May 30 2023

“First Date” a Musical Presented by Avon Players, Rochester Hills MI

By Suzanne Angeo Greg & Suzanne Angeo

Reviewed by Suzanne Angeo (member, American Theatre Critics Association; Member Emeritus, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle), and Greg Angeo (Member Emeritus, San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle)

Photos by Bryan Clifford

Hosanna Phillips, Christiaan Lafata, Adam Silorey, Lori Smith, Jonathan Farrell, Emily Brown, Adam Wager

Bright and Breezy “First Date”

The musical romantic comedy “First Date” may (or may not) be the best place to take a first date. For one thing, there’s controversial subjects, and frank discussions about sex and religion. And for another thing, it’s about everything that can go wrong on a date that’s set up by well-meaning folks who think you’re missing out on life. So for a first date, who knows? But for everybody else…

Starting life in 2012 as a world premiere in Seattle, Washington, “First Date” made its way to Broadway the following year, where it enjoyed a mostly successful five-month run. It was inspired by the personal experiences of writer/producer Austin Winsberg, with music and lyrics by Alan Zachary and Michael Weiner. It has been produced around the world and is very popular with local theatre groups.

Geeky money manager Aaron and the fashionably artistic “serial dater” Casey are meeting for the first time in a trendy New York restaurant, just for a drink, on a blind date. Aaron is almost paralyzed by nerves and a lack of self-confidence. Casey, bitter and jaded, is sure this is all a major mistake. They order, sit down and soon they regret they even came. Visions from the past haunt each of them by turn – family, friends and past relationships make appearances, of course providing an excuse for a series of musical numbers – some raunchy, some funny, some introspective. Aaron and Casey ask themselves: should they stay or leave?

Emily Brown, Christiaan Lafata, Adam Silorey, Hosanna Phillips, Lori Smith, Adam Wager, Jonathan Farrell

Avon veteran Lori Smith (“Hunchback of Notre Dame”) shows off her top-notch voice and strong stage presence in the role of Casey. Her date, Aaron, is played by Adam Silorey with gawky charm in his Avon Players debut.

The other five cast members are identified simply as Woman #1 and #2, and Man #1, #2 and #3, so they are free to assume multiple roles. But some of those roles emerge as standouts: one is Casey’s watchful sister Lauren played, and sung, with polished flair by Emily Brown (“Bright Star”). Another is the versatile Hosanna Phillips (“Night of January 16^th”) as the slinky Allison, Aaron’s former fiancée. Jonathan Farrell is dryly funny as the waiter, and Adam Wager (“Clue the Musical”) shows his comic chops in roles like Aaron’s friend Gabe and “The Stoner Guy”.

But the absolute show-stopper has to be the hysterically funny Christiaan Lafata (“The Producers”) as Casey’s “BFF” Reggie, a person of uncertain gender with some of the best lines in the show. His three “Bailout Songs” (especially #3) lift things to a whole new level.

Christiaan Lafata

Together, the five “numbered” performers also serve as a sort of Greek chorus, suddenly springing up from the shadows to burst into song at just the right moment. Some memorable ensemble numbers include “The Girl For You” (oy vey!) and “The World Wide Web is Forever” (you Google me, I Google you). Kudos for clever choreography by Maritone Harte and for Bryan Clifford’s amazing video graphics and projection design. The 7-piece orchestra under the capable direction of David Mety handled the score well, from pop to soft rock to jazz.

A bold and sleekly colorful set, by JD Deierlein and Clifford, represents the New York City restaurant. Four monitors are mounted on the wall upstage that change images and colors to fit the scene, pulsing to the music…a striking effect.

During a recent matinee, the spotlight wandered off-target in the first act and seemed to have a mind of its own. If possible, some performers could more clearly articulate the lyrics, and maybe projecting a bit more for the folks in the back rows.

Witty dialogue by Winsberg and brisk staging by director Ryan Moore make this a very lively and entertaining show with lots of laughs, but it can be provocative, and it’s not necessarily original; some of the scenes feel like Saturday Night Live skits. It has a somewhat predictable story (with a happy ending), but the audience seemed to be having a great time, if laughter and applause are any indication.

Now through June 10, 2023

Tickets $26.50 at box office, $3.50 fee online, $2.00 fee for phone order

Avon Playhouse

1185 Washington Rd

Rochester Hills, MI 48306

(248) 608-9077

www.avonplayers.org

May 25 2023

Love0

New Mensch Hall of Fame will honor seven for social activism, philanthropy, sports, politics

By Woody Weingarten Woody Weingarten

One woman started an organization that books free professional entertainment in hospitals, senior centers, special-needs schools, and prisons. Another founded an educational facility that aids ex-felons, prostitutes, alcoholics and addicts.

One guy has given away suits and ties to homeless men, as well as to poor ones with homes, to help them get jobs. Another challenged Major League Baseball’s restrictive “reserve clause,” action that led to players becoming free agents in all pro sports.

Those four are among seven who’ll be honored May 31 by a new Bay Area project, the Mensch Hall of Fame.

You may have heard the Yiddish word “mensch” but have some trouble pinning down its meaning. According to one online dictionary, it’s a label for a person of honor or integrity. Rabbi Yosef Langer, who has led the fervently orthodox Jewish San Francisco Chabad-Lubavitch community for decades, is happy to expand on that definition.

“A mensch,” he says, “is somebody who has the quality of caring for himself and his fellows, for the community and humanity, a person who’s honest, respects others, is compassionate and kind, and is genuine in who they are and what they do.”

Awardees of The Mensch Hall of Fame’s inaugural event will be three women and three men — plus another woman who’ll get lifetime achievement honors.

The awards dip into the worlds of philanthropy, social activism, charity, sports and politics.

Recipients are Mimi Silbert, Tiffany Shlain, the late Mimi Fariña, George Zimmer, Josh Becker and the late Curt Flood — with Dolores Huerta getting the lifetime award.

Though the 79-year-old Langer and his 38-year-old son, Rabbi Moshe Langer, run the project, it was the brainchild of Brian Webster, who volunteered for Chabad for a decade before he became a paid employee a few years ago. To stay with the theme, the elder Langer says of Webster, who once worked for the late rock promoter Bill Graham at the Fillmore, “He’s a mensch.”

Proceeds from the event will benefit The Giving Kitchen, which, according to Moshe Langer, “provides food for financially challenged people,” and the Bill Graham Menorah Project, which is responsible for lighting the huge menorah in Union Square each year and includes a new program “where we gave out 1,000 menorahs last year to spread even more light.”

State Sen. Josh Becker speaks at 2022 Union Square menorah lighting. (Courtesy Chabad SF)

Graham had financed the first lighting of the Union Square menorah, a one-day Chanukah event in 1975. The annual affair there now lasts the entire eight-day length of the holiday.

Chabad, adds Yosef Langer, is now also heavily invested in Noah’s Ark on the Bay, a project that fosters mensch-hood all over the globe, “outreaching beyond the Jewish community — to enlighten, not to proselytize.”

To determine who should receive Hall of Fame honors, the younger Langer says organizers “looked for people in the community that have shown a good deal of mensch-behavior (philanthropy, charity, volunteering).”

Zimmer — the suit-and-tie guy who started the Men’s Warehouse “from the ground up and created an environment where people were happy to come to work, and who started a fund to send the children of workers to college” — was the first selected.

The posthumous awards are going to Fariña, who started Bread and Roses, the organization that sends 1,000 musicians and performers each year to close to 100,000 isolated audience members, and Flood, who sacrificed his baseball career in pursuit of better negotiating positions for players.

The lifetime achievement award to Huerta, 93, recognizes her civil rights and labor activism, including co-founding the National Farmworkers Association, a predecessor of United Farm Workers, with Cesar Chavez.

The other mensch awards go to state Sen. Becker, D-San Mateo, who co-founded New Cycle Capital, a pioneer in building socially responsible businesses; Silbert, who founded the educational Delancey Street Foundation, which supports substance abusers and ex-convicts via academic, vocational and social programs; and Tiffany Shlain, an independent filmmaker and internet pioneer.

Chabad-Lubavitch of San Francisco, which has long been known for its creativity, is part of an international movement with roots in the Hasidic movement of the 18th century that runs an extensive network of educational and social services. Some 3,000 Chabad centers exist in more than 65 countries.

The Inaugural Mensch Hall of Fame Awards, VIP Reception, Auction & Dinner are at 6 p.m. May 31 at The Mint, 85 Fifth St., San Francisco. Tickets are $200. For details, call (415) 668-6178 or visit https://menschhalloffame.org.

This story was first published on LocalNewsMatters.org, a nonprofit site supported by Bay City News Foundation http://www.baycitynews.org/contact/.

Woody Weingarten, a longtime member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.net or on his websites, https://woodyweingarten.com and https://vitality press.com.

May 24 2023

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Shakespeare In Love at NTC

By FloraLynnIsaacson Flora Lynn Isaacson

Michael Girts (Will Shakespeare) and Rachel Kaiulani Kennealy (Viola) star in Shakespeare in Love at Novato Theater Company.

Novato Theater Company presents Shakespeare in Love now through June 11. Don’t miss this amusing and enjoyable production of the Academy Award winning screenplay by Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard (adapted by Lee Hall). The Elizabethan world of William Shakespeare is brought to life thanks to Nic Moore’s and Gillian Eichenberger’s fine direction, an extraordinary cast and a talented production team.

The plot revolves around William Shakespeare (Michael Girts) and Viola De Lesseps (Rachel Kaiulani Kennealy), an aristocratic young woman who yearns to act in Shakespeare’s plays. Viola becomes Will’s inspiration and his muse as he struggles to write Romeo and Juliet. With additional support from his good friend Kit Marlowe (Michel Benton Harris) and many other characters, Will conquers his writer’s block, falls in love and produces a masterpiece.

Girts, Kennealy and Harris are exceptional in the main roles. The supporting cast is equally brilliant. Michele Sanner is commanding as Queen Elizabeth I, one of Will’s greatest benefactors. Glenn Havlan cleverly plays Hugh Fennyman, the “money man” behind Will’s plays at the Rose Theater owned by Philip Henslowe (David Noll). Arup Chakrabarti is spirited and funny as Ned Alleyn, the arrogant actor/manager of the Rose and Tomás Fiero gives an intense performance as Richard Burgage, the actor/owner of the rival Curtain Theater. Supporting performances that stand out include Paul Gusciora as Edmund Tilney, Thomas Peterson as Lord Wessex and Kim Bromley as the Nurse.

Jody Branham’s amazing Elizabethan costumes add much to the show. Branham goes all out in her design using colorful, rich fabrics like velvet, fur and satin along with ruffled neck collars, jewels, feathers and leather to dress the characters from head to toe.

Special thanks to Marilyn Izdebski (Producer) for co-sponsoring this play with Merri Martori.

Co-written by Lori Wood

May 17 2023

Love0

Native Gardens–You’ll laugh out loud!

By FloraLynnIsaacson Flora Lynn Isaacson

Ross Valley Players’ final offering of their 93^rd season is a comedy, Native Gardens, on stage now through June 11 at the Barn Theater in Ross. The story is written by Karen Zacarias (founder of Latinx Theatre Commons and Young Playwrights Theater) and directed by Mary Ann Rodgers who has won multiple awards from the SF Bay Area Theater Critics Circle for her acting and directing. The actors extraordinary talent (especially Steve Price) and the fine work from the production team make this show a real winner!

Audiences are immediately impressed by the magnificent set—thanks to the creativity of Malcolm Rodgers (Set & Property Design), Dhyanis Carniglia (Scenic Painter) and Michael Walraven (Set Construction). Running down the middle of the stage is a single fence separating two back yards. On one side is an award-winning, colorful garden brimming with beautiful non-native plants and flowers. It is tended by Frank Butley (Steve Price), and his wife Virginia (Ellen Brooks) an older couple who have lived there for many years. The Butley’s are excited that a young couple has just moved in next door. Hoping to make friends, they welcome the new neighbors, the Del Valle’s, with chocolate and wine.

The Del Valle’s are expecting a baby any day. Even so, Tania Del Valle (Jannely Calmell) and her husband Pablo (Eric Esquivel-Gutierrez), an attorney, are eager to impress his colleagues at the firm who are coming for a backyard barbecue in less than a week’s time. Tania and Pablo decide a more attractive new fence is in order and Tania’s plan to create an earth-friendly, native garden is fast-tracked, creating a conflict as the property line comes into question.

As the story develops, familiar stereotypes, prejudices and historical controversies all come into play, but Zacarias’ humor is added into the mix. A brilliant, laugh out loud ending brings all the characters together despite their differences.

This fall Ross Valley Players presents The Glass Menagerie, written by Tennessee Williams and directed by David Abrams, September 15-October 15.

Co-written by Lori Wood

May 10 2023

Love0

Compelling MTC solo show spotlights music, comedy, flashing lights, live looping

By Woody Weingarten Woody Weingarten

Satya Chávez displays anger in Where Did We Sit on the Bus? Photo by Kevin Berne.

Whipping back and forth onstage like a famished tiger about to pounce, Satya Chávez attacks her audience with passion and poignancy.

Along the way, she transforms into a one-woman band and chorus, a one-woman story hour, and a one-woman immigrant history lesson. And she’s mesmerizing in all of it.

In Where Did We Sit on the Bus? — a solo show at the Marin Theatre Company (MTC) in Mill Valley — she musically and verbally, comically and melodramatically traces how the daughter of undocumented Mexicans becomes a consummate performer.

Audience members clap, laugh aloud, and replicate her various rhythms with their toes as she talks, in character as Bee Quijada, about metaphorically being a composite Spanish soap opera, challah French toast, piñata, and, as Emma Lazarus’ poem is quoted at the base of the Statue of Liberty, an integral part of “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

By far the most fascinating part of her performance is live looping, whereby she records vocals and/or instrumental riffs and, after hitting pedals or pushing buttons on a pad that contains software, instantly plays it back in real time. She uses that technique, which allows her to sing or play over the recorded track, throughout.

Lighting in Where Did We Sit on the Bus? is spellbinding. Photo by Kevin Berne.

The set itself — a deep cavern containing a series of linear flashing lights that she alternately retreats into and escapes from — also becomes a spellbinding element of the show.

As does the comedy, which ranges from her idol-worshipping imitation of Michael Jackson to her schtick about mythological big-jawed Latinos eating whole chickens, pigs, and cows.

So do her rapid mood changes.

To help set those feelings (and evolving thought patterns), she shifts from ukulele to two guitars, from mouth organ to recorder, then to keyboard. She switches musically from a variety of Latin rhythms to hip-hop to self-composing. Her vocals, sometimes at triple speed, move the plot-less, life-journey along (“everything is happening so fast,” she sings).

Yes, a word or a line can be missed unless a theatergoer is paying real-close attention.

It’s also possible to not fully grok Chávez’s perspective as an “intersectional feminist” — that is, one who can provide insight on the blending of a person’s varied social and political identities that in turn can create different modes of discrimination and privilege. The bespectacled performer actually points out her own multiple aspects, being a first-generation American Latina, partner of a White woman, and an actor/singer/instrumentalist/composer.

Satya Chávez is Bee Quijada in Where Did We Sit on the Bus? Photo by Kevin Berne.

As for change, she never alters her outfit — a white blouse, bland brown cargo pants, and white Nike shoes. They’re comfortable enough, apparently, to cover all bases, and to do a somersault in.

The first part of the show, penned by Brian Quijada and directed by Matt Dickson, rockets along, going from a womb-like experience and bomb-like birth through Sunday churchgoing to education in a white-bread neighborhood in Illinois (“all my friends are Jewish”) to the University of Iowa to a New York City relationship with a Caucasian woman. Opening night, however, the performance lasted 15 minutes longer than the advertised 90-minutes. A mistake. The excess was palpable while Chávez crammed in too much of a laundry list before hitting some fire-eating anger.

When it’s over, the performer has answered the title question (and its obvious reference to civil rights spearhead Rosa Parks) with a Latina perspective and depth that can’t help but be admired — and she emphasizes hope, even in situations where many underdogs have been so beaten down.

It occurs to me, upon reflection, that any review of this show may be superfluous: Where Did We Sit on the Bus? must be experienced to be appreciated. It’s that dense, that different, and that’s a good thing.

Where Did We Sit on the Bus? will play at Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, through May 28. Tickets: $25 to $65. Info: 415-388-5208 or marintheatre.org

May 09 2023

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Smuin ballet’s revival of ‘Swipe’ is offbeat, inspired, stimulating

By Woody Weingarten Woody Weingarten

Terez Dean Orr is lifted by Smuin dancers in choreographer Amy Seiwert’s ‘French Kiss.’ (Courtesy Chris Hardy)

An online dictionary lists as synonyms for innovative: original, inventive, ingenious, newfangled.

None of those adequately describe how exquisitely offbeat, inspired and stimulating “Swipe” — one number in the 16-member Smuin Contemporary Ballet’s “Dance Series 2” — is.

Val Caniparoli’s outstanding revived choreography for four men and three women even overshadows the world premiere of “French Kiss,” choreographed by Amy Seiwert, who was just named the company’s associate artistic director.

Caniparoli merges bare-chested male dancers and ultra-dexterous females, bobbing heads and wildly waving flat-handed arms, with selections from “String Quartet
No. 2 with Remixes,” a slightly weird, often drum-thumpingly loud electronic piece by Gabriel Prokofiev, grandson of the great Russian composer.

The whole thing isn’t perfect, only 98.3 percent so. The trouble is, it’s virtually impossible to locate the other 1.7 percent.

Smuin dancers are so adept and so smooth, it’s as if the choreographer whispered to the performers separately, “Go out there and see precisely how you can excel while using this framework.” And each of them has.

Smuin dancers (left to right) Tessa Barbour, Cassidy Isaacson, and Terez Dean Orr are excellent in the revival of Val Caniparoli’s ‘Swipe.’ (Courtesy Chris Hardy)

That includes steps that display — in addition many decidedly more familiar — worm-like shimmying on the floor, backwards dancing, and a few moments that resemble the Charleston done sideways.

The word hybrid today often refers to a meeting that’s half in-person, half on Zoom, but the word also applies to the 11-year-old “Swipe,” especially if one considers its wide diversity of dance segments by Caniparoli, who recently retired from San Francisco Ballet after five decades, but will continue freelance work.

“French Kiss,” meanwhile, combines classical movements with subtle and rainbow-colored costuming to showcase tunes by Pink Martini, an Oregon-based band (or, as group members call it “a little orchestra”) that’s spent a lot of time abroad.

The group not only crosses multiple genres with ease — from classical and Latin to pop and jazz, with a light nod to rock — but features more than a dozen musicians, playing songs with roots in 25 languages. For “French Kiss,” it figures, the tunes are soft, sexy, and, well, in Gallic.

Incorporated are segments using a musical backdrop of cabaret torch singer Meow Meow’s “Mon homme marié,” and the most imaginative piece, “Ma solitude,” which spotlights amusing dual footwork by Cassidy Isaacson and João Sampaio (accompanied by two rolling mannequins).

Cassidy Isaacson and João Sampaio appear in Amy Seiwert’s world premiere of ‘French Kiss.’ (Courtesy Chris Hardy)

Filling out the bill are two more traditional, sweet, uncommonly graceful works: “Dream,” with choreography by the company’s late founder, Michael Smuin, that illustrates a piano concerto by Frédéric Chopin, and the opening number, “Sextettte,” with Kate Skarpetowska’s dance moves set to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

L-R, Lauren Pschirrer, Cassidy Isaacson and Brennan Wall dance in Smuin’s company premiere of Kate Skarpetowska’s “Sextette. (Courtesy Chris Hardy)

An unfortunate aspect of this four-dance concert is that only half the theater’s seats were filled at a recent weekend performance in San Francisco, clearly a result of residual fears about COVID, its variants and subvariants. Hopefully that’ll change — if not this season, then the next, which is Smuin’s 30th anniversary. Scheduled programming includes a world premiere ballet choreographed by Darrell Grand Moultrie and an Elvis Presley-themed ballet by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa.

Smuin’s “Dance Series 2” continues May 11-14 at Blue Shield of California Theater, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, 700 Howard St., San Francisco; tickets are $25-$84. Call (415) 912-1899. Performances also are May 25-28 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View. Tickets are $25-$79. Call (650) 903-6000 or visit www.smuinballet.org.
This story was first published onLocalNewsMatters.org, a nonprofit site supported by Bay City News Foundationhttp://www.baycitynews.org/contact/.

Apr 23 2023

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San Francisco Ballet: Romeo & Juliet

By Jo Tomalin Jo Tomalin

Jasmine Jimison and Ricardo Bustamante in Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet // © Lindsay Thomas

Romeo & Juliet opened its run on April 21, 2023, produced by San Francisco Ballet at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House. Set to music by Sergei Prokofiev conducted by Martin West and choreographed by Helgi Tomasson.

The romantic story is dramatic and moving. Scenery and costume design by Jens-Jacob Worsaae work together with the lyrical choreography to transport us. Visually the large sets with a bridge are impactful and skilfully used in the mise en scene. Costumes are of rich textures and earth tones that evoke a time gone by very effectively, together with lighting design by Thomas R. Skelton.

Tomasson’s choreography is beautiful in the duets and all ensemble sequences. In fact the ballroom scene is breathtaking when all dancers move forward at once in a show of grace and strength, it’s a powerful image not to be forgotten.

Jasmine Jimison and Angelo Greco in Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet // © Lindsay Thomas

Jasmine Jimison is a beautiful Juliet in every way – it is her story – and we are transfixed to her scenes when she is at the ball, meets Romeo, stridently negates her parents wishes of a suitor – and then entangles herself in the tragic events. Jimison is youthful and authentic with muscular precision, joy, freedom and sadness. Partnered with Angelo Greco as her Romeo they are well matched with visceral movement and lovely interactions.

San Francisco Ballet in Tomasson’s Romeo & Juliet // © Lindsay Thomas

A formidable cast play parents and friends of the star struck couple, led by Ricardo Bustamante and Jennifer Stahl as Lord and Lady Capulet, Luke Ingham as Tybalt, Rubén Cítores Nieto and Katita Waldo as Lord and Lady Montague, Max Cauthorn as Benvolio and Anita Paciotti as Juliet’s Nurse.

Sword fights take centre stage in this ballet between Montague and Capulet rivals – dynamically performed by Cauthorn and Ingham – and are some of the best I have seen in a ballet setting, with vibrant and dynamic fight scene choreography by Martino Pistone in collaboration with Helgi Tomasson.

This Romeo & Juliet is not to be missed!

More Information:

San Francisco Ballet

Jo Tomalin, Ph.D. reviews Dance, Theatre & Physical Theatre Performances
More Reviews by Jo Tomalin
TWITTER @JoTomalin

Apr 04 2023

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On the Moors Now at Masquers in Richmond

By FloraLynnIsaacson Flora Lynn Isaacson

The current production at Masquers Playhouse in Richmond showcases Jaclyn Backhaus’ On the Moors Now, March 17-April 8. As part of their 2023 season tribute to women, the show features a female playwright (Backhaus), director (Angelina LaBarre) and protagonists.

Backhaus brings together familiar Victorian literary characters, matches them with “modern sensibilities” and transports them to “an in-between world of the 1800’s and today” according to LaBarre. In this surreal place, Jo (Little Women), Cathy (Wuthering Heights), Elizabeth (Pride & Prejudice) and Jane (Jane Eyre) meet, become friends and create new stories for their lives.

Isabella DaSilva (Elizabeth), Maelle Griffin (Jo), Anna Oglesby-Smith (Cathy) and Alix Josefski (Jane) all distinguish themselves in their roles. Oglesby-Smith’s moving narrations and Josefski’s comedic timing stand out. Austin Trenholm (Darcy), Kyle Carillo-Enders (Laurence), Oz Sobal (Heathcliffe) and Diego Loza (Rochester) are equally talented as the male counterparts.

Jon Hull frames the set with pages ripped from books by Austen, Alcott and the Bronte sisters indicating their stories have been pulled apart. His design captures the eeriness of the Moors in the background and lighting by Gill Stanfield sets the mood. Masquers productions consistently feature lovely and authentic costumes and this production is no exception. Mara Norleen’s costume design is dazzling.

While the storyline is sometimes hard to follow, the actors’ and production team’s talent and commitment to the show make it easy to enjoy.

Coming up next at Masquers is Roe, June 9 to July 2, written by Lisa Loomer and directed by Michael Sally.

Co-written by Lori Wood

Apr 03 2023

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SF Ballet’s Cinderella – Magical!

By Jo Tomalin Jo Tomalin

San Francisco Ballet presents Christopher Wheeldon’s Cinderella©, set to Sergei Prokofiev’s score, March 31 to April 8, 2023 at San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House, orchestra conducted by Martin west. This three act ballet is glorious in its visual storytelling, production design and of course, the fine tuned precision and flourish of the San Francisco Ballet.

The leading and character roles are played by a different cast at each performance and on opening night, March 31, 2023 Cinderella was danced by Misa Kuranaga. This role is strenuous in the amount of choreography and emoting the character does in her journey as an orphan to fulfil her dreams of going to the ball. We all know the story and what happens eventually, but Wheeldon took elements from several versions of the Cinderella story as told decades ago, and this Cinderella is fresh in the new ideas and imagery it brings.

Kuranaga is notable as Cinderella with lovely projection and sublime, fluid movement throughout all her solos, duets and when she joins other groups along the way. Throughout the entire ballet she sustains her light dance quality and goes through a range of emotions from sadness to pure joy and wonderment.

Jennifer Stahl as Hortensia, the stepmother is beautifully strange, usually accompanied by her two daughters, Cinderella’s stepsisters, danced by Elizabeth Powell and Ellen Rose Hummel, forming a deliciously quirky and powerful trio with choreography and angular movement to match.

Prince Guillaume danced by Isaac Hernandez is Cinderella’s romantic lead and works well with his childhood friend, Benjamin, danced by charismatic Esteban Hernández. Their sword interplay is mirrored in Act 1 when the boys were young children and then become grown up versions – this makes a connection and through line to focus on throughout the story timeline.

Tiit Helimets plays Cinderella’s Father partnered with Cinderella’s Mother, Kamryn Baldwin in some tender parental moments.

A curious group of characters in dark blue and black waft in and out of each act adding an ethereal element to the storytelling. They are ‘helpers’ as in various genres of theatre and performance and interact with and around Cinderella and others somewhat like a Greek Chorus, moving the story forward and facilitating otherworldly action. These are the Fates, a dynamic group danced by Daniel Deivison-Oliveira, Steven Morse, Alexander Reneff-Olson, John-Paul Simoens. The Fates are a vital part of this witty reimagining of Cinderella – and they look like they are having too much fun!

Outstanding scenic and beautiful costume design by the renowned Julian Crouch is creativity personified. Stunning sets and transitions truly transport the audience into the magical nether world and back to reality with clever choices that work together perfectly with Wheeldon’s imagination and vision. Lighting design by Natasha Katz and Projection design by Daniel Brodie are all part of this magic together with Basil Twist for his show stopping tree and carriage sequence direction/design.

If you have not yet seen Wheeldon’s Cinderella, do so, it will take you away to where anything is possible!

More Information:

San Francisco Ballet

Jo Tomalin, Ph.D. reviews Dance, Theatre & Physical Theatre Performances
More Reviews by Jo Tomalin
TWITTER @JoTomalin

Mar 27 2023

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“Harry Townsend’s Last Stand” at Meadow Brook Theatre, Rochester Hills MI

By Suzanne Angeo Greg & Suzanne Angeo

Photos courtesy of Sean Carter Photography

Craig Bentley, Mark Rademacher

Hilarious and Poignant “Harry”

In its Michigan Premiere at Meadow Brook Theatre, “Harry Townsend’s Last Stand” manages to be powerful, and funny, and bittersweet, all at the same time. It touches on a subject that is relevant to everyone, but that everyone wants to avoid talking about – what happens when we grow old. People are living longer than ever before, as families face the challenges of aging. This new play could be one of the most important works to come along in recent years.

It began life as a prize-winning short story by George Eastman, a retired Massachusetts teacher turned playwright, based on his own family. It changed titles a couple of times, gained admirers in Hollywood and New York, and built momentum in a staged reading off-Broadway. It then opened at the New York City Center’s Stage II to a sold-out performance in early December 2019. It was so popular with audiences and critics that its run was extended to April 2020.

It’s easy to see why. The story is so well written and unfolds in such a charming way, you can’t help but be drawn in. Pathos and sorrow are generously leavened with gentle humor and raunchy wisecracks. There is something so familiar about these people, these situations; the conversations are natural-sounding, the characters are irresistible, and real.

The trouble with Harry, an 84 year-old widower, is that he’s in stubborn denial about his declining health and growing dependence on his two middle-aged children. He’s a dynamo: a former local radio personality who helped build the lakeside community in Vermont where he has lived for many decades, in the lovely house he shared with his late wife. Harry falls a lot but refuses to use a walker. He has major health issues but won’t see a doctor. He does reckless things and scares his family. He has treasured lifelong memories, but can’t remember what was said five minutes ago. He has an endless supply of racy jokes and outrageous comments.

His son, Alan, a successful real estate agent in Southern California, is in Vermont visiting Harry for the weekend. Soon long-simmering tensions between the two boil to the surface. His twin sister (away with her new husband in New York) had been staying with Harry as his caregiver, but it’s getting to be too much for her, and a big change is in the wind. Harry has a decision to make, but doesn’t want to make it.

Craig Bentley, Mark Rademacher

The two male cast members are effective counterpoints – contrasting personalities in the father/son dynamic that are interesting to watch. MBT, TV and film veteran Mark Rademacher is simply wonderful as the spirited, gregarious Harry, grappling with the defiant desire for independence and the fear of the unknown. And another MBT and NYC veteran Craig Bentley, as strait-laced, intensely subdued Alan, captures a son’s frustration mixed with love. Both have great comic timing, a rare talent and really essential to this show.

The set by Brian K Kessler is picture-perfect, representing a lovingly handcrafted home. The dramatic lighting by Brian Debs is a vital part of the story.

Director Travis Walter has done it again – his strong instincts for storytelling, pacing and natural dialogue drive the events. The show’s nearly two hours fly by, and you leave wanting to know more about this family, and how similar they may be to your own.

Now through April 16, 2023

Tickets $37 to $46

Meadow Brook Theatre at Wilson Hall

Oakland University

378 Meadow Brook Rd

Rochester Hills, MI 48309

(248) 377-3300

www.mbtheatre.com

A special note: As Covid-19 is a constantly changing situation, MBT will be monitoring and adhering to the guidance given by the CDC, the State of Michigan, the Actor’s Equity Association, and Oakland University. Check the Meadow Brook Theatre website at www.mbtheatre.com for the latest information on efforts to keep everyone safe.

This theater operates under an agreement between the League of Resident Theatres and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers of the United States. The theater operates under the agreement with the International Alliance of Theatre Stage employees, Local 38.

Meadow Brook Theatre’s season is supported in part by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Kresge Foundation, the Fred and Barbara Erb Family Foundation, the Shubert Foundation and the Meadow Brook Theatre Guild.