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Sep 12 2013
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Visual aspects mar ‘One Night With Janis Joplin’

By Judy Richter

By Judy Richter

Colorful boas, tie dye and peace symbols are back in vogue as San Jose Repertory Theatre opens its new season with “One Night With Janis Joplin,” a tribute to the ’60s musical legend and the black women singers who influenced her.

Kacee Clanton as Joplin, joined by four other women singers and an eight-man band, sings an array of Joplin’s greatest hits. In addition, Tiffany Mann as the Blues Singer recreates Joplin’s inspirations such as Bessie Smith, Etta James, Nina Simone, Odetta and Aretha Franklin.

In between songs, Clanton’s Joplin talks about growing up in Port Arthur, Texas. Her mother, a big fan of Broadway musicals, would buy one cast album per week and play it so much that Joplin and her two siblings knew every song by heart. She also gave the three kids singing lessons.

Eventually Joplin made her way to San Francisco, where she sang with Big Brother and the Holding Company and other bands. She quickly became an icon of rock ‘n’ roll with her raw, passionate interpretations of her own and others’ songs. No one had ever sung quite the same way before, and no one has sung exactly that way since. However, Clanton does a great job in this demanding, high-energy role.

Likewise, Mann is terrific in songs like “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out,” which she sings by herself. She’s also joined by Clanton in other songs like “Spirit in the Dark” and “Little Girl Blue.”

They’re backed vocally by the three Joplinaires: Cari Hutson (the alternate for Joplin), Shinnerrie Jackson and Tricky Jones. The instrumentalists sometimes chime in vocally.

Created, written and directed by Randy Johnson, this show is opening simultaneously on Broadway with a different cast but the same director.

Rick Lombardo, San Jose Rep artistic director, announced on opening night that the show was proving to be the biggest seller in the company’s history, resulting in a week’s extension.

While the show has an abundance of gems forJoplin fans, it’s not content with highlighting the music. Instead it’s greatly overproduced, especially the lighting and projections. Matthew Webb’s lighting design often sends blindingly bright lights into the audience. Some of the almost nonstop projections by Colin Lowry are interesting, especially the psychedelic posters from the period and examples of Joplin’s artwork, but other images amount to visual overkill.

Cliff Simon’s workable set features stacks of the huge (though nonworking) amplifiers used in rock concerts. Bottles of Southern Comfort whiskey, which became a Joplin trademark, are placed around the stage, but the script makes scant mention of her excessive drinking. Nor does it touch on the drug usage that led to her untimely death in 1970 at the age of 27.

Steve Schoenbeck’s sound design is expectedly loud. Susan Branch Towne has designed some eye-catching costumes for the women.

Because the show is so visually overdone, it’s not as effective as the earlier “Love, Janis,” which played atSan Francisco’s Marines Memorial Theatre in 2006. Still, many people in San Jose’s opening night audience seemed to love the show, especially when it showcased hits like “Piece of My Heart,” “Down on Me,” “Me & Bobby McGee,” “Ball and Chain” and “Mercedes Benz”.

“One Night With Janis Joplin” will continue at San Jose Repertory Theatre, 101 Paseo de San Antonio, San Jose, through Oct. 6. For tickets and information, call (408) 367-7255 or visit www.sjrep.com.

 

Sep 11 2013
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ELLA, The Musical is backed up by a top-notch jazz quartet

By Kedar K. Adour

Yvette Cason* with Kelly Park, Mark Wright, Joe McKinley and Mark Lee  in Ella the Musical at Center Rep (Photo by Kevin Burn)

Ella, the Musical. Book by Jeffrey Hatcher. Conceived by Rob Ruggiero & Dyke Garrison. Musical Arrangements by Danny Holgate. Directed by Robert Barry Fleming. Starring Yvette Cason. Center REPertory Company, 1601 Civic Drive in downtown Walnut Creek. 925.943.SHOW (7469).  Or www.centerrep.org.

Through October 12, 2013

ELLA, The Musical is backed up by a top-notch jazz quartet

The PR notes suggest “. . . this swinging celebration is a must-see dazzling musical event for anyone who wants to fall in love with the magic and soul of Ella Fitzgerald all over again.” There is no suggestion for those of us who are not familiar with nor were in love with Ella and her music. This reviewer is one of the latter and is unable to comment on the ability of Yvette Carson to emulate Ella “The Queen of Jazz, the first Lady of Song.”

The show, under previous sponsorship has been around for about ten years with various revisions along the way. Center Rep’s version has a book by a talented triumvirate and is backed up by a jazz quartet of Mark Lee (Drummer), Joe McKinley (Bassist), Kelly Park (The Piano) and Mark Wright (Trumpet). They are by far the best of the evening even though their stints as actors taking part in the storyline will not earn them Equity Status,

The time and place is 1966 in a Concert Hall in Nice, France.  Ella’s manager Norman Granz (Cassidy Brown in the underwritten part) suggests that jazz is passé, “scat” is in and she needs to add patter to her routine. She insists to that she doesn’t do patter but the remainder of the show is patter about her life interspersed with song. Some of those songs are the best of best written in her era by Duke Ellington, Hoagie Carmichael, George and Ira Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Johnny Mercer, George Shearing and Gus Kahn. An audience favorite is one written by Ella with Van Alexander, “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” (I lost my yellow basket) that became her signature song.

Born in dire surroundings she ended up at the age of 17 living alone on the streets of New York. This was 1934 when she entered and won an Apollo theater amateur contest singing “Judy” (Hoagie Carmichael) and caught the attention of band leader  Chuck Webb. They end up playing in Harlem hot spots. When Webb died she took on the management of the band and hooked up with Norman Granz and the rest is history. She became the Queen of Jazz and on Granz’s suggestion added “scat” to her style.

According to Wikipedia “In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.” Ella Fitzgerald is considered to be the greatest scat singers in jazz history.

Yvette Carson as Ella

Without making any comparison to the great Ella Fitzgerald, Yvette Carson has an expressive voice and to this untrained ear is a marvel at singing scat. One of best comes late in the evening with a smash rendition of “That Old Back Magic.” She has a fun duet with The Man (Anthony-Rollins Mullins) imitating Louis Armstrong with “Cheek to Cheek” (Irving Berlin) and “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” (George and Ira Gershwin).

For the second act she comes out dressed in a fancy sequined dress and the band in tuxedos to add a bit of class to the evening that has down moments when her patter involves dramatic and depressing periods in Ella’s life. Everything ends on a up note with six smash songs including: My Buddy (Gus Kahn and Walter Donaldson), A-Tisket, A-Tasket, (Ella Fitzgerald and Van Alexander), The Man I Love, (George Gershwin and Ira Gershwin), Something To Live For (Edward Kennedy Ellington and Billy Strayhorn), Blue Skies (Irving Berlin) and How High The Moon (Nancy Hamilton and Morgan Lewis). 

At the curtain number of “Lady Be Good” (George and Ira Gershwin) the joint was rocking as Yvette Carson and the on-stage quartet received a partial standing ovation. Running time 2 hours and 20 minutes including the intermission.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

 

Yvette Cason* with Kelly Park, Mark Wright, Joe McKinley and Mark Lee

Sep 09 2013
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THE PAVILION at Cinnabar is an audience pleaser.

By Kedar K. Adour

Jeff Cote as The Narrator (others) and Sami Granberg as Kari on the set of The Pavilion playing at the Cinnabar Theatre in Petaluma. All photos by Eric Chazankin

THE PAVILION:Romantic Comedy. Written by Craig Wright and directed by Tara Blau. Cinnabar Theatre, 3333 Petaluma Blvd North, Petaluma, CA 94952. 707-763-8920 or www.cinnabartheater.org.     September 6-22, 2013

THE PAVILION at Cinnabar is an audience pleaser.

For the opening of their 41st Season Cinnabar Theatre has resurrected a play written in 2000 and produced in community theatres around the country before making it to Off-Off Broadway at the Rattlestick Theatre in 2005. It now graces the stage at Cinnabar in Petaluma where an appreciative audience gave it a partial standing ovation.

Opening nights at Cinnabar often receive standing ovations since they have a very loyal following who appreciate the professional productions. So it is with The Pavilion where a cast of three keeps the audience amused for the better part of two hours including an intermission. It is well worth a visit to see this particular show and plan to see the remainder of the 2013-2014 season. Upcoming are La Cage aux Folles, Jacques Berl is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, Of Mice and Men and The Marriage of Figaro.

Because Author Wright uses a narrator (Jeff Cote) and the action takes place in a small town where everyone knows everyone else the play has been described as a modern day Our Town.  That is insufficient to justify it as such since the narrator is also a metaphysical conjuror who creates the universe ‘drop by drop’ and morphs into multiple inhabitants whereas Thornton Wilder’s Stage Manager only comments on the lives of the characters.  Time and its inevitability is a major theme of the play. There is more than a touch of pretention as we are inundated with ancient Greek philosophy of Diogenes (There is nothing permanent except change) and Heraclitus (Change is central to the universe. You could not step twice into the same river; for other waters are ever flowing on to you.).

With that observation out of the way one can appreciate the story line and the acting.  The local is the mythical Pine City, Minnesota where the 20th High School reunion is taking place in the venerable rundown Pavilion that will be razed by fire allowing the local fire department to hone their abilities. 

Twenty years ago Peter (Nathan Cummings) and Kari (Sami Granberg) were High School lovers. When Kari became pregnant Peter abandoned her going off to college. We learn that Kari has had an abortion and later married unhappily a financially secure local man. Peter who is a successful psychologists with a checkered past of failed relationships arrives for the reunion hoping for forgiveness and rekindling of their romance.  He has written a song specifically for Kari that he hope will due the trick. He most likely he is unaware of the truism of Thomas Wolff’ s first and last novels, “Look Homeward Angel” and “You  Can’t Go Home Again.”

Kari (Sami Granberger) rejects Peter’s (Nathan Cummings) request for forgiveness.

Kari’s initial reactions are predictable and volatile. Beautiful Sami Granberg’s adroit shift of personalities from the angry personae to possible forgiveness smacks of reality. This after she receives advice from her former classmates such as “In two words: Never Forgive!” Peter’s gentle persistence and Kari’s weakening under the influence of champagne (in vino veritas?) seems contrived but maybe it was the prophetic shooting stars influencing the universe.

The narrator Jeff Cote dominates the entire first act with his ingenious, facial movements, body language and voice patterns becoming a myriad of local denizens both male and female as they interact with Kari, Peter and the audience. The second act belongs to Kari and Peter with rather saccharine dialog becoming a bit maudlin but seemingly appropriate since it is an unresolved love story.

Nathan Cummings adroitly underplays his role as Peter and has his turn upon the stage when he frantically and unsuccessfully attempts to set back time using the identical words used by the narrator in the opening scenes. He has an excellent singing voice for the charming original song “Down in the Ruined World.”

Recommendations: Well worth seeing. Make an evening of it with dinner in historic Down Town Petaluma at Cucina Paradiso a short distance from the theatre.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

 

Sep 08 2013
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SF Shakespeare in the Park: MacBeth’s Nightmare in Broad Daylight

By David Hirzel

Picture this: The dark and bloody secrets of Shakespeare’s MacBeth, played out on SF Shakes’ black and bloody mobile stage (as mobile as the trees of Birnam Wood), on a brilliant sunny day on the green lawn of the Presidio’s Parade Ground. It takes some impassioned acting to make this nightmarish tragedy come to life. Emily Jordan’s (Lady MacBeth) and Michael Ray Wisely (MacBeth) pull it off.

The play is built upon the descent these two main characters into the deep well of guilt from which there is no escape. The other characters, well played , provide the scaffolding on which the plot is built: the wars of the Scottish thanes, the eerie prophecies of the three witches MacBeth’s murder of the old king Duncan, his betrayal and murder of Banquo. One horror builds on another, at Lady MacBeth’s instigation as she browbeats her weaker husband into fulfilling her own lust for power.

Jordan’s performance is really quite remarkable. She paces the stage, enticing the audience (seated on the sunny lawn) into her own peculiar world-view, how the murder of the old king is just and necessary. Once we are convinced, she wheedles and cajoles her spineless husband until he breaks and does the dreadful deed. From the moment he emerges with bloodstained hands, the three witches watching silently from above, the stage is ever more awash. Ghosts walk among them, and among us.

She is very well matched by Michael Ray Wisely’s powerful performance as the warlord MacBeth, who gradually comes to realize that it is his wife who has betrayed him into this meaningless act of violence, and the ever-deepening pit into which it has led him. Most of the blood is shed offstage, but the (simulated) murder of an infant on the stage in front of us made me shudder and jump.

These two powerful characters rely on the yeoman performances of the rest of the cast, to flesh out the rest of the story, and to give meaning to it all. The stage is simple and spare, black and red, with sliding doors that open and close like the gates to a prison. A fleet of plain black chairs make banquet halls and bedrooms. To the right, a forest of blood-red columns hint at forests and dungeons.

The tragedy, and the nightmare, bloom in the tortured minds of the Lord and Lady, but they will stay with you a long time.   Free outdoor performances, through September 22, now at Presidio Main Post and last performances at McLaren Park (see SF Shakespeare website for details)

Website:  SF Shakes MacBeth

Telephone:  (415) 558-0888

David Hirzel’s Website:  www.davidhirzel.net

Sep 08 2013
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Blue Jasmine — Film Review

By Joe Cillo

Blue Jasmine

Directed by Woody Allen

 

This film is outstanding.  It is the best Woody Allen film since Annie Hall.  In fact, it may be his best ever.  These are iconic characters whose struggles and disintegration capture the spirit of our own time.  This will become an American classic in the tradition of Death of a Salesman, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Godfather, The Great Gatsby, Long Day’s Journey into Night.  The story is complex with many strands and subplots.  But it does not become a jungle.  Like a well written symphony, it is balanced, properly paced, and modulated.  The focus is maintained on the two lead characters, Jasmine (Cate Blanchett) and her adopted sister, Ginger (Sally Hawkins).  Jasmine recalls Blanch in A Streetcar Named Desire, an extremely vulnerable woman whose comfortable affluent life is disintegrating and taking her down with it.

But the film goes beyond being a psychological study of one woman, however representative of her time and class she may be.  This film makes a statement about the vacuousness and bankruptcy of the American money culture, which has come to dominate our increasingly beleaguered middle classes, who anxiously strive for success and status as defined by the accumulation of wealth and its accoutrements.  Jasmine’s husband, Hal, (Alec Baldwin) serves as an allusion to Bernie Madoff and the rapaciousness of the Wall Street bankers and executives that brought about the recent financial malaise that is still afflicting much of the country.  His crimes and dishonesty destroyed not only himself and his wife, Jasmine, but also took away the hopes and dreams and opportunities of numerous of lower class people with whom he came in contact, such as, Ginger and Augie (Andrew Dice Clay).  This illustrates the impact that the crimes of the banks and finance world have had on everyday working people across America: dimming their prospects and creating difficulties and obstacles and burdens on their lives that will weigh them down for many years.

The central theme of the film is the arduousness of the descent that many Americans are now experiencing in their lifestyle, standard of living, and sense of well being: the emotional toll this is taking on individuals, personal relationships, and families.  A wide swath of the American population knows that life used to be better in America — much better — not only as a statistical abstraction, but in their own particular circumstances.  And there is a connection between that general degradation in the quality of life in America and the unfettered pursuit of wealth without bound by this class of voracious, unscrupulous hustlers in the finance world who effect a superficial garb of legitimacy.

The film does offer a ray of hope in the straightforward honesty and simple workaday lifestyle of Ginger and Chili (Bobby Cannavale).  Although they are both flawed people, their flaws turn out not to be fatal to their human bonds and their psychological balance.  There is a vibrance and vitality in their sharing of simple pleasures and daily concerns that leaves one with a feeling that they might be able to go on and create a workable life together.  But they are clearly vulnerable and the stability and the hopes that they share today could easily be derailed by the intrusion of the collapsing lives of those in the upper tiers of society represented by Jasmine.  The film is a dismal tragedy, but there are many comic aspects to it that provide a lighthearted feel that allays the overall grimness and prevents it from becoming dreary or oppressive to watch.  It ends on a note of ambiguity in a minor key.   Go see it.  It is a classic portrayal of key trends in contemporary American life.

Sep 07 2013
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AFTER THE REVOLUTION a thought provoking political family drama.

By Kedar K. Adour

The Joseph family (l. Rolf Saxon*, center l-r, Pamela Gaye Walker*, Ellen Ratner*, Victor Talmadge*) gather to celebrate Emma’s (c. Jessica Bates*) graduation from law school

Now through October 6 (added performances: Tuesday, October 1, 7pm; Wednesday, October 2, 8pm; Thursday, October 3, 8pm; Friday, October 4, 8pm; Saturday, October 5, 8pm; Sunday, October 6, 2pm).

AFTER THE REVOLUTION: Drama by Amy Herzog and directed by Joy Carlin. Aurora Theater, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley. (510) 843-4822. www.auroratheatre.org.

Through September 29, 2013

AFTER THE REVOLUTION a thought provoking political family drama.

Amy Herzog is one of the bright young women playwrights who have rightfully gained fame in the theatrical world and are seeing a surge in the production of their plays. Not only are their plays being produced but they are being inundated with honors. In Herzog’s particular case some of those honors were rightfully heaped on After the Revolution that is the opening salvo of Aurora Theatre’s 22nd season.

The salvo resurrects the explosive time becoming  known as the “McCarthy Era” and was the inspiration for the word McCarthyism referring to the practice of making unsubstantiated accusations of treason for political purposes. However there were men who committed act(s) of treason who went undetected. In Herzog’s remarkable play Joe Joseph was one of those men.

The long dead Joe Joseph was the patriarch of a Marxists clan that included his second wife Vera (Ellen Ratner), two sons, Ben (Rolf Saxon) and Leo (Victor Talmadge).  Emma, (Jessica Bates) Ben’s youngest daughter, a brilliant lawyer, has set up a non-profit fund to free a former Black Panther journalist convicted of murdering a Philadelphia policeman. The fund has been named the “Joe Joseph Fund” in honor of her blacklisted grandfather.  She has hired her bright young Mexican lawyer/ boyfriend Miguel (Adrian Anchondo) to work with her.

Rounding out the family relationships are Emma’s step-mother Mel (Pamela Gaye Walker) and older sister Jess (Sarah Mitchell) who is in rehabilitation for drug dependency. The final character is Morty (Peter Kybart) a wealthy donor to the fund. These three characters become integral to the denouement.

Altruistic Emma becomes emotionally and physically depressed when she learns that her revered Grandfather was not only a spy for the Soviet Union but a liar as well. This sets into motion tangled conflicts within herself , her extended family and Miguel. As written into the script  her response to the devastating fall of her idol is overly dramatic. However Jessica Bates’ portrayal of Emma’s altruistic enthusiasm is electric as is her descent into depression. It is an absolutely superb totally believable  performance.

Herzog has constructed a convoluted, yet brilliant, play that builds scene by scene (11scenes in act one), layer by layer creating well rounded characters and mostly plausible plot shifts.  Herzog’s dialog is an actor’s dream and Rolf Saxon’s shift from a bombastic Marxist teacher to a parent in conflict with his family is stirring. Victor Talmadge does not have the emotional dialog of the others as he portrays the pillar of family stability and disappointed father with professional equanimity.

Adrian Anchondo makes you feel Miguel’s conflict as his relationship with Emma unravels. It is Ellen Ratner, Peter Kybart and Sarah Mitchell who add the much needed interludes of humor with each making the most of their limited time upon the stage.

This must be a difficult play for a director to mount but Joy Carlin’s staging of the multiple scenes set in multiple locations could not be better. The two hour and 10 minute running time (includes an intermission) is filled with memorable directorial conceits that augment the dialog and acting.

An added note: Set design by J.B. Wilson with the back wall of actual telephone poles and electrical wires is reminiscent of the ‘ash can’ school of painting prominent in the 30s and 40s and of a James Penny work in particular. (The title escapes me. It is in the Munson-Proctor Institute in Utica, New York)

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

 

Sep 07 2013
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Idol has feet of clay in ‘After the Revolution’ at Aurora

By Judy Richter

By Judy Richter

Playwright Amy Herzog looks at what happens when an idolized ancestor turns out to have been human in “After the Revolution,” staged by Aurora Theatre Company to open its 22nd season in Berkeley.

This two-act play focuses on three generations of the Joseph family, who proudly call themselves Marxists. Their venerated ancestor is the late Joe Joseph, a Marxist who worked for the Office of Strategic Services, a World War II forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency. When he testified at a congressional hearing during the infamous communist witch hunts during the early 1950s, he denied passing U.S.secrets to Russia and refused to name possible communists, thus being blacklisted.

Now his 26-year-old granddaughter, Emma (Jessica Bates), a freshly minted law school graduate in 1999, has started the Joe Joseph Foundation dedicated to fighting injustice. When she learns that what she had been told about her grandfather isn’t entirely true, she triggers a major family crisis aimed mostly at her father, Ben Joseph (Rolf Saxon), for having withheld the information from her.

His partner, Mel (Pamela Gaye Walker); his brother, Leo (Victor Talmadge); Emma’s sister, Jess (Sarah Mitchell); their step grandmother, Vera (Ellen Ratner); and Emma’s boyfriend, Miguel (Adrian Anchondo); all get involved in the father-daughter rift. The person who seems to be the most helpful is an outsider, 77-year-old Morty (Peter Kybart), a major donor to Emma’s foundation.

Director Joy Carlin keeps the action moving briskly and has a solid cast. Bates as Emma is onstage through most of the two-act play and carries the heaviest load in a role that temporarily devolves into depression that can seem self-indulgent.

Saxon is convincing as the caring father who has to admit that he made mistakes. Talmadge as Leo and Walker as Mel come across as reasonable and caring as they try to serve as peacemakers. Mitchell’s Jess is refreshingly blunt as a young woman trying to get through rehab. Ratner as Vera is feisty as she portrays an aging woman beset by difficulties hearing, walking and remembering words. Kybart embodies Morty’s generosity, wisdom and sense of  humor, while Anchondo is caring and then conflicted as Miguel.

Because the plot tends to be detailed, one must listen carefully. This is especially true in Aurora’s intimate space, where the audience sits on three sides of the stage. If an actor is turned away from one side, he or she might be difficult to hear.

The play makes extensive use of telephone calls, especially in the second act when Ben is trying to get through to Emma. J.B. Wilson’s set design plays up this device with telephone poles and wires upstage.

Sound designer Chris Houston helps to prepare the audience with protest songs from the likes of Woody Guthrie heard in the lobby and theater beforehand. The lighting is by Kurt Landisman with costumes by Callie Floor.

For the most part, “After the Revolution” is an involving drama with believable characters and circumstances.

It will continue at Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison St., Berkeley, through Sept. 29. For tickets and information, call (510) 843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org.

 

Sep 04 2013
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Good People by David Lindsay-Abaire at Marin Theatre Company, Mill Valley CA

By Greg & Suzanne Angeo

ZZ Moor, Amy Resnick, Mark Anderson Phillips

 

Reviewed by Suzanne and Greg Angeo

Photos by Ed Smith

Good People is Brilliantly-Crafted, Compelling Start to MTC’s New Season

As its 2013-2014 season opener, Marin Theatre Company has chosen Good People, a Broadway hit in its Bay Area premiere. The story is provocative; the vivid characters sparkle like gems in a setting of steel.  Playwright, screenwriter and lyricist David Lindsay-Abaire has won the Pulitzer Prize (Rabbit Hole), and was nominated for a Grammy and several Tony Awards (Shrek the Musical, Rabbit Hole).  Good People opened on Broadway in 2011 and garnered him yet another Tony nod.

With humor and brutal honesty, Good People suggests that the choices we make are not always our own, and that some of us are not able to make choices that put us on the path to success, or even stability. We see Margaret, a hardscrabble single mom, struggling to hold her life together as she cares for her special-needs adult daughter in Southie, a working-class Irish section of south Boston. She’s got her neighborhood pals Jean and Dottie to lean on, but no thanks to her boss Stevie, life is tough and getting tougher by the minute. Her encounter with Mike, an old high-school boyfriend, promises to be a game-changer.

Amy Resnick as Margaret – Margie to her pals – is likeable and authentic in her role, as familiar as a favorite pair of jeans. Margie’s often given to outbursts where she ends up not-really apologizing, with trademark lines like “pardon my French” and ”I’m just bustin’ balls”. Sympathetic but confusing, she’s painfully blunt and seems to take pride in looking foolish or crude. But we soon learn that she’s reluctant to take action in simple, honest ways that could make life easier for herself and her daughter. Is she truly proud of who she is, or is she so invested in her Southie identity that she is unable or unwilling to change it?

Amy Resnick, Ben Euphrat

Mark Anderson Phillips is Mike, Margie’s former flame from the old neighborhood. In a masterful performance, Phillips shows us hints of zaniness, anarchy and fear lurking just below Mike’s smooth surface. Now a successful doctor, Mike fondly endures Margie’s digs about becoming “lace-curtain Irish”, a reference to his moving up in the world. Later on, Margie visits the home of Mike and his elegant young African-American wife Kate, played with compassionate sophistication by ZZ Moor. It ends up being a night of unraveling and uproar, with Mike showing his true colors and Kate challenging Margie’s life choices.

Margie’s best friends Dottie (Ann Darragh) and Jean (Jamie Jones) are so endearing, and offer such skillful comic relief that you wish you could have them over for the weekend. Between bingo games and swapping tales, these ladies are the heart of the story, which has a satisfying conclusion after the convoluted road it travels to get there.

An unforeseen event threatened one recent matinee performance: Ben Euphrat, who plays Stevie, got stuck in traffic from the Bay Bridge closure and missed the first scene, a crucial one with Resnick that establishes the entire storyline. Phillips covered the part, script in hand, and even though he performed well, Euphrat’s absence threw the beginning of the first act off-kilter.  He did finally arrive in time for his next scene and hit the ground running, fully recovering the momentum of the show and turning in a fine performance.

Anne Darragh, Amy Resnick, Jamie Jones

Direction by Tracy Young in her MTC debut is inventive yet efficient, keeping the cast in almost constant motion. Nina Ball’s clean and simple set design allows for effortless scene changes. Young makes use of the clever set platforms that roll backwards or forwards, sometimes while the actors are still performing. Sliding backdrop partitions come and go from the wings on either side. Thus the stage is transformed: from an alleyway to a doctor’s office to a bingo hall; from a subway platform to a high-class home. The gritty urban-rock score, used in between scenes by composer Chris Houston, keeps the energy level high throughout the show.

There are no heroes or villains in Good People. It takes us on a journey to a place where we can stand and peer into the age-old abyss between the classes. It raises questions that have no easy answers, but that need to be asked anyway.

When: now through September 15, 2013

8 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays

7:30 p.m. Wednesdays

2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sundays

2 p.m. Saturday, September 14

1 p.m. Thursday, September 5

Tickets: $37 to $58

Location: Marin Theatre Company

397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley CA 94941
Phone: 415-388-5208

Website: www.marintheatre.org

Sep 03 2013
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MTC kids’ theater: Antics, music — and a laughable burp

By Woody Weingarten

 

I’m not the least bit objective.

Doyle Ott as The Cat in the Hat. Photo: Woody Weingarten.

I’m 129-percent convinced that Hannah, my six-year-old granddaughter, is a bright delight.

She loves to watch YouTube with me — caterpillars’ transforming into butterflies, volcanoes spewing lava, scientific marvels galore.

But she can instantly revert to a bounce-in-her-seat, giggle-out-loud little girl fascinated with Disney princesses.

Or “The Cat in the Hat,” an interactive show we just caught at the Marin Theatre Company, squeezed in a squeal-and-fun-filled Saturday between Strawberry’s In-N-Out Burger and the Presidio’s Family Day Kite Festival.

The 45-minute play was the first of a first — that is, the first of five shows aimed at kids, four of them produced by the Bay Area Children’s Theatre, in the MTC’s initial theater series for youthful audiences.

The show convinced me anew that I’m not the least bit objective: I was as impressed with it as my granddaughter — for slightly different reasons.

I know she thoroughly enjoyed the exaggerated antics from ever-so-familiar characters originally penned by Theodor Geisel (she knows him as Dr. Seuss), particularly the unmanageable juggling of The Cat and the flummoxed scurrying of the blue-haired Thing 1 and Thing 2.

At the same time, the show blew me away because it emphasized exceptionally age-appropriate, relatable action for youngsters; featured perky primary colors in both costumes and set; retained the monosyllabic sing-song rhymes expected from a Seuss story; and showcased six cast members who clowned and sang and danced with a degree of professionalism I hadn’t expected.

Especially Doyle Ott, who gleefully portrayed The Cat, a guy with both circuses and the San Francisco Shakespeare Festival in his résumé.

I reveled, too, in the perfectly timed, cartoon-like sound effects added by Beryl Baker — not to mention the brief recorded excerpts of classical music (“The William Tell Overture” and “Sabre Dance,” for example).

The production — and director Erin Merritt — happily stuck to Seuss’ text and his unwritten theme: When mom’s away, the kids (and The Cat) will play

Silly choreography by Laura Ricci added to everyone’s pleasure — as did The Cat playing golf with a black umbrella, riding a pink-wheeled unicycle, and strumming a tennis racket like a guitar and pseudo-creating lively Flamenco rhythms.

The biggest laugh, as might be expected with an age group of people all under four-feet tall, came from an outrageously loud burp.

“The Cat in the Hat” has been so well liked since being created in 1954 that the book’s been translated into a dozen languages. It has more than 11 million copies in print.

The staged version can only build on that popularity.

If the remainder of the Theater for Young Audiences season can come anywhere near the gusto of The Cat, I can guarantee matinee happiness.

Check out “A Year with Frog & Toad,” starting Jan. 11;  “Mercy Watson to the Rescue,” beginning March 8, and “Ladybug Girl and Bumblbee Boy” in May. Or MTC’s own production, “Rapunzel,” a Nov. 2-10 show that focuses on “taking risks and overcoming fear rather than being the subject of a witch’s petty grudges and a prince’s daring deeds.”

Theater for Young Audiences tickets at the Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, cost $15 for children under 14; $20 for adults; $17 for seniors 65 and above. Information: (415) 388-5208 or marintheatre.org.

Sep 02 2013
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NTC Opens 2013-2014 Season with The Lion In Winter

By Flora Lynn Isaacson, Uncategorized

 Maxine Sattizahn (Eleanor), Craig Christansen (King Henry II) and Brandice Thompson (Alais) in The Lion In Winter at NTC

There is an underlying problem with James Goldman’s The Lion In Winter.  Either it is a play of historical significance and you have to believe you’re looking at the 12th century King of England and the former Queen of France or, it is a satire, a spoof with a mirror basis in history.  Award winning Director Kris Neely interprets it as “a comedy in two acts.”  He felt the cast needed to understand and convey the humor Mr. Goldman wrote into his play. They worked intently to reveal all the comedy that lives in this amazing script.

The Lion In Winter, written in 1966 by James Goldman, depicts the personal and political conflicts of Henry II of England (Craig Christansen), his wife Eleanor of Aquitaine (Maxine Sattizahn), their children and their guests during Christmas, 1183.  The entire story takes place within the walls of the Chateau de Chinon, a castle on the banks of France’s Vienne River.

The play opens with the arrival of Henry’s wife, Eleanor whom he has imprisoned since 1173. The story concerns the gamesmanship between Henry, Eleanor, their three surviving sons, Richard the Lionheart, the oldest son, (Jeffrey Taylor), Geoffrey, the middle son (Kurt Gundersen) and John, youngest son to Henry (Yver Northum).  Also involved is Philip II, King of France (Christopher C. Wright), who was the son of Eleanor’s ex-husband, Louis VII by his third wife Adelaide and Philip’s half-sister Alais Capet who has been at Court since she was betrothed to Richard at age 8, but has since become Henry’s mistress (Brandice Thompson). A silent character who is always around is Matilda, their eldest daughter (Hannah Jester).

Kris Neely has assembled a fine cast, particularly Craig Christansen as Henry. Though aging, he portrays him as vital as he ever was.  His manipulation of family and others are portrayed as spontaneous and emotional.  Maxine Sattizahn plays Eleanor with great temperament and presence.  Yver Northum as John is sulky and sullen with a boyish outlook. Kent Gundersen’s Geoffrey is a man of energy and action. He is charming and the “brains” of the family.  Jeffrey Taylor plays Richard the Lionheart—he is attractive, graceful and impressive. He is easily the strongest and toughest of the three sons.  Brandice Thompson’s Alais (the beautiful mistress of Henry) is initially innocent, but by the end of the play, she has acquired a ruthless streak of her own.  Christopher C. Wright, as Philip is both impressive and handsome.   Dressing it all up in beautiful 12th century costumes is the talent of Costume Designers Janice Deneau and John Clancy.

To witness this play in live performance, to experience the underlying emotional savagery in the plot and spoken word, in the intimacy of Novato’s new theater, as presented by a cast of exceptionally strong actors—is a somewhat intense experience even though we are comfortable laughing out loud at Kris Neely’s exploration of all the comedy which is present in this amazing script.

The Lion In Winter runs at Novato Theater Company August 30-September 22, 2013.  The theater is located at 5420 Nave Drive, Suite C, Novato.  Performances are Friday-Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. Additional performances are Thursday, September 5, 12 and 19 at 8 p.m. For tickets, call the box office at 415-883-4498 or go to www.novatotheatercompany.org.

Coming up next at NTC will be Gypsy with lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; music by Julie Styne and book by Arthur Laurents, October 18-November 10, 2013.

Flora Lynn Isaacson