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May 18 2013
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THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS

By Kedar K. Adour

(l to r) With Mephistopheles (Lyndsy Kail) as his servant, Faustus (Mark Anderson Phillips) travels the globe on a dragon in San Jose Rep’s world premiere adaptation of The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.  Photo by Kevin Berne.

 

THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS: Drama by Christopher Marlowe. Adapted and directed as a multimedia event by Kirsten Brandt. San Jose Repertory Theatre, San Jose Repertory Theatre, 101 Paseo de San Antonio, San Jose (Between South 2nd & 3rd Streets), CA.  408.367.7255 or www.SJRep.com.

May 15 – June 2, 2013

THE TRAGICAL HISTORY OF DOCTOR FAUSTUS a winner at San Jose Rep (World Premier)

Making Christopher Marlowe’s play about Doctor Faustus palpable to modern audiences has been a problem. The last San Francisco production of David Mamet’s 2004 adaptation at the Magic Theatre was a disaster.  Author /director Kirsten Brandt has taken a page from the book of author/director Mark Wing-Davey who mounted Shakespeare’s Pericles as a ‘theatrical event’ using eight actors to play 17 roles. Brandt uses four actors to play a minimum of 25 roles throwing in a few puppets along the way and including visible stage hands as part of the activity. Also, like Wing-Davey, what was written as a 95 minute play has been expanded to two hours and 20 minutes including the 20 minute intermission.

The intermission is needed because the total production is overwhelming and needs a break to allow the audience to refresh their attention on the non-stop visual, auditory and intellectual assault. It truly is a collaborative event of:  Kirsten Brandt (Director); David Lee Cuthbert (Scenic, Lighting, and Media Designer ); Cathleen Edwards (Costume Designer); Rick Lombardo (Sound Designer); Steve Schoenbeck (Associate Sound Designer); Gina Marie Hayes (Puppet Consultant); Deirdre Rose Holland (Stage Manager).

The technical conceits are aided and abetted by a cast that Mark Anderson Phillips (Doctor Faustus); Rachel Harker (Lucifer, the Pope, scholars, and many other roles), Lyndsy Kail (Mephistopheles, Seven Deadly Sins, Old Man) and Halsey Varady (Beelzebub, Angels, Wagner and several other roles). Phillips is a strong challenger to local icon James Carpenter as the best actor in the Bay Area. Lyndsy Kail as Faustus’s side-kick

Devilish Mephistopheles (Lyndsy Kail)

Mephistopheles almost matches Anderson’s tour-de-force performance.

There are two and possibly three versions of Marlowe’s play and Kisten Brandt’s selection of various scenes may be questioned by one familiar with the text but for those of us who are unfamiliar with the text, the brilliant staging and acting is sufficient to create a memorable evening of theatre. To begin, a bare stage morphs into semi translucent panels on which various angled fantastic projections are screened. These panels move aside for entrance and exits and even are used for back-lit puppet shows. From the opening projections of Faustus’s library and overhead views of mystical sand creations to the ending with the fires of hell consuming the soul of Faustus the assault on our visual senses are compounded by sound and music of the spheres.

It is the story of the German Doctor Faustus who sells his soul to Lucifer in exchange for the art of necromancy (Black Magic) and 24 years of intellectual fame and fortune.  He accepts Mephistopheles the right hand man of Lucifer as his devoted traveling companion and travels the world on a flying dragon (an adult tricycle puppet) getting into all sorts of mischief.  Humor does not abound about is sufficiently scattered throughout the evening to alleviate the intensity of storyline. For example there is a scene(s) where Pope’s entourage is besieged by magical pranks while Faustus and Mephistopheles are invisible and the men turned into horned animals. Later in the court of German emperor, Charles V a bit of magic ‘lightens’ the proceedings.

Suggestion:  Brush up on Christopher Marlowe who is thought to be the writer of Shakespeare’s plays and read a synopsis of his most famous play being given a stunning production at San Jose Rep as the offering for the final show in their 2012-2013 season.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com.

 

May 18 2013
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Pacifica Spindrift: “The Little Foxes” come home

By David Hirzel

The notes I made at intermission refer to the strong performances by all the actors in what amounted to an ensemble piece:  each of them came onstage, thoroughly created their characters and laid out their part in the framework for the story. Especially noteworthy during the first two scenes: Laurie Wall’s “Birdie Hubbard” barely controlled her developing mental breakdown, and Bethany Friedel’s expertly nuanced teenaged “Zan Giddens” brought a few laughs from those in the audience who knew adolescents well.  Kris Carey’s “Oscar Hubbard” was brimming with the suppressed rage of a dominated younger brother to John Szabo’s cool, macchiavellian “Ben Hubbard” as they negotiated a seamy business deal with John Tranchitell’s “Mr. Marshall.”  All this in the first two acts of Lillian Hellman’s The Little Foxes.

The Director’s Notes comment that Ms. Hellman “had not meant for audiences to think of her characters as villains to whom they had no connection. but to recognize some part of themselves in the money-dominated Hubbards.”  In this she was disappointed.  In me I suppose.  Nothing of me in there.  I did however recognize, in Ben, my cousin.  But I digress. . . .

In the final two acts after intermission, The Little Foxes really, I mean really caught fire.  The impressive work of the first half was just setting the stage for some really powerful performances by everyone in the cast remaining onstage.  One by one each came to the fore, expressing the passion, the despair and resignation, the resilience developed when greed and lust for money betray ordinary familial affection and self-respect.   Collin Wenzel’s Leo finally realizes he’s been “had” by his own father and uncle.  Joy Eaton’s “Regina Giddens,” facing the audience, finally reveals the origin of her cold calculating greed.  There is tragedy enough for everyone here.  Its source is the love of money.

I had a word with director Jim Sousa after the show.  He let his actors run with their parts.  Wise man.  His choice of shades of gray for the set, with bursts of color here and there, served to emphasize the bleakness of the script, and the lives of the characters.

A fine production.  I can’t say enough.

Through May 19, 2013

Theatre website:  Pacifica Spindrift Players

Box Office:  650-359-8002

Review by David Hirzel www.davidhirzel.net

May 14 2013
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BEST OF PLAYGROUND 17 at the Thick House

By Kedar K. Adour

BEST OF PLAYGROUND 17, featuring a fully-produced evening-length program of the best short plays by the Bay Area’s best new playwrights. Thick House, 1695 18th street, San Francisco. For more information, visit http://playground-sf.org/bestof.shtml. May 9-26, 2013

This year’s annual celebration of short plays by San Francisco Bay Area playwrights features: The Spherical Loneliness of Beverly Onion by Katie May, directed by Rebecca Ennals; Simple and Elegant by Evelyn Jean Pine, directed by Tracy Ward; Value Over Replacement by Ruben Grijalva, directed by Katja Rivera; Significant People by Amy Sass, directed by Steven Anthony Jones; My Better Half by Jonathan Spector, directed by Michael French; Symmetrical Smack-Down by William Bivins, directed by Jim Kleinmann.

Ensemble: Will Dao, Anne Darragh*, Dodds Delzell*, Carla Pantoja*, Rebecca Pingree, Jomar Tagatac*; June Palladino*, Stage Manager.

The plays for this year’s outing is a tight 85 minute without intermission with the eight member ensemble playing all 23 roles doubling as stage hands for minimal scenery changes with nary a hitch. They begin with the bitter-sweet The Spherical Loneliness of Beverly Onion a fanciful modern version of the ancient concept that our lives are controlled by higher Beings. Beverly Onion’s ( Carla Pantoja)life as a single lonely mortician’s assistant is being debated Fate (Jomar Tagatac) Luck (Anne Darragh). The theological/philosophical debate by Fate and Luck about life as a sphere leads to Beverly being introduced to a series of males (Will Dao). As ‘luck’ would have it the consequences are not what Beverly likes and she rebels against the forces/intrusion of Fate and Luck returning to the humdrum existence of her choice.

Simple and Elegant has a mystical flair that races to a ending, but not a conclusion, in a short 7 minutes.  Fisherman (Dodds Delzell) has two daughters  Simple (Rebecca Pingre) and Elegant (Carla Pantoja). The sister’s catch a magical fish and discovery a gold coin in its innards. Greed invades the scene leading to a death. Everyone knows that wealth/greed cannot ‘buy’ happiness. Repentance prevails and our mystical fish returns to the sea.

Value Over Replacement brings us back to reality and controversy of the use of performance enhancing drugs in professional sports. It is a tightly written script that has a surprise ending with semi-justification for their use. Jomar Tagatac as “Chip” Fuller who has succumbed to the temptation of their use gives a stirring semi-justification for doing so.

Significant People is a two hander with overtones of the battle of the sexes. A male (Dodds Delzell) and female ((Anne Darragh) Docent take us on a tour of the home of a deceased ‘significant person’ that is now a tourist attraction. Bickering takes place with each insinuating the male and female interpretation into the patter. One wonders “For what purpose.”

The final two offerings allow the evening to end with a hoot and a holler. Consider the macabrely charming concept that there are organizations that specialize in resolving male vs. female partnership issues including fulfilling a contract for murder. That is the premise of My Better Half . So it is with Anne (Rebecca Pingree) who wishes to ‘do in’ her significant other Dave ((Will Dao). Charles (Jomar Tagatac)  cons her into giving more time to consoling.  That brings in counselor Marilyn (Anne Darragh) who has her own agenda and poor Anna gets shafted.  Beware of what you wish for??

Symmetrical Smack-Down wins the brass ring and is ready for a trip to the Ten-Minute play writing contest offered by the Humana New American Play Festival in Louisville. Everyone knows that professional wrestling is theatre and make-believe. What happens if it becomes real? Take that question and add a Lesbian couple who play the ‘what-if-make-believe game’ about breaking up and the women are daughters of the wrestlers. Of course the wrestlers take sides. William Bevins is extremely clever in his use of dialog and director Jim Kleinmann moves the characters around the ring adroitly. Did I mention that all the action takes place inside a wrestling ring? It does and costumes for wrestler Napalm (Jomar Tagatac) and El Chupacabro (Dodds Delzell) are hilarious.

The audience filed out of the intimate Thick House Theatre with satisfied chuckles.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetrmagazine.com

 

May 13 2013
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“Young Frankenstein” by Mel Brooks, Spreckels Theatre Company, Rohnert Park CA

By Greg & Suzanne Angeo

 

From left: Jeffrey Weissman, Allison Rae Baker, Tim Setzer, Mary Gannon Graham

 

Reviewed by Suzanne and Greg Angeo

Photos by Eric Chazankin

 

 

 

 

 

 

Technical Wizardry, Stellar Talent Abounds in “Young Frankenstein”

You’ve got to hand it to producer, director and comedian Mel Brooks. At an age when most folks are content to rock on the porch, indulge in hobbies and visit the grand-kids  86-year-old Brooks writes musical scores and produces hit Broadway shows. Brooks is a kind of raunchy Cole Porter, mixing wit and clever rhymes with simple catchy tunes. His musical “Young Frankenstein”, based on his 1974 hit movie starring Gene Wilder, opened on Broadway in late 2007 to mixed critical reviews, but remains a favorite with audiences. The musical version closely follows the plotline of the film, paying tribute to old Hollywood horror films and the lavish musicals of the 1930s.

The current production by the Spreckels Theatre Company, at the Performing Arts Center’s Codding Theatre, is a fun-filled extravaganza with a professional polish. But what really puts this show over the top are the stunning visual effects, courtesy of Spreckels’ exclusive new Paradyne system that allows projected images and animation to become part of the action onstage. This is the first show at Spreckels to make full use of this system, and Spreckels is the only theater in the Bay Area that has it.

The plot: Old Victor Frankenstein, the mad scientist of Transylvania Heights who created the infamous Monster, has died. The townsfolk say good riddance and throw a party. Suddenly Victor’s grandson Frederick arrives from New York to settle the estate, leaving behind his deeply repressed but glamorous fiancée Elizabeth. Frederick meets Igor, the hunchbacked grandson of Grandpa Victor’s hunchbacked sidekick, also named Igor. Lovely and talented lab assistant Inga is there to lend a hand. Frau Blucher is a grim and mysterious presence at the Frankenstein castle; horses whinny in terror at every mention of her name.  Since apples never fall far from the tree, we soon have a brand-new Monster shambling around and causing mayhem. A local official, Inspector Kemp, is very suspicious of the whole affair. He stirs the villagers to action. There are over 20 zany, energetic song-and-dance numbers to fit each and every situation.

Tim Setzer, Allison Rae Baker

North Bay stage veteran Tim Setzer (Frederick), recently seen on the Spreckels stage earlier this year in “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum”, brings his usual effortless charm and comic flair to the title role. Allison Rae Baker (Inga) has the perfect showcase for her triple-threat talents in numbers like “Roll in the Hay”. Her beautiful singing (and yodeling) is matched only by her dancing, which includes some tap numbers. It’s not often you see yodeling and tap-dancing on the same stage.

Mary Gannon Graham (Frau Blucher) and John Shillington (Inspector Kemp, Harold the Hermit) recently received Best Actress and Best Actor awards, respectively, from the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle for their performance in “Souvenir” at 6th Street Playhouse’s Studio Theater. Graham is superb, giving the Frau just the right amount of prim, brooding dominance to contrast with those times when she really lets her hair down, like when she sings “He Was My Boyfriend”. Shillington’s Inspector Kemp seems to have much in common with Peter Seller’s Dr Strangelove: a clenched-jaw accent and certain problems with artificial limbs. In a second role, he lends an air of daffy poignancy to Harold the Hermit, a poor blind guy just looking for someone to be his friend. He’s a pleasure to watch whenever he takes the stage.

Denise Elia-Yen (Elizabeth), another noted Bay Area theatre veteran, has two of what may be the best numbers in the show – “Please Don’t Touch Me” and “Deep Love”. She’s roll-on-the-floor funny as the frustrated fiancée who finally finds what she’s looking for. Braedyn Youngberg (The Monster) has perhaps the trickiest role; he completely transforms himself during the show. Youngberg shows off his versatility, especially in “Puttin’ on the Ritz”, a real show-stopper.

Mary Gannon Graham

Hollywood actor Jeffrey Weissman (Igor) has come full circle. In 1973, during his high school days in and around Los Angeles, he heard that Mel Brooks was filming “Young Frankenstein” nearby. He somehow got onto the set and met Marty Feldman, who played Igor in the film. Exactly 40 years later, Weissman is playing Igor on the Spreckels stage with a fresh, original take on the role. His facial expressions are priceless, and he’s in top form in numbers like “Together Again for the First Time”, a lively duet with Setzer.

Costume designer extraordinaire Pamela Enz researched, designed and sewed most of the costumes herself, a near-Herculean task that reaps gorgeous results.  The lighting, sound and set design by Eddy Hansen, Daniel Mitchell and Elizabeth Bazzano merge almost seamlessly with the projections to form a uniquely entertaining effect.

Weak spots don’t do much to affect the overall quality of the production. The small orchestra was off-key once in awhile. There were pitch problems with some of the ensemble cast, and the more ambitious dance numbers were uneven. Even so, choreographer Michella Snider coaxed some very good work from the cast.

Director Gene Abravaya says he and his cast and crew aren’t just co-workers; they’re in “a marriage of ideas and talent”.  He makes full use of the Codding Theatre’s big stage and fly space, the multi-story area just above the stage.  Sets, backdrops and actors levitate with the greatest of ease. With the Paradyne system, he conjures up lightening, smoke, a train waiting at a station, and scenes of village and forest. Combined with the top-notch talent, the result is nothing less than a dazzling multi-media spectacle, not to be missed.

When: Now through May 19, 2013

7:30 p.m. Thursdays

 8:00 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays

2:00 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays

Tickets: $22 to $26 (reserved seating)

Location: Codding Theater at Spreckels Performing Arts Center

5409 Snyder Lane, Rohnert Park CA
Phone: 707-588-3400

Website: www.spreckelsonline.com

May 13 2013
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BLACK WATCH BY Scotland’s National Theatre is a brilliant, gut-wrenching event.

By Kedar K. Adour

Cast of National Theatre of Scotland’s “Black Watch” – playing at the Armory Community Center in San Francisco’s Mission District. Phot by Scott Suchman

BLACK WATCH: Dramatic Event by Gregory Burke. Directed by John Tiffany. A.C.T. presents the National Theatre of Scotland’s production at The Armory Community Center, 333 14th Street, between Mission and Valencia, San Francisco.  415-749-2228 or www.act-sf.org.  May 9 – June 16, 2013.

BLACK WATCH BY Scotland’s National Theatre is a brilliant, gut-wrenching event.

If f***  and the street word for a woman’s sexual organ offend you avoid going to see Black Watch but if you wish to see a powerful, dynamic theatrical event get your ticket now because this potentially sell-out performance at the Armory Community Center in the Mission District will keep you riveted and tighten your sphincters for its intermission-less 110 minutes. It is masculine dominated world of war at its worse and comradeship at its best brought to life with “multimedia effects, music, movement and staging  that puts the audience on either side of the ground level stage with ‘stadium style seating’.”

The production is designed to play in a drill hall, not a proscenium arch stage and made its debut at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in just such a hall.  Since that extremely successful opening the production has moved throughout Scotland winning awards wherever it played. It created the same critical acclaim playing in Australia, Dublin, New York and Washington and other venues.

The play is non-linear beginning in a pool hall in Fife in 2006 where Lance Corporal “Cammy” Campbell and his Black Watch Unit agree to be interviewed by a newspaper writer. Expecting a woman, they rebel when a male writer appears and only agree to talk when free drinks are offered.  As their stories unfold in flashbacks to 2004 Iraq where their regiment is assigned to assist the Americans near Fallujah and Karbala named the “Triangle of Death.” Here the Black Watch comes under attack from mortars, rockets, IED (improvised explosive devices) and suicide bombers. The impersonality of death is amplified where the injured are not discussed by name but by number indicating increased severity. . . P1, P2, P3 and the dead as P4.  There is a spectacular scene where three men and an interpreter are blown up by a suicide bomber and all end up dead. . . P4.

The staging is explosively physical with more than a scattering of humor and a plethora of pathos. During one scene the ensemble depicts the history of the Black Watch from its early origins with one man being dressed in the 17th century uniform marching through a phalanx of his comrades, who strip him of one uniform and dress him in the next decades uniform until they reach the present day uniforms.

It is a superb ensemble production with stunning physical choreography and no waste motion expressing meaning without words. A regimental fight scene is so intricate and realistic that you will be rearing back in your seat wondering how many will be injured during the melee. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a choreographed scene involving receiving mail is so beautiful it will tug on your heart.

The futility of the war in Iraq and later Afghanistan is driven home in this production when the question arises as to why they are there. Yes there is the “Golden Thread” of historical context as generation, after generation of Black Watch men follow in there ancestors footsteps but as Lord Elgin, leader of the group and descendent of Robert the Bruce, says “It is curse.” Why then do they fight? “The fight for their regiment. Their company. Their platoon. And for their mates.” That is a great definition of camaraderie.

This is a terrific theatric event. Do not miss it.

Creative Team: Steven Hoggett (movement director), Davey Anderson (musical director), Joe Douglas (staff director), Laura Hopkins (scenic designer), Jessica Brettle (costume designer ), Colin Grenfell (lighting designer), Gareth Fry (sound designer), and Leo Warner and Mark Grimmer for Fifty Nine Productions Ltd. (video designers)

Featuring: Cameron Barnes, Benjamin Davies, Scott Fletcher, Andrew Fraser, Robert Jack, Stuart Martin, Stephen McCole, Adam McNamara, Richard Rankin, and Gavin Jon Wright.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

May 13 2013
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Hillbarn stages ‘A Little Night Music’

By Judy Richter

“Send in the Clowns,” the best known song from “A Little Night Music,” has been interpreted by many popular singers, including Judy Collins and Barbra Streisand. To truly understand its meaning, however, one needs to hear and see it in context — Stephen Sondheim’s 1973, Tony-winning musical, which is set  in Swedenin the early 20th century.

For now, there’s no better place than the Hillbarn Theatre production. Without becoming maudlin, Equity performer Lee Ann Payne as actress Desirée Armfeldt makes the song’s poignancy abundantly clear and quite touching. She sings it to the show’s co-star, Cameron Weston as Fredrik Egerman, a lawyer whom she hadn’t seen in the 14 years since their romantic interlude ended. In the meantime, she has continued her career, touring from town to town, while he has recently married 18-year-old Anne (Nicolette Norgaard). Although he loves Anne, he’s frustrated that she has not allowed their marriage to be consummated. He also has an 18-year-old son, the morose Henrik (Jack Mosbacher), who’s studying to become a minister and secretly loves Anne.

Fredrik and Desirée get together again one night, but they’re interrupted by the arrival of her hot-tempered lover, Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm (William Giammona), who’s married to Charlotte (Alicia Teeter). Everything gets sorted out in the second act, when everyone converges for a weekend at the country home of Desirée’s mother, Madame Leonora Armfeldt (Christine Macomber), who’s caring for Desirée’s young daughter, Fredrika (Leah Kalish).

Composer-lyricist Sondheim and his librettist, Hugh Wheeler, based the plot on Swedish director Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 film, “Smiles of a Summer Night.” The title is a literal translation of Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik.” Most of the songs are written in waltz tempo, and several scenes are introduced by a chorus of three women and two men called the Liebeslieder Singers, a nod to an 1852 waltz by Johann Strauss II.

Director Dennis Lickteig has cast this production with performers who create believable characters. Not all of them are so pitch-perfect vocally, but they interpret their songs well, thanks to musical director Greg Sudmeier, who directs the fine backstage orchestra.

Besides Payne and Weston as Desirée and Fredrik, the show’s standout performers include Mosbacher as young Henrik, Giammona as the count, Teeter as his wife and Macomber as Madame Armfeldt. Noteworthy in a minor role is Sarah Griner as Petra, the Egermans’ lusty maid.

Shannon Maxham designed the elegant costumes, while Robert Broadfoot designed the simple yet flexible set. Lighting is by Don Coluzzi, who must recreate Sweden’s long summer twilights. Choreography is by Jayne Zaban, and sound is by Jon Hayward.

“A Little Night Music,” like any Sondheim show, is challenging for any company because of its complex music and lyrics, but Hillbarn meets those challenges successfully in this fine production.

 It will continue at Hillbarn Theatre, 1285 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City, through June 2. For tickets and information, call (650) 349-6411 or visit www.hillbarntheatre.org. illH

 

May 12 2013
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Rolling Stones Concert — HP Pavilion, San Jose, CA 05-08-13

By Joe Cillo

Rolling Stones Concert

HP Pavilion, San Jose, California

May 8, 2013

 

 

This was my second Rolling Stones concert.  The first was in November of 2005 at SBC Park in San Francisco, part of the Stones Bigger Bang tour.  I would rate them as two of the best concerts of my life.  The Stones really know how to put on a show.  They have this down and it just feels like a class act from beginning to end.

They’re definitely older than they used to be (but who isn’t?), but they can still keep a full house enthralled for two solid hours without a break.  The show lasted about two hours and fifteen minutes without an intermission and it was the same in the 2005 concert at SBC Park.  That’s something I like about them.  I hate intermissions.  The Stones just keep the momentum going nonstop.  The HP Pavilion seats 17,496, and they were probably close to capacity.  About a quarter of the seats in the auditorium behind the stage were purposely left vacant, but they made up for it with seating and standing room on the main floor.  I didn’t see any vacant seats.

I had some good fortune in getting these tickets.  I had heard about the upcoming concert probably on the radio.  I checked into getting tickets and somehow found out that the day they were to go on sale there would be about 1000 tickets available at a drastically reduced price of $85.  A friend who wanted to go urged me to try for them, so when they went on sale on a Monday morning I went online at that time and managed to score two tickets at $85.  I believe the next highest price was about double that.

So I had the tickets, but they were will-call tickets.  They would not send them out.  They didn’t want any scalping of these low priced tickets.  We had no idea where we were sitting.  I figured it would be some sort of standing room, but it was actually a seat after all.  On morning of the concert I received the following message from them:

TICKET PICK-UP INSTRUCTIONS

Pick-up your tickets at the check-in table located at N. Autumn St. (under stairwell) adjacent to the South Ticket Window.

The line forms starting at 6:15pm – do not arrive early. Seating locations are pulled at random. Doors open at 6:45pm.

We will be using strict anti-scalper measures to ensure that these $85 tickets go to Stones fans and don’t end up on the resale market with wildly inflated prices. We appreciate your attention to the following, so that you have the best experience possible:

  • Your picture ID, confirmation number, and the      credit card used to make the purchase are required for pick-up. You will      not be permitted to pick up your tickets without these three (3) items.
  • You must pick up your tickets in person, along      with your guest.
  • Once you have the tickets in hand, you will be      escorted into the arena. There will not be an opportunity to leave with      your tickets before going into the show.
  • If we suspect any reselling or transfer of      these tickets they will be immediately voided and you will not be entitled      to any refund.

 

It was my first time in the HP Pavilion.  It is an indoor facility and an excellent venue for a concert of this type.  Our seats were near the top of the upper level about 90 degrees to the stage.  As far as seats go in that arena, they were probably some of the least desirable, but I didn’t mind at all.  The auditorium is small enough that just about any seat is good, and we could see and hear quite well.  Large projection screens were set up that provided a closer look at the performance.  The image quality was excellent as well as the camera work.  The Stones are a class act.  They really know how to take care of an audience and present a performance everyone is sure to like and feel very satisfied with.

The concert was scheduled for 8pm, but it actually started around 9.  There was no warm up band.  Keith Richards seemed to be having a good time.  He was smiling and really seemed to be enjoying being out there performing.  Mick’s voice is still strong.  He still struts and prances the whole time, but he doesn’t run as much as he did the previous time I saw him.  He and Keith will both turn 70 this year.  They all look thin and wiry.  There is no obesity epidemic with them.  They keep themselves in pretty good shape.  Their sound is still strong and vibrant, although I felt it did not have quite the same riveting energy and raw power that it did in their earlier years.  But then, how many of you have the same energy and vigor that you had in your twenties and thirties?  But let’s leave off with how old they are.  Let’s just consider them on the merits.

This concert was fabulous.  It was a greatest hits parade from beginning to end.  I’ll list the set, but admit at the outset that it is incomplete, but most of it is here.  They opened with

Get off of My Cloud followed by

Gimme Shelter featuring Lisa Fisher, who also sang backup throughout

Paint It Black was a very poignant choice, I thought

John Fogerty was brought out to share the lead on It’s All Over Now, which I would judge one of the highlights of the evening

Bonnie Raitt sang Let It Bleed with Mick, which worked very well.

Keith did Before They Make Me Run, and Happy

Midnight Rambler, Jumpin Jack Flash, and Brown Sugar were probably my merit badge choices for the evening, but everything was good.

They also did Bitch, Miss You, Start Me Up, Sympathy for the Devil, Emotional Rescue, Honky Tonk Woman, and they brought out a chorus for You Can’t Always Get What You Want.  They closed with Satisfaction, with Mick Taylor making an appearance on guitar, as well as on several other numbers.

I am sure there are a couple of other songs that I have left out.  I didn’t keep strict track as I went along.  I especially enjoyed the local guests they brought in to share in a few of the numbers.  John Fogerty stands out in my mind.  It was a totally satisfying presentation.  The Stones are consummate performers.  The music is great as it has always been, and they went full bore all the way to the end.  Hard not to like a concert like that.

May 10 2013
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NEWS FROM THE BRIGHTON FRINGE

By Joe Cillo

Brighton Theatre presents…..

 BLACK VENUS
by
Jonathan Cash

 

“Josephine Baker subverted racial stereotypes and had a huge influence on black performers,” said Faynia Williams, director of a showcase trailer of this production designed by Romany Mark Bruce.  BLACK VENUS brings Baker, the first jazz superstar, face to face with Hermann Goering over dinner in occupied Paris.  The action combines music, dance and dialogue with Brechtian style flashbacks and promises to mesmerize the audience by intertwining themes of love, food, sex and racism.

Baker grew up in St Louis, Missouri, living hand to mouth in the streets when she was 12, living in cardboard boxes and scavaging for food in garbage cans.  Her street corner dancing attracted attention when she was 15 and her career expanded across the ocean to Paris.  Indeed, she always said she had two loves: Paris and America.  Her famous Banana Dance combined the rhythms of African Dance and contemporary jazz to create modern Continental Break Dancing. She was an activist on many fronts and worked for the French Resistance because of her many contacts in the world of the Axis.  It was because of her undercover activities that Hermann Goering invited her to dinner.  This play recaptures that momentous evening when the two met face to face.

BLACK VENUS was shortlisted for the 2013 Best New Play Award and given funding by the Arts Council of England.   It will be presented for one night only,  Josephine Baker Day, May 20 at 7pm and 9pm, at Concorde2, Madeira Drive, Brighton BN2 1EN . It will feature Anna Maria Nabirye as Josephine, Ross Gurney Randall as Goering with musical direction by Tom Phelan.

For more information: www.brightonfringe.org; 01273 917272

 

May 09 2013
Love0

Deceptive Practice — Film Review

By Joe Cillo

Deceptive Practice:  The Mysteries and Mentors of Ricky Jay

Directed by Molly Edelstein

 

This is a fascinating documentary featuring sleight of hand artist, Ricky Jay.  He is a master of card tricks and anything related to magic.  I love magic shows, but have never had any desire to do it myself.  This man is very different.  He started doing magic at age four and has been immersed in it ever since.  The film is not a systematic biography, although it does contain much information about Ricky Jay and his life as a magician.  It is full of intriguing displays of magic tricks and a wealth of information about the history of the practice of sleight of hand and many of its early practitioners.  Ricky Jay has been a collector of historical materials and writings on the history of magic, and has written a number of books himself on the subject.  The film drew heavily on these resources to offer a full bodied overview of many of the precursors and mentors to Ricky Jay going back into the nineteenth century.  The practitioners seem to be predominantly Jewish and they form a tight subculture wherein the craft is passed down from mentors to students.  The film did not explore how the magic tricks are done.  You will not go behind the scenes and see how the illusions are created, but what interested me is that it is very much an artform of individual practitioners.  Magicians tend keep their methods secret, not only from the public, but also from each other.  It is a craft that one has to learn through mentoring and ultimately through creative exploration on one’s own.  I was also impressed with the virtuosity that many magicians achieve.  They are akin to top level musicians or athletes who spend many years in total dedication to mastering the technique of their art.

The film does not attempt an in depth personal exploration of Ricky Jay.  It tends to avoid delving into his personal life, although we do learn that he left home at an early age and has had little contact with his family since.  He has also been married for seven years and seems pleased with his wife, although she is not interviewed in the film.  There are many interviews with people who know Ricky Jay and have worked with him, including playwright and director, David Mamet.  Jay is reputed to be difficult and abrasive, but in the film he comes off as low key, engaging and very personable.  He is obviously highly intelligent and the absolute master of his craft.  I didn’t get any profound insight into his character or into the psychology of magic from this film.  The film is not thought provoking in that respect.  It is a compendium of facts on the history of magic, some of its more notable practitioners, and lots of sensational tricks that will dazzle you.  One cannot help but be drawn into this film by the skill of the practitioners, the illusions one is doomed to fall for, and the eccentric, anomalous individuals who made this art form their life’s obsession.  Seen at the San Francisco International Film Festival, May 6, 2013.

May 07 2013
Love0

Fringe of Marin Awards Ceremony Dedicated to Founder Annette Lust–Roberta Palumbo Sweeps 1st Place Honors

By Flora Lynn Isaacson

Dr. Annette Lust (1924-2013)

San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Awards for Best Play, Directors and Actors were announced Sunday, May 5 at Meadowlands Assembly Hall at Dominican University.

The first Critics Circle Award was for Best Play and the pride of 1st Place went to Roberta Palumbo for Not Death, But Love.  There was a tie for 2nd Place between Norma Anapol’s Rose Levy Learns At Last and Deanna Anderson for The Wreck.  Honorable Mention for Best Play went to Stacy Lapin and Pamela Rand, co-authors of Here’s Your Life and Gina Pandiani for The Marriage Proposal.

Next up were awards for Best Director with a 1st Place tie between Roberta Palumbo and Molly McCarthy for Not Death, But Love and Leonard Pitt for The Wreck.  2nd Place went to Jerry Ambinder for Here’s Your Life and Honorable Mention went to Gina Pandiani for The Marriage Proposal.

The 1st Place Best Actor Award went to Michael Walraven (Al) in Rose Levy Learns At Last.  2nd Place honors went to Steve North (Da Sub) in Something’s Not Wright.  There was a tie for Honorable Mention between Kris Neely (M.C.) in Here’s Your Life and Damian Square (Ivan) in The Marriage Proposal.

The last of the Critics Circle Awards went to Best Actress.  1st Place honors went to Molly McCarthy (Elizabeth Barrett Browning) in Not Death, But Love.  2nd Place went to Pamela Rand (Susannah P. Metcalf) in Here’s Your Life.  There was a tie for Honorable Mention between Deanna Anderson (herself) in The Wreck, Hilda Roe (Marina) in The 200th Day, and Sandi Weldon (Stephania Stepanovna) in The Marriage Proposal.

There were special thanks to Gina Pandiani, the new Managing Director and Pamela Rand, the new Production Manager for the Fringe.

The Awards Ceremony was followed by a celebration of Annette Lust’s life (1924-2013) with her family in attendance. The Fringe was founded by Dr. Lust nearly 20 years ago to give local writers, actors and directors a chance to try out their work in an informal setting.  Her tribute began with a memorial slide show created and narrated by Marisa Hoke, a former French student of Annette’s.  Following the slide show, six invited speakers who were close to Annette gave presentations celebrating her life. They were Flora Lynn Isaacson from the Fringe of Marin, Linda Ayres-Frederick from the Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, Steve North from the Fringe of Marin, Suzanne Birrell, former Production Manager of the Fringe of Marin, Jo Tomalin, San Francisco State Professor of Theatre Arts and Gina Pandiani, the new Managing Director of the Fringe of Marin who announced the creation of the Annette Lust Scholarship Fund for the Performing Arts at Dominican University.

A lovely outdoor reception followed the tribute at the Anne Hathaway Cottage at Dominican hosted by Annette’s daughters, Eliane and Evelyne.  All of Annette’s friends joined her family to toast Annette and to share personal and family memories.

Flora Lynn Isaacson