features effective live and recorded videos designed by Jeff Larson. He and sound designer Tei Blow do their work while seated at a long table onstage (set by Peter Ksander with lighting by Jennifer Tipton and costumes by Oana Botez). Sitting with them most of the time are the show’s other two actors, Paul Lazar and Chris Giarmo, who also serves as music director and sometimes plays accordion.

The show runs about 75 minutes with no intermission. Despite the creative staging and multimedia and despite fine performances by the cast, the show is only mildly interesting. It’s difficult to care much about Chekhov’s characters.

“Man in a Case” runs through Feb. 16 in Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. For tickets and information, call (510) 647-2949 or visit www.berkeleyrep.org.

Judy Richter

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In a nation already reeling from the Great Depression, states like Oklahoma were hit especially hard after prolonged drought and fierce winds transformed them into the Dust Bowl.

John Steinbeck told how one extended family dealt with these hard times in his greatest novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.” Hillbarn Theatre brings this saga to its stage in the theatrical adaptation by Frank Galati.

Having lost their livelihood and home to that double whammy of the Depression and Dust Bowl, the extended Joad family, like many others, set off for California in search of work and a better life in the 1930s.

Thirteen people piled into and onto a beat up old truck and headed west. Shortly after they arrived in Southern California, only eight remained. The others had died or left.

The first victim was the family’s patriarch, Granpa Joad (Bob Fitzgerald), soon followed by his wife and the family matriarch, Granma Joad (Kay “Kiki” Arnaudo).

Trying to hold the family together was the indomitable Ma Joad (Claudia McCarley), along with her husband, the less decisive Pa Joad (Wes Chick), and their eldest son, the loyal Tom Joad (Rich Matli).

When they arrived in California, they found that competition for jobs such as picking fruit was keen. Landowners took advantage of the migrants by paying practically nothing. Local police harassed the newcomers, especially those who would dare to try to organize for better pay. Violence and death were common.

Thanks to imaginative direction by Greg Fritsch, the 22-member Hillbarn cast brings Steinbeck’s characters to vivid life. However, the show starts slowly because it’s so talky when Tom, just paroled from prison for a murder conviction, encounters Jim Casy (Jerry Lloyd), a former preacher.

The pace picks up as other characters are introduced and the family heads west in the first act. It moves better with more action in the second of the two acts.

Moreover, the acting can be uneven, but the lead characters are fine. Especially noteworthy are McCarley’s Ma Joad and Matli’s Tom Joad.

Alan Chang’s sound design adds drama, especially at the very first with the sounds of a fierce wind whipping up the top soil and blowing it away.

Scenic designer Cheryl Brodzinsky has created a central set piece, complemented by Matthew Royce’s lighting, that does multiple duties, mainly as a wrecked house, the truck and a box car.

Kate Schroeder’s costumes reflect the times and the characters’ circumstances. However, it seems odd that the mechanically inclined Al Joad (Jeremy Helgeson) would wear the same grease-stained outfit throughout the play.

Songs like “Going Home” and others from the time enhance the production, thanks to music direction and arrangements by Greg Sudmeier.

Because of its scope and large cast, “The Grapes of Wrath” is an ambitious undertaking, especially for a community group like Hillbarn. For the most part, it’s successful, thanks not only to the cast and artistic staff but also to the genius of Steinbeck.

It will continue at Hillbarn Theatre, 1285 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City, through Feb. 9. For tickets and information, call (650) 349-6411 or visit www.hillbarntheatre.org.

Judy Richter

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A groundbreaking discovery by a female astronomer a century ago paved the way for much of what is known about the universe today. This true story is compellingly told in Lauren Gunderson’s “Silent Sky,” presented by TheatreWorks.

A Midwesterner and honors graduate of Radcliffe, Henrietta Leavitt (Elena Wright) went to work for free and later was paid $10.50 a week as a “computer” at the Harvard Observatory in 1900. She and two other women, Annie Cannon (Sarah Dacey Charles) and Williamina Fleming (Lynne Soffer), were supposed to catalog and measure stars’ brightness.

They did so by studying glass photographic plates from the observatory’s telescope. Over time, Henrietta figured out a way to measure the size of stars and the distance between them. This discovery opened the door for other astronomers’ discoveries to result in greater understanding of the universe.

Her pioneering work came despite the lack of respect given to women in the workplace at that time. She and her two colleagues couldn’t do the more advanced work that men did, according to their supervisor, Peter Shaw (Matt Citron), who called them girls. He reported to the observatory’s director, Edward Charles Pickering, who doesn’t appear in the play. They were known as Pickering’s harem.

Playwright Gunderson inserts an element of romance with a growing attraction between Henrietta and Peter. However, it’s interrupted when Henrietta must return home to help her married sister, Margaret (Jennifer Le Blanc), after the illness and subsequent death of their father.

As directed by Meredith McDonough, the characters come to vibrant life. Wright’s luminous Henrietta is a determined, dedicated woman who overcomes obstacles that would have discouraged most people, let alone women at that time. As Henrietta’s sister, Le Blanc offers a loving contrast as a woman who chooses marriage and family over a career.

Charles’s Annie Cannon comes across at first as stern and rigid, but she gradually warms to Henrietta and becomes a caring friend. She also becomes involved in the women’s suffrage movement and shows up in pants when the play ends in 1920.

As Williamina Fleming, Soffer is friendly, down to earth and motherly. Citron as Peter Shaw, the play’s only man, is believable as his character undergoes changes in his attitude toward Henrietta.

Henrietta died of cancer in 1921 at the age of 53. Rather than a sad deathbed scene, though, the uplifting conclusion focuses on the outcomes of her discoveries.

This production benefits from outstanding design elements, starting with Annie Smart’s set, which features a glass-domed observatory that easily becomes other sites with the addition of a few set pieces. Paul Toben’s lighting not only establishes mood but also becomes star-studded over time.

Carefully tailored costumes by Fumiko Bielefeldt reflect each character’s personality as well as changing fashions. Music by Jenny Giering complements the drama, aided by Jeff Mockus’s sound.

“Silent Sky” is a fascinating tribute to a woman who received little recognition during her lifetime and who probably isn’t widely known to the general public today.

It continues at the Mountain View Centerfor the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View, through Feb. 9. For tickets and information, call (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

Judy Richter

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Depressed by your job? There might be a pill for that, according to “Rx” by Kate Fodor, being presented by Dragon Theatre in downtown Redwood City.

Meena (Janine Evans) is managing editor for the piggery section of American Cattle and Swine magazine. When she hears that a big pharmaceutical company is looking for participants in a trial study of a drug for workplace depression, she eagerly volunteers.

She has been so depressed by her job and her boss, Simon (Brian Flegel), that she often retreats to cry in a rarely patronized section of a nearby department store. That’s where she encounters an upbeat older widow, Frances (Sandy Pardini Cashmark), who is creating a bucket list for whatever time she has left.

The doctor seeing Meena through the drug trial is Phil (Keith C. Marshall). He’s not overly enamored of his job either, given its silly corporate rules administered by his chirpy boss, Allison (Meredith Hagedorn).

Following the time-honored plot of boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, Phil and Meena become romantically involved. For one thing, he’s impressed that she has written a book of prose poetry that has been published. Going further with the plot scenario, boy loses girl, but they get together at the end.

Fodor’s contemporary play nicely skewers the corporate mentality, the increasing dependence on pills to cure what ails us and high medical costs. In one revealing scene, Phil tells Meena that the experimental drug, SP-925, will probably be available only to those who can afford it.

Director Jeanie K. Smith has assembled a likable group of actors. However, she doesn’t overcome its episodic nature, which involves frequent blackouts for quick scene changes on Christopher Decker’s set (lit by Jeff Swan). Accompanied by music in Lance Huntley’s sound design, these blackouts also involve some quick changes of costumes by Sharon Peng.

Smith also allows some overacting, especially by Evan Michael Schumacher as Richard, who’s preparing the ad campaign for SP-925, and as Ed, the inept physician who’s supposedly developing a drug for heartbreak. Hagedorn also veers close to caricature as Phil’s boss.

The play could benefit from some trimming. It spends too much time on Phil’s fascination with Meena’s poetry and his resultant fascination with feet. The second act sometimes meanders.

Still, there are some nicely comic lines that are funny because they ring true.

 “Rx” continues at Dragon Theatre, 2120 Broadway St., Redwood City, through Feb. 9. For tickets and information, call (650) 493-2006 or visit www.dragonproductions.net.

Judy Richter

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Right is right and wrong is wrong, one character opines, but that delineation isn’t nearly so clear cut in George Bernard Shaw‘s “Major Barbara.”

American Conservatory Theater‘s production focuses on the moral ambiguities and ironies as the title character, a major in the Salvation Army, finds herself at odds with her long-absent father, a wealthy manufacturer of weapons and gunpowder.

Barbara Undershaft (Gretchen Hall) and her father, Andrew Undershaft (Dean Paul Gibson), are reunited at the behest of her mother, Lady Britomart Undershaft (Kandis Chappell). Because Barbara and her sister, Sarah (Elyse Price), are both involved with men of little means, Lady Undershaft wants their father, her estranged husband, to provide for them. She also wants him to designate their son, Stephen (Stafford Perry), as his successor in the business, but both men understand that Stephen has no head for business.

However, Andrew is impressed with Barbara’s sincerity when it comes to saving souls, so he agrees to visit the Salvation Army shelter where she works if she will visit his factory in return.

The shelter attracts some desperately poor people, some of whom say that Barbara has saved their souls, but the real reason they say so is that they need the bread she feeds them. Barbara’s superior, Mrs. Baines (Jennifer Clement), arrives with news that a wealthy distiller will make a generous donation if other wealthy men agree to match it. Barbara would reject the money because it comes from someone whose product contributes to so many of the problems she sees at the shelter. Then when her father matches the amount, she’s so dismayed that she leaves the Army.

Still, she agrees to visit his factory along with the rest of the family the next day. Andrew has built a pleasant town for his workers, pays them well and provides generous benefits for them and their families. The money may be tainted in Barbara’s eyes, but if it weren’t for their jobs at Andrew’s factory, they would become impoverished, just like the people at the shelter, he says.

Andrew makes compelling arguments and no excuses for his line of work. Despite lives lost, war brings him money, lots of it, and the power to use it for good if he so chooses. His power also can buy politicians and the ability to create war or peace, whichever suits his purpose at the time.

Besides debating Barbara, who may not be equal to his strength in this production, Andrew matches philosophical wits with her fiance, Adolphus Cusins (Nicholas Pelczar). He’s a professor of Greek who joined the Salvation Army just to be near Barbara.

This ACT production is presented in association with Theatre Calgary, where it will go after its San Francisco run. It’s directed by the Canadian company’s artistic director, Dennis Garnhum, and features a cast of American and Canadian actors.

Despite solid performances by Hall as Barbara and Gibson as Andrew and the rest of the cast, the play’s most memorable performance comes from Chappell as the imperious, blunt Lady Undershaft.

The early 20th century costumes, so elegant for the upper crust, are by Alex Jaeger, with a set by Daniel Ostling (the bombs in the factory are scary), lighting by Alan Brodie and sound by Scott Killian.

Even though the three-act play (one intermission) is more than 100 years old, much of it rings true today, leading to many sounds of recognition in the opening night audience. “Major Barbara” is a timely, thought-provoking addition to the ACT season.

Judy Richter

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“Little Women,” Louisa May Alcott’s endearing, enduring novel, comes to vivid life in the musical adaptation presented by TheatreWorks in Palo Alto.

Set mostly in Concord,Mass., during the mid-1860s, “Little Women” follows the four March sisters and their mother at home while Mr. March is serving as a Union chaplain during the Civil War.

The primary focus is on the second-oldest daughter, Jo (Emily Koch). The free-spirited, tomboyish Jo longs to become a self-supporting writer and see the world, but she’s had no success in getting her blood-and-guts stories published.

The oldest daughter, the kindly Meg (Sharon Rietkerk), works as a governess. After Jo there’s gentle Beth (Julia Belanoff). The youngest is the artistic Amy (Arielle Fishman), who’s something of a social climber and who can become jealous of her older sisters’ privileges.

The family’s rock is the mother, Marmee (Elizabeth Ward Land), who dearly misses her husband but who guides her daughters as lovingly and wisely as she can. As a result, the girls and she are all quite close.

Completing the family is the stern Aunt March (Elizabeth Palmer), who lives nearby and who, unlike the others, is financially well off.

As time goes on, other people enter the family orbit. The first is the energetic Laurie (Matt Dengler). He has come to live with his grandfather, the grouchy Mr. Laurence (Richard Farrell), who lives across the street. Laurie and Jo become best buddies, but to his great disappointment, Jo has no romantic interest in him.

Laurie’s tutor, John Brooke (Justin Buchs), begins to woo Meg after meeting her at a dance.

Finally, there’s Professor Bhaer (Christopher Vettel), who’s from Germany. He lives in the same New York City boardinghouse as Jo, who has temporarily gone there to seek her fortune as a writer. He finds that he misses her when she goes home because Beth is ill.

The show is filled with lovely songs composed by Jason Howland with lyrics by Mindi Dickstein. One of them, the bouncy “Off  toMassachusetts,” is part of one of the show’s sweetest scenes. As Beth plays it on the family harmonium, the visiting Mr. Laurence unexpectedly joins her at the keyboard and begins to show his softer, more generous side.

As directed by artistic director-founder Robert Kelley, the show works well in the intimate Lucie Stern Theatre, especially when the action involves the family and their friends. However, the fantasy scenes, which enact Jo’s potboiler stories, interrupt the dramatic flow of the show’s book by Allan Knee.

Joe Ragey’s simple set evokes the era with gas lamps and Currier & Ives-like prints, complemented by Steven B. Mannshardt’s lighting. The handsome period costumes are by Fumiko Bielefeldt.

Musical director William Liberatore conducts four other musicians from the keyboard in the orchestra pit.

Overall, the show is well done and well cast with all of the actors creating memorable characters who also sing well. Although it’s not a holiday show per se, “Little Women” is nevertheless a heartwarming musical imbued with life and love befitting the season.

It continues at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, through Jan. 4. For tickets and information, call (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

Judy Richter

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Thanks in large part to Annmarie Martin’s star turn in the title role of “Mame,” Hillbarn Theatre in Foster City has a hit on its hands.

Martin plays Mame Dennis, a free spirited New Yorker who finds herself taking care of her young nephew, Patrick Dennis (the poised Nicholas Garland), after her brother’s death. Even though Mame has a decidedly different approach to parenting, she and Patrick develop a close bond and share some great adventures. Her primary adversary is Dwight Babcock (Jesse Caldwell), the attorney appointed to oversee Patrick’s welfare.

This 1966 musical is based on a play, “Auntie Mame,” by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, who wrote the book for the musical and who based their play on a novel of the same name, in which author Patrick Dennis recounts his life with his Bohemian aunt.

Jerry Herman’s music and lyrics for “Mame” include such well known songs as “Open a New Window,” “We Need a Little Christmas,” “Bosom Buddies,” “If He Walked Into My Life,” and of course the title song. Martin, a terrific singer, is featured in all of them except “Mame,” when she holds the stage with her charismatic presence.

The story takes place in Mame’s apartment inNew York Citystarting in 1928 and continues through various settings until 1946, when Patrick is now a young adult played by Matt Waters. By then he has become engaged to an airhead, Gloria Upson (Katherine Goldman), but Mame cleverly devises a way to scuttle that relationship.

Besides Patrick, the main people in Mame’s life are Vera Charles (Jenifer Tice), her best friend; and Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside (Daniel Kapler), the wealthy Southerner who falls in love with her, marries her and takes her on a two-year round-the-world honeymoon. Also important is Agnes Gooch (Jayne Amini), Patrick’s repressed nanny.

Mae Matos’s costume designs are terrific for everyone, but she has created one stunning outfit after another for Martin.

Directed by Bill Starr with choreography by Gary Stanford Jr. (who’s also in the ensemble) and musical direction by Greg Sudmeier, the large cast is quite good.

The set by Kuo-Hao Lo accommodates the many scene changes, but movement of the curtain and set pieces is sometimes clunky. Don Coluzzi’s lighting works well for the most part except for the “Bosom Buddies” duet by Mame and Vera, when Vera’s follow spot seems weak. The sound is by Alan Chang.

Overall, though, this is a well done show, one that benefits enormously from Martin’s polished performance.

“Mame” will continue at Hillbarn Theatre, 1285 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City, through Dec. 22. For tickets and information, call (650) 349-6411 or visit www.hillbarntheatre.org.

Judy Richter

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By Judy Richter

San Jose Repertory Theatre is bravely presenting the world premiere of an ambitious homegrown musical, “The Snow Queen.”

Based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, this adaptation follows the intrepid young Gerda (Eryn Murman) as she tries to find and then rescue her friend, Kai (Tim Homsley), who has fallen into the clutches of the evil Snow Queen (Jane Pfitsch).

During Gerda’s long journey she meets some good and some bad people as well as some good animals and flowers. Most actors in the energetic 10-person ensemble play several roles, and some take up instruments to play with the three-person onstage band.

All of this takes place on a two-level set with movable platforms designed by Erik Flatmo. Lighting and artistic projections, especially the lovely aurora borealis, by David Lee Cuthbert help to define settings.

The show features a book by associate artistic director Kirsten Brandt and artistic director Rick Lombardo, who also directs and choreographs the production. The music is by Haddon Kime with lyrics by all three. Musical direction is by Dolores Duran-Cefalu, who conducts from the keyboard.

Kime’s music is a mix of ballads and rock, some of it sounding the same. Some of it seems derivative of Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.” The show’s best received song was “Flying,” which ends the first act. “Never Give Up,” which opens the second act, is also noteworthy for Lombardo’s choreography.

The show would benefit from some cutting. For example, the scene with the Old Crow (Jason Hite) goes on too long, especially with his overacting. “I Want That,” sung by Robber Girl (Cindy Im), who captures Gerda, could be eliminated.

Frances Nelson McSherry has designed some fanciful costumes and outfitted the Snow Queen in a beautiful, glittering white gown, but Gerda’s outfit seems drab. For that matter, Murman’s performance lacks the stage presence and spark that would make Gerda a stronger heroine.

When it comes to stage presence, Pfitsch has it in spades as the Snow Queen. Another strong presence comes from Lee Ann Payne in her multiple roles, especially as Gerda’s grandmother, the Witch and the Wise Woman of the North. Homsley is noteworthy as Kai. Rhett George’s best moments come when he portrays the reindeer that helped Gerda.

This two-act show runs more than two hours, including a 20-minute intermission. Because it tends to be episodic and because the diction could be better in some songs, it’s sometimes hard to follow. That’s where judicious pruning would be helpful, as would a more detailed synopsis in the program.

Judy Richter

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By Judy Richter

Many households across the country enjoy the holiday tradition of watching reruns of Frank Capra’s 1946 film, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” starring Jimmy Stewart.

The story of how one good, principled man can make a difference in many lives never fails to touch the heart. The same is true of Joe Landry’s stage adaptation, subtitled “A Live Radio Play” and presented by San Jose Stage Company.

Closely following the film, this stage version takes place on Christmas Eve in the studios of WBFR in New York City. Six actors play all of the characters and provide the sound effects.

The versatile Kevin Blackton and Allison F. Rich, who also plays piano, along with Martin Rojas Dietrich, play varied characters while Judith Miller mostly provides sound effects, aided by her colleagues. Will Springhorn Jr. plays the central character, George Bailey, while Halsey Varady plays his wife, Mary.

In the familiar story, George is on the verge of suicide after a major crisis involving his building and loan association in the fictional Bedford Falls,N.Y. In the meantime, an angel, Clarence (Dietrich), has been filled in on George’s life and has been dispatched to Earth to save him.

He does so by showing George what things would have been like if he had never been born. Having fallen into the clutches of the rich but heartless Mr. Potter (Dietrich again), the town and its people would be in bad shape.

Stephen Hilliard’s costumes evoke the 1940s, complete with smart dresses and seamed stockings for Varady and Rich. The studio set and lighting design are by Michael Palumbo with sound by John Koss.

As directed by Randall King, this ensemble cast brings out the heartwarming poignancy of this familiar story. It’s a great way to begin to celebrate the season.

“It’s a Wonderful Life” will continue at San Jose Stage Company, 490 S. First St., San Jose, through Dec. 22. For tickets and information, call (408) 283-7142 or visit www.thestage.org.

Judy Richter

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A legendary love triangle comes to vivid life in “Tristan & Yseult,” presented at Berkeley Repertory Theater by Kneehigh, a touring Cornish theatrical company.

Bay Area theatergoers may recall Kneehigh’s previous presentations of  “Brief Encounter” at American Conservatory Theater and “The Wild Bride” at Berkeley Rep, both well received.

This time joint artistic director Emma Rice has reached into Cornish legend to adapt the story of Cornwall’s King Mark (Mike Shepherd), who repels an Irish invasion and kills its leader. He then sends a French visitor, Tristan (Andrew Durand), to fetch the invader’s sister, Yseult (Patrycja Kujawkska), and bring her to Cornwall for the king to marry.

Tristan does as he’s told, but when he meets Yseult, there’s an instant, passionate connection between them. Nevertheless, they go to Cornwall, where she marries the king and comes to care for him, but Tristan is still her true love. Of course, there’s a tragic ending.

This same story inspired Richard Wagner to write “Tristan und Isolde.” In the sound design by Gregory Clarke, orchestral music from that opera highlights some of the more dramatic scenes. Snatches of  “O Fortuna” from Carl Orff’s “Carmina Burana” also are heard, along with country-western tunes. Other music is by Stu Barker.

Designer Bill Mitchell has created the versatile set, which places four musicians on a catwalk beneath a neon sign reading “The Club of the Unloved.” He also outfits the cast in modern clothing, most of it black except for the women’s dresses.

Shepherd, Kneehigh’s founder and joint artistic director, has a commanding stage presence as King Mark. Durand and Kujawkska are beguiling as the two young lovers.

Among the supporting players, Craig Johnson is noteworthy first as the Irish leader and then in the female role of Brangian, Yseult’s handmaiden. Carly Bawden plays Whitehands, who sings with the band before the first and second acts and interacts with the cast during the play itself. Giles King plays Frocin, the king’s aide who reveals Tristan and Yseult’s adultery to King Mark.

At various times, the actors play instruments to augment the musicians. Johnson, for example, plays accordion, while Kujawkska plays violin.

Rice’s direction is wildly imaginative, making for Kneehigh’s welcome return to the Bay Area.

Judy Richter

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