Judy Richter

Broadway San Jose is hosting a touring production of “Wicked” that has retained all the elements that have made the musical such a huge hit ever since it opened on Broadway nearly 11 years ago.

“Wicked” is regarded as a prequel to “The Wizard of Oz,” the 1939 film that remains popular today. Audience members will have fun identifying sly references to the film.

“Wicked” (book by Winnie Holzman based on a novel by Gregory Maguire) is primarily the story of the two witches in the film. However, the wicked one doesn’t start that way, nor does the good one begin as quite so virtuous.

Elphaba (Emmy Raver-Lampman, the standby for Emma Hunton) is the green-toned young woman who goes to Shiz, a college in Oz run by Madame Morrible (Alison Fraser). Shunned by nearly everyone, the studious Elphaba is there to take care of her younger sister, Nessarose (Jenny Florkowski), who uses a wheelchair.

Also arriving at Shiz is Glinda (Chandra Lee Schwartz), a beautiful, conceited, devious, vacuous blonde. Much to their mutual consternation, they’re roommates.

The two develop a friendship even though both are attracted to another new student, the handsome, rich Fiyero (Nick Adams), who prides himself on “Dancing Through Life.”

In the meantime, Elphaba realizes that there’s oppression of people who are different or who espouse opposing views in Munchkinland. Therefore, she decides to tell the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Tim Kazurinsky). She’s bitterly disappointed when she learns the truth about him, but she also discovers her magical powers.

As she endures more disappointments, she vows that “No Good Deed” will go unpunished and becomes known as the Wicked Witch. For Glinda’s part, she matures and becomes more insightful and good.

Stephen Schwartz’s music and lyrics are memorably tuneful. Two of the best songs are “Popular,” sung by the bouncy Glinda as she decides she’ll give Elphaba a makeover, and “Defying Gravity,” sung mainly by Elphaba and Glinda as the rousing end to the first act.

Touring productions can sometimes seem tired and low-budget, but not this one. The singing, dancing and acting are all first-rate, especially by Raver-Lampman as Elphaba and Schwartz as Glinda.

Original director Joe Montello has kept the large cast razor-sharp, just as the original musical stager, Wayne Cilento, has done with the choreography.

Fanciful costumes by Susan Hilferty and ingenious sets by Eugene Lee also come from the original production, as do the sound by Tony Meola and lighting by Kenneth Posner. The fine orchestra is led by music director Andrew Graham.

“Wicked” had its pre-Broadway world premiere in San Franciscoin May 2003.  It returned to the city in 2005, 2009 and 2013 and has been seen throughout the world.

The capacity crowd in San Jose was buzzing with anticipation as the curtain rose and roaring with appreciation during the large cast’s bows.

“Wicked” will continue at the San Jose Center for the Performing Arts, 255 S. Almaden Blvd., San Jose, through Sept. 14. For tickets and information, call (800) 982-2787 or visit http://broadwaysanjose.com.

 

Those who stay a week or so in Ashland, Ore., can see up to nine plays ranging from Shakespeare to world premieres in the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s three theaters.

Altogether, the company stages 11 plays in a season that runs from mid-February through Nov. 2.

Currently playing in the outdoor Elizabethan Theatre are the Bard’s “Richard III” and “The Two Gentlemen of Verona” (with an all-female cast) plus a musical, Stephen Sondheim’s “Into the Woods.”

The indoor Bowmer Theatre features Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” and Irving Berlin and George S. Kaufman’s “The Cocoanuts” along with two world premieres: Tracy Young’s “A Wrinkle in Time,” based on the book by Madeleine L’Engle, and Robert Schenkkan’s “The Great Society.”

Finally, the more intimate Thomas Theatre is the venue for Shakespeare’s “The Comedy of Errors” and the world premiere of Stew’s “Family Album.” After going on hiatus in June, Quiara Alegría Hudes’ “Water by the Spoonful” will return to the Thomas on Sept. 4.

Lorraine Hansberry’s “The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window” has completed its run in the Bowmer.

My recent visit included “Richard III,” “Into the Woods,” “The Comedy of Errors,” “The Cocoanuts” and “The Great Society.” Here are brief rundowns on each.

THE GREAT SOCIETY

Of those five, Robert Schenkkan’s “The Great Society” was by far the most powerful and intriguing. It’s the successor to Schenkkan’s “All the Way,” which premiered at OSF two years ago and went on to Broadway to win this year’s Tony Award for best play.

“All the Way” focused on President Lyndon Johnson’s first year in the White House, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963. It looked at Johnson’s successful effort to secure passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act followed by his campaign against Republican Sen. Barry Goldwater to win the 1964 election.

Featuring many of the same actors from “All the Way” and the same director, artistic director Bill Rauch, “The Great Society” looks at Johnson’s push to enact a package of bills focusing on education, anti-poverty programs and medical care, including Medicare for seniors. With black people increasingly demanding an end to segregation and easier access to the ballot box in the South, he also wanted Congress to enact a voting rights bill.

All of this takes place against a backdrop of increasing social unrest, starting mainly with civil rights campaigns that encountered strong resistance in the South by the likes of Alabama Gov. George Wallace, other officials and the Ku Klux Klan. The resultant violence spread throughout the country to such places as Watts in Los Angeles and the slums of Chicago.

In the meantime, the nation became more deeply mired inVietnam, a war that exacted huge costs in American lives and money. The war was so polarizing that Johnson announced in 1968 that he wouldn’t run for a second term. Instead he was succeeded by Republican Richard Nixon.

Once again Jack Willis plays LBJ, a Texan who might have come across as homespun, but he was wily and politically astute. Willis brings all of LBJ’s contrary traits to the fore and convincingly conveys his increasing anguish over the war and social unrest.

The large cast also features Danforth Comins as Sen. Bobby Kennedy of New York, LBJ’s nemesis; Peter Frechette as Vice President Hubert Humphrey; Jonathan Haugen as Wallace, Nixon and others; Kenajuan Bentley as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; Mark Murphey as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara and others; and Richard Elmore as FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Those individuals and more populate this ambitious re-enactment of one of the most turbulent periods in recent history.

Immediately after closing, this play and many of its actors will move to Seattle Repertory Theatre, which commissioned it and co-produced it with OSF. It will run in rotating repertory with “All the Way.” Presumably it will undergo some needed tightening and other improvements.

In the meantime, it evokes vivid memories for those who lived through those painful times and teaches some important lessons to those who were born later. It’s a brilliant accomplishment.

RICHARD III

Shakespeare’s “Richard III” makes strong demands on the title character, a man who left a trail of bodies in his quest for the English throne. Dan Donohue ably meets those demands, making the deformed Richard charming when doing so suited his aims and revealing all of his callous evil at other times.

Director James Bundy moves the action smoothly, thanks to a strong supporting cast, including Robin Goodrin Nordli as Queen Elizabeth, Judith-Marie Bergan as the Duchess of York, Franchelle Stewart Dorn as Queen Margaret and Jeffrey King as George, Duke of Clarence.

William, Lord Hastings, is played by Howie Seago, a deaf actor who delivers his lines in American Sign Language, voiced by Omoze Idehenre as Mistress Jane Shore. She also uses ASL to convey other characters’ lines to him.

Bucking a trend to place the play in another time or place, costumes by Ilona Somogyi and the set by Richard L. Hay are contemporary to Shakespeare’s time.

This is an excellent production of one of Shakespeare’s masterpieces.

THE COMEDY OF ERRORS

An example of moving a Shakespeare play into another time and place is the OSF production of “The Comedy of Errors.” This time the play of mistaken identities takes place the late 1920s, the dawn of the Harlem Renaissance.

Hence most of its actors are black, and Ephesus becomes Harlem, the play’s main setting. Syracuse, the visitors’ homeland, is Louisiana.

The main characters are two sets of identical twins who were born on the same day. One pair, both known as Dromio, are servants to the other pair, both known as Antipholus.

The Dromio-Antipholus pairs were separated in infancy, with one pair landing in Harlem and the other pair returning toLouisiana with Egeon, father of the Antipholuses.

As the play opens, Egeon (Tyrone Wilson) has traveled to Harlem to find the Antipholus and Dromio who had lived with him until setting out in search of their brothers.

As luck would have it, Antipholus and Dromio of Louisiana have just arrived in Harlem, where they are immediately confused with their counterparts, who have lived there for many years.

Although some productions use four actors for the two sets of twins, this one uses only one actor, Tobie Windham, for both Antipholuses and one actor, Rodney Gardiner, for both Dromios. The only exception comes at the very end, when both sets must be on stage at the same time. In this case, two other actors (not identified) are used.

The production is full of pratfalls and slapstick, but director Kent Gash never allows the action to get out of hand. Still, he overuses one gimmick: a chime that sounds at every mention of a ring that is pivotal to the plot. In the midst of all the physical comedy, Mark Murphey, who plays a butler and an Irish cop, is one of the funniest performers because he manages to keep a straight face throughout.

Overall, it’s a fun production.

THE COCOANUTS

In contrast to “The Comedy of Errors,” the antics in “The Cocoanuts” tend to go over the top.

With music and lyrics by Irving Berlin and a book by George S. Kaufman, this adaptation by actor Mark Bedard supposedly features the Marx Brothers as the main characters. Bedard is Mr. Hammer, the Groucho character, while Eduardo Placer is Robert Jamison, the Zeppo character; John Tufts is Chico,  and Brent Hinkley is Harpo.

The setting is the Cocoanut Hotel in Florida in the 1920s. It’s owned by Mr. Hammer, who’s in financial straits but who hopes to get rich by auctioning off some lots during Florida’s land boom. Robert is his beleaguered desk clerk who’s in love with one of the guests, Polly Potter (Jennie Greenberry). She’s the daughter of the very rich Mrs. Potter (K.T. Vogt), who wants her to marry another guest, Harvey Yates (Robert Vincent Frank), who has his own plan in mind with his longtime cohort, Penelope Martin (Kate Mulligan).

Bedard, Tufts and Hinkley are the principal makers of mayhem. Hinkley wears the nonspeaking Harpo’s silly grin and runs around squeezing a horn.

Bedard and Tufts deliver most of the deliciously awful puns. However, they let the silliness get out of hand during the first act when they come down from the stage and involve the audience, taking a woman’s room key and a man’s phone and shoe. They even climb over the seats and venture up several rows to interact with audience members. It’s a ploy that goes on too long.

It should be noted that Bedard, Tufts and Hinkley also were featured as the Marx Brothers in “Animal Crackers” in 2012. It was a far more enjoyable yet still hilarious show because the director had them showing some restraint. The current director, David Ivers, seems to have given them free rein.

It should also be noted that the majority of the audience seemed to love the show.

The rest of the cast, which includes David Kelly as a detective, does well. Special mention goes to Greenberry for her singing.

The colorful set is by Richard L. Hay with costumes by Meg Neville.

INTO THE WOODS

Also in the musical mode is “Into the Woods,” featuring music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and a book by James Lapine.

Sondheim and Lapine bring together several fairy tale characters and show them getting their wishes in the first act, when presumably they all live happily ever after. The second act is the ever after, when things aren’t nearly as ideal as the characters had imagined.

Directed by Amanda Dehnert, who does double duty as musical director, the uniformly excellent cast features, among others, Miriam A. Laube as the Witch, Rachel Warren as the Baker’s Wife, Miles Fletcher as Jack (of beanstalk fame), Robin Goodrin Nordli as his mother, Jennie Greenberry as Cinderella, Jeremy Peter Johnson as Cinderella’s Prince and Kjerstine Rose Anderson as Little Red Riding Hood. The versatile Catherine E. Coulson plays Cinderella’s stepmother, Granny, the giant and Milky White, the cow.

With the 25-member orchestra seated upstage, scenic designer Rachel Hauck employs minimal scenery in this outdoor production. Costumes by Linda Roethke are a different story. They’re wonderfully colorful. Some nifty stage magic also helps.

Of course the real stars of this show are Sondheim’s intricate music and lyrics. He’s a genius with both.

 

After heavyweight champion boxer Cassius Clay had joined the Nation of Islam and changed his name to Muhammad Ali, death threats caused the promoters to move his much-ballyhooed rematch against Sonny Liston to Lewiston,  Maine, in 1965.

Presented by Marin Theatre Company, Will Power’s “Fetch Clay, Make Man” goes behind the scenes into Ali’s locker room (set by Courtney O’Neill with video by Caite Hevner Kemp) as he prepares for that fight.

He seeks help from an unlikely source — actor Stepin Fetchit. Fetchit, whose real name was Lincoln Perry, had created a character that was the epitome of stereotype, a lazy, shiftless Negro. Audiences didn’t perceive how clever he was, but he was the first black actor to become a millionaire.

Ali invited him to serve as his secret strategist before the fight because he had worked with another famous fighter, Jack Johnson. Ali wants Fetchit to teach him the secret “anchor punch” that Johnson had used so successfully.

Eddie Ray Jackson embodies Ali’s dancing footwork as well as his enormous ego. Roscoe Orman is the canny Fetchit, who seems to know the right thing to say and do to protect himself and to defuse some of the play’s tensions.

Much of that tension comes from Jefferson A. Russell as the menacing Brother Rashid, Ali’s bodyguard and strict adherent to Nation of Islam beliefs. Although the relationship between Ali and his wife, Sonji Clay (Katherine Renee Turner), is loving at first, it becomes more dicey when she refuses to wear Muslim garb for women (costumes by Heidi Leigh Hanson) and mentions parts of her past.

Completing the cast is Robert Sicular as William Fox, founder of the Fox movie studio. He’s seen in flashbacks as he and Fetchit negotiate the actor’s contract.

Each in his own way, Ali and Fetchit represent pioneering black men trying to succeed in American society. Playwright Power and director Derrick Sanders weave their stories and relationship into compelling theater.

“Fetch Clay, Make Man” will continue at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., MillValley, through Sept. 7. For tickets and information, call (415) 388-5208 or visit www.marintheatre.org.

 

Real and virtual families connect in “Water by the Spoonful,” an intricately constructed, intriguing drama by Quiara Alegría Hudes.

Presented by TheatreWorks, this Pulitzer Prize-winning play focuses on two kinds of families.

The real family is two cousins, Elliot (Miles Gaston Villanueva) and Yazmin (Sabina Zuniga Varela), in a Puerto Rican neighborhood in North Philadelphia. An aspiring actor, Elliot was wounded in Iraq and now works at Subway. He’s haunted by a ghost (George Psarras) from Iraq. Yazmin is a recently divorced Swarthmore professor of music.

Their aunt, whom Elliot calls his mother and whom he cared for, dies of cancer. She reared him after her sister, his crack-addicted mother, gave him up.

In the meantime, his estranged birth mother, Odessa (Zilah Mendoza), who has since kicked the crack habit, administers a virtual family on an anonymous online chat room for other crack addicts in various stages of recovery. Her handle is Haikumom.

This disparate group includes the 50ish Chutes&Ladders (Anthony J. Haney), an IRS employee; the 20ish Orangutan (Anna Ishida), a smart-mouthed Japanese American; and the newest member, Fountainhead (Patrick Kelly Jones). He’s a 30ish entrepreneur on his way down because of his addiction, which he tries to hide from his family. He’s having a hard time kicking the habit.

Over the course of the two-act play, several characters take tentative strides to improve their lives and/or to connect with others, but it’s not easy.

Intelligently directed by Leslie Martinson, each actor portrays a distinct, interesting character confronting challenges.

Erik Flatmo’s multi-level set creates defined spaces for the action, augmented by Erik Scanlon’s projections and Steven B. Mannshardt’s lighting. The character-specific costumes are by Anna R. Oliver. The sound design by Gregory Robinson includes works by pioneering jazz saxophonist John Coltrane, whom Yazmin cites in one of her lectures.

All of these elements add up to a compelling theatrical experience.

“Water by the Spoonful” will continue at the Mountain ViewCenterfor the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View, through Sept. 14. For tickets and information, call (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

 

R&B, soul and pop from the ’60s and ’70s take center stage in “Dreamgirls,” presented in a highly polished production by Broadway By the Bay.

With tuneful music by Henry Krieger and a book and lyrics by Tom Eyen, “Dreamgirls” tells the story of three young Chicago women who call themselves the Dreamettes and who sing their way to Motown musical success, but not without some major bumps along the way.

Based on actual groups like the Shirelles and Supremes, the Dreamettes start with Effie Melody White (Miranda D. Lawson) singing the lead and with her brother, C.C. White (AeJay Mitchell) writing some of their songs.

However, their manager, Curtis Taylor Jr. (Anthony D. Jackson), dumps Effie not only as his lover but also as the lead singer, replacing her with Deena Jones (Janelle LaSalle). When Effie begins to rebel at her diminished role in what is now called the Dreams, Curtis dismisses her entirely. She responds with the defiant “(And I Am Telling You) I’m  not Going,” which brings down the house near the end of the first act.

The story goes on to detail the payola and other devious methods that Curtis uses to derail Effie’s solo career in the second act.

Director Angela Farr Schiller, aided by associate director and choreographer Robyn Tribuzi, keeps the action moving swiftly, thanks also to the light tower-based set by Kelly Tighe. This BBB production is inspired by the original Broadway production directed by Michael Bennett. After premiering in 1981, it went on to win six Tony Awards and became a movie in 2006.

Although the large cast features fine performances throughout, some of the best come from Jackson as Curtis, Lawson as Effie and Dedrick Weathersby as James Thunder Early, a funky soul singer.

Sean Kana directs the fine orchestra. Kudos also to Margaret Toomey, whose costume designs become ever more glamorous and timely for the women.

“Dreamgirls” will continue at the Fox Theatre, 2215 Broadway St., Redwood City, through Aug. 31. For tickets and information, call (650) 579-5565 or visit www.broadwaybythebay.com.

 

“Moonlight and Magnolias” is a behind-the-scenes look into the process of transferring “Gone With the Wind” from print to screen 75 years ago.

Based on actual events, Ron Hutchinson’s comedy shows that despite the book’s enormous popularity, it wasn’t easy to distill the 1,037-page saga of the Civil War South by Margaret Mitchell.

Dragon Theatre’s intimate stage (set by Kevin Dunning) facilitates the sense of confinement imposed by producer David O. Selznick (Aaron Weisberg), who brings in newspaperman Ben Hecht (Dave Leon) to write the screenplay with the assistance of director Victor Fleming (Bill C. Jones). Hecht is trying to succeed where numerous other writers have failed.

There’s one more problem: Hecht hasn’t read the book. Therefore, his two colleagues venture to re-enact it for him during the five days that all three are locked in Selznick’s office with nothing to eat except bananas and peanuts.

Their only contact with the outside world is Selznick’s beleaguered secretary, Miss Poppenghul (Sarah Benjamin).

In the process, Hecht objects to the book’s explicit racism. He also equates that racism with the anti-semitism that the two of them and numerous otherHollywoodluminaries have faced.

The recently defunct San Jose Repertory Theatre successfully presented the Bay Area premiere of the play in 2006 under the astute direction of Timothy Near. Unfortunately, Dragon director Lennon Smith seems unequal to the play’s challenge.

Weisberg and Jones do fairly well as Selznick and Fleming, respectively, but Leon is too one-dimensional as Hecht. Benjamin seems to be directed to be one step above the dumb blond, belying the efficiency of the character’s actions.

Thus the play tends to be flat rather than funny, a disservice to this look at what it takes to create cinematic magic, which is what “Gone With the Wind” was and still is.

“Moonlight and Magnolias” will continue at Dragon Theatre, 2110 Broadway St., Redwood City, through Sept. 7. For tickets and information, call (650) 493-2006 or visit www.dragonproductions.net.

 

A mere Cockney seller of flowers on the streets gets much more than she bargained for in “Pygmalion,” George Bernard Shaw’s witty, early feminist comedy.

Eliza Doolittle knows that until she speaks English properly,  she can’t get a job in a real flower shop. She hopes she has found a way to achieve that dream when she meets Henry Higgins, an eminent professor of phonetics.

California Shakespeare Theater is staging a sumptuous production of this 1912 play under the astute direction of Jonathan Moscone, artistic director. He has assembled a first-rate cast of Bay Area stalwarts along with CST newcomer Irene Lucio as a pitch-perfect Eliza.

Henry (Anthony Fusco) agrees to take her under his tutelage in his house. He then bets his friend, Col. Pickering (L. Peter Callender), that he can pass her off as a duchess in six months.

He wins his bet. Eliza looks, acts and talks like a lady, but now what does she do, she angrily asks him. He offers to let her stay, but unwilling to continue putting up with his callous, indifferent treatment, she bravely leaves — unlike the more sentimental ending in “My Fair Lady,” the Lerner and Loewe hit musical based on the play.

Fusco fills the bill as Henry to a T. He’s nicely balanced by Callender as the more genteel, considerate Pickering, who nevertheless goes along with Henry.

Catherine Castellanos makes Mrs. Pearce, Henry’s housekeeper, a woman who does her best to call him to task when he verbally abuses Eliza. A woman who’s even more outspoken in her criticism of Henry’s behavior is his mother, Mrs. Higgins, played by Sharon Lockwood.

James Carpenter plays Eliza’s father, Alfred Doolittle, an opportunistic man who cheerfully calls himself part of the undeserving poor.

Ably completing the supporting cast are Julie Eccles as Mrs. Eynsford Hill; Elyse Price as her daughter, Clara; and Nicholas Pelczar as Freddy, her son, who’s quickly smitten with Eliza. Unlike the musical, however, the play doesn’t expand his role.

Annie Smart’s fluid set is noteworthy for the life size cartoon characters that populate the opening scene outside Covent Garden. Anna Oliver’s costumes are smartly stylish, punctuated by the elaborate hat that Eliza wears to tea at Mrs. Higgins’ house.

Kudos to Lynne Soffer, whose work as dialect and text coach is so vital to this particular play.

The entire production is thoroughly charming and thought-provoking.

It will continue at Bruns Amphitheater, 100 California Shakespeare Theater Way(off Hwy. 24), Orinda, through Aug. 24. For tickets and information, call (510) 548-9666 or visit www.calshakes.org.

 

Many reasons explain why “South Pacific” is so enduring in American musical theater annals.

Composer Richard Rodgers and lyricist Oscar Hammerstein II created such memorable songs as “Some Enchanted Evening,” “There Is Nothi”ng Like a Dame,” “Younger Than Springtime,” “Bali Ha’i” and many, many more.

Hammerstein and Joshua Logan based the 1949 Broadway hit’s book on James A. Michener’s “Tales of the South Pacific,” published in 1947. Now Foothill Music Theatre is just the latest company to stage this beloved show. Carefully directed by Milissa Carey, it features outstanding singing along with some good acting.

Set on a Navy outpost in the South Pacific during World War II, “South Pacific” tells the story of the budding romance between a young Navy nurse, Ensign Nellie Forbush (Madison Genovese), and a middle-aged French planter, Emile de Becque (Daniel Cameron), who lives on the island.

There’s a parallel romance between Marine Lt. Joseph Cable (Sergey Khalikulov) and Liat (Amanda Nguyen), daughter of Bloody Mary (Jacqueline De Muro), an entrepreneurial native woman who sells souvenirs like grass skirts and shrunken human heads to the sailors.

Racist attitudes from their upbringings — Nellie’s in Little Rock, Ark., and Cable’s along Philadelphia’s Main Line– interfere with both romances. In Nellie’s case, the problem is that Emile was married to a Polynesian woman, now deceased. Nellie does like Emile’s two children from that union. Cable knows that his social set wouldn’t accept a Polynesian woman as his wife.

Both Cameron as Emile and Khalikulov as Cable are outstanding singers, but their acting can be stiff. On the other hand, Genovese as Nellie and De Muro as the bawdy Bloody Mary both act and sing well. Genovese tended to switch from classical to pop style in her first song, “A Cockeyed Optimist,” on opening night, but she settled into an appropriate legit style thereafter.

Supporting roles are ably filled by Steve Boisvert as Luther Billis, an irrepressibly enterprising sailor; Doug Brees as Cmdr. William Harbison and Vic Prosak as Capt. George Brackett, the base’s leaders.

The men’s and women’s chorus of nurses, Seabees and sailors do well as singers and dancers (choreography by Michael Ryken).

The energy level seemed low on opening night, perhaps because of how scorchingly hot it was during the day (the theater is air conditioned, though). Another reason might be that musical director Mark Hanson’s tempos seemed too careful. A faster pace might have helped.

Kuo-Hao Lo’s set is simple yet effective, especially with Michael Ramsaur’s lighting.

“South Pacific” won 10 Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It’s easy to see why in this FMT production.

It will continue through Aug. 10 in Smithwick Theatre, Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills. For tickets and information, call (650) 949-7360 or visit www.foothillmusicals.com.

After regaling Berkeley Repertory Theatre audiences with his one-man shows about composers George Gershwin and Leonard Bernstein, Hershey Felder has returned with yet another. This time it’s composer-pianist Fryderyk Chopin in “Monsieur Chopin.”

As directed by Joel Zwick, the multi-talented Felder frames the one-act show as a piano lesson taught by Chopin in Paris with the audience as his students on March 4, 1848. However, since the “students” are presumably beginners, he does all the of playing to demonstrate his points.

Chopin was born in Poland in 1810, wrote his first composition at age 7 and spent most of his youth there. Hence, Felder speaks with a Polish accent.

He left Poland in part because of the Russian occupation and wound up in Paris, where he spent most of the rest of his life. During that time, he became known as a prolific composer and performer as well as teacher. He also had an eight-year relationship with author George Sand, whom he called Madam. After ailing for several months, he died in Paris in 1849 at the age of 39.

One of Felder’s most interesting stories concerned what happened after Chopin’s death. At his request, his heart was removed from his body and returned to his hometown of Zelazowa Wola Poland, where it was given a place of honor in a pillar in a church. When the Nazis laid waste to the town in World War II, a Nazi officer, apparently an admirer of Chopin, removed the heart, kept it safe and returned it after the war, when it was eventually installed at the restored church.

Felder plays excerpts and full versions of some of Chopin’s best known works on the Steinway grand piano that dominates the simple set by Yael Pardess. Lighting by Richard Norwood and projections by John Boesche and Andrew Wilder enhance moods and scenes.

After completing his scripted presentation, Felder, still in his Chopin persona, called on the opening night audience to ask questions. In one response, he said that his favorite composers are Bach and Mozart, but he doesn’t think much of Beethoven.

The post-performance session was highlighted by the Polish consul general of Los Angeles, Mariusz Brymora, who gave Felder a medal for promoting Poland and a drawing of a scene in Kraków. Felder’s father was a Polish Jew but left Poland when the Nazis threatened.

Having been thoroughly entertained by the music and the story, the audience moved to the BRT courtyard to enjoy pierogi, a Polish favorite.

“Monsieur Chopin” continues in Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison St., Berkeley, through Aug. 10. For tickets and information, call (510) 647-2949 or visit www.berkeleyrep.org.

 

In “The Great Pretender” by David West Read, a grieving man begins to recover from his wife’s untimely death and to connect with people other than his wife for the first time in his adult life.

The middle aged man, Roy Felt (Steve Brady), has been the low-key host of a TV hand-puppet show for children along the lines of “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” His wife, Marilyn, had operated one of the puppets, Francis. The other, Carol the Pony, was manipulated by Carol (Suzanne Grodner).

The show has been on hiatus for about a year after Marilyn’s death when its director, Tom (Michael Storm), convinces Royto give a tryout to the young, overly eager Jodi (Sarah Moser), who can do a right-on imitation of Marilyn as Francis.

Thanks to Jodi and the friendship of Tom and Carol, Roy realizes that it’s time to stop grieving and move on with his life.

This world premiere play was the hit of TheatreWorks’ annual New Works Festival last year and was chosen as the mainstage show of this year’s festival. It deserves the honor.

Director Stephen Brackett has a rock-solid cast with Brady creating a gentle, genial Roy and Moser creating the somewhat ditzy Jodi, who proudly makes her own pants. Grodner has some of the play’s funniest lines as the salty Carol, while Storm’s Tom, who is gay, does a good job of trying to keep the other characters on track.

Read also wrote songs for the sweetly sentimental, yet absorbing show. David Valentine created the whimsical puppets. The TV studio set is by Daniel Zimmerman with lighting by Paul Toben, sound by Cliff Caruthers and costumes by Cathleen Edwards.

Running about 100 minutes without intermission, “The Great Pretender” will continue through Aug. 3. It will be followed by the rest of TheatreWorks’ 13th annual New Works Festival, featuring staged readings of three plays, two musicals and a late-night extra Aug. 9 to 17.

All performances are at the Lucie Stern Theatre, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. For tickets and information, call (650) 463-1960 or visit www.theatreworks.org.