Pickering, Higgins and Eliza work long into the morning hours

MY FAIR LADY: Adapted from George Bernard Shaw’s Play and Gabriel Pascal’s motion picture “PYGMALION”. Book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe. Directed by Bill English. SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco.  415-677-9596 or www.sfplayhouse.org. July 10th to September 29th, 2012.

MY FAIR LADY at SF Playhouse must be seen to be believed.

It seemed incredulous when the word came out that SF Playhouse had scheduled My Fair Lady the musical to be performed with only nine characters even though local icon and superb actor Charles Dean was to play Alfred P. Doolittle. How could they mount a splashy musical on their miniscule stage in a theater holding 99 seats? They have done it, increasing the cast size to 11 with the help of twin pianos (Greg Mason and Dave Dobrosky), a fantastic set  and a spirited cast earning the honor of being a must see play.

After George B. Shaw’s play Arms and the Man was converted into the mediocre The Chocolate Soldier he would not allow his marvelous play Pygmalion to suffer the same fate. Permission was granted only after his death and the rest of the story is history. Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Lowe teamed up in 1956 for the Broadway production that was a runaway hit and in the intervening years played throughout the world.

What you will see at SF Playhouse is best described as Pygmalion with Music.  All the lovely music is still there: “Wouldn’t It Be Loverly?,” “Little Bit of Luck,” “The Rain in Spain,” “I Could Have Danced All Night,” “On the Street Where You Live,” “Get Me to the Church on Time,” and “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.” and the major characters are in good voice. In the pivotal role of Professor Higgins Johnny Moreno gives a powerful strutting performance with his musical patter and an occasional turn at song.

Director Bill English makes the story-line the centerpiece of his interpretation eschewing saccharine sentimentality and opting for a more rugged concept of Higgins. Moreno has the personality to pull it off. He makes the role his own and is a marvel to watch and a joy to hear with a crisp voice with perfect enunciation, as one would expect from a Professor of Linguistics. His bravado is balanced by Richard Frederick as the stolid Colonel Pickering.

Monique Hafen adroitly  makes the difficult transition from a rough voiced Cockney speaking flower girl to a sophisticated Lady with hi-brow speech fit to be a “salesperson in a flower shoppe” or the consort to a king. Her petite frame stands tall when she responds to Higgins’ indifference in the infamous slipper throwing scene.

Karen Hirst doubles as Mrs. Pearce the housekeeper and Mrs. Higgins giving each the stature they deserve and slipping unobtrusively in out of the ensemble. Also slipping out of the ensemble to play a major part is handsome willowy Justin Gilmore as the love smitten Freddy Eynsford-Hill garnering audience approval with the signature song “On the Street Where you Live.”

And then there is Charles Dean as a memorable dustman Alfred P. Doolittle beginning with his first appearance to put the touch on Eliza for half a Crown, later in an  encounter with Higgins requesting only a ‘fiver’ for his daughter and lastly his rousing request with the ensemble to “get me to the church on time.”

                                                      Doolittle (Charles Dean*) and Ensemble getting to the church on time.

What is absolutely amazing is Nina Balls intricate set design that appears solid enough to withstand a San Francisco earthquake yet fluidly changes with sliding panels without missing a beat. It alone is worth the price of admission to the “Ascot Gavotte” that is cleverly staged with the audience waiting with bated breath for Eliza to exhort her mount to “move your bloody arse!”

                                                                 Eliza shocks at Ascot (Full Ensemble and Monique Hafen*)

All is not praiseworthy since the dancing is best described as clunky and Randy Nazarian unbalances the ensemble with his mugging playing his part as a combination of Marcellus Washburn from The Music Man and Nicely Nicely from Guys and Dolls (both parts he has frequently played) that rocks the boat.

G. B. S. viewing the show from his place in the Theatrical Heaven might not approve of Bill English allowing Higgins and Eliza to share a kiss but it is certain the opening night audience did. Running time is 2 hours and 30 minutes including the intermission.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

Truffaldino Says No: By Ken Slattery. Directed by M. Graham Smith. Presented by Shotgun Players a Co-production with Playground. Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org. July 6 – July 22, 2012.

Say yes to TRUFFLADINO SAYS NO at Ashby Stage

Looking for an evening of theatrical fun? If so, get thee hence to the Ashby Stage where eight characters created by an up and coming playwright are having a merry hysterical romp with enough physical activity for a dozen plays. You will also witness the rebirth of the 500 year old Commedia dell’Arte and then be treated to its transformation as modern day TV sit-com before the figurative curtain descends and the audience erupts with a spontaneous standing ovation.

If you are not familiar with the playwriting group known as Playground you should be. It is where budding writers submit 10 minute scripts to be judged by theater professionals. The best of those submitted are given a full stage production (although limited in scope) and presented as The Best of Playground. In 2009 Ken Slattery, an Irish transplant from Dublin, had one of his short plays Truffaldino Says No selected for production.

The stimulus for the Truffaldino Says No was the noun “arlecchino” which is the Italian word for harlequin the most popular comic servant character from the Italian Commedia dell’Arte. The 10 minute gem was the favorite of the 2009 plays and Slattery was given a commission to develop it into a full length play. Shotgun’s production is even more hilarious and colorful than the short version. It should be, since it is has been three years in the making and the show is a labor of love for all involved. They have brought back Michael Phillis and Brian Herndon from the original cast and filled the other six roles with superb performers.

Commedia dell’Arte involves stock characters with distinctive masks and clothing with only the Inamorata (lovers) without masks. The productions are very physical with a great deal slapstick with fixed routines as the basis for improvisation. There are no improvisations in Slattery’s version although M. Graham’s Smith’s slick direction would make you wonder if he gave his cast license to do so.

Truffaldino (William Thomas Hodgson), his father Arlecchino (Stephen Buescher) and mother Colombina(Gwen Loeb) are servants (zanni) to a greedy old miser and lecher Pantalone (Brian Herdon) and he is given a mask with an appropriate hooked nose and a garish costume to boot. His flighty daughter, beautiful Isabella (an Innamorata) is in love with the other half of the Innamorati young poet Flavio (Michael Phillis). Alas the potential lovers have never been able to be alone together. Although poor Truffaldino’s love for Isabella is not reciprocated, he agrees to help his father arrange a tryst and in the best Comedia dell’Arte twist everything goes wrong.

Tied up in all the shenanigans are other stock characters that include the intellectual bore Il Dottore (Joe Lucas), a grandiose, cowardly Il Capitano (Andy Alabran) who fears a Turkish attack on Venice that just happens to be the setting for the play. A seamy secondary plot line involves Pantalone’s pursuit of voluptuous and willing Colombina.

Truffaldino has had all he can take of being a stock character and says “I’m not going to take it anymore.” (That line is from an academy award winning movie. He simply says “No” and goes on to tell us why.) Most, or is it all, of the characters step forward to address the audience or express inner thoughts throughout the play and do so beautifully. Our hero will not be dissuaded and departs for the New World. In the play the New World is modern day Venice, California.

With some brilliant writing Slattery converts all the Old World characters into New World denizens and the actors are forced to slip in and out of New to Old and vice versa roles at the drop of a line. You will split a gut keeping up with them and wonder “how did he/she do that?”

The acting is of course very broad. In the opening sequences Buescher who is the head of Physical Theater at ACT and Hodgson are virtual pretzels of human form bouncing around the stage without missing a line. Gorgeous Ally Johnson and willowy Michael Phillis demonstrate charming contrasts in technique but Phillis (the cad) is a scene stealer. Gwen Loeb exudes sex and uses great timing in her punch lines and is a perfect sounding board for those who challenge her. Andy Alabran as the Il Capitano in act one Old World is reincarnated as Prewitt a local border guard searching for illegal immigrants giving further justification for what is new is old. Joe Lucas’s Il Dottore garners his share of laughs in the Old World and as the Wiseman in the New.

Directing such a play with diverse settings in time and place must have been a tremendous burden but M. Graham Smith’s direction is spot on with so many deft touches one would be hard pressed to find specific instances to praise. OK, I’ll tell you one: Look for the vignette when Columbina is folding a bed sheet while consoling Isabella about Flavio.

Summary of why you should go: The writing is Sublime. The acting is Superb. The costumes and masks are Sensational. The staging is Super. Finally, as alliteration is depleted let’s end with it’s a Swell evening.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinernetmagazine.com