Kedar K. Adour

(l to r) Marilee Talkington, Anthony Holiday, Eddie Ray Jackson, Dwight Hicks, Bill Geisslinger, and Jenny Mercein make up the ensemble cast in the world premiere of X’s and O’s (A Football Love Story), a hard-hitting docudrama at Berkeley Rep that examines our country’s passion for a game that is life-giving yet lethal.

X’s and O’s (A Football Love Story): Docudrama by KJ Sanchez, along with Jenny Mercein. Directed by Tony Taccone.  Berkeley. Repertory Theatre: Thrust Stage, 2025 Addison Street @ Shattuck, Berkeley, CA.  (510) 647-2949. www.berkeleyrep.org.     January 23- March 1, 2015

A powerful Xs and Os at Berkeley Rep [rating:5]

To add a bit of authenticity to the football play that opened last night on Berkeley Rep’s Thrust Stage, the ushers were dressed in black and white vertically stripped referees’ shirts and the University of California marching band played snippets of rousing classic stadium music for 15 minutes before curtain time. It was a nice touch but unnecessary since the powerful staging and acting of this 85 minute docudrama creates its own authenticity in words, action and spectacular visual/sound projections. It received a well-earned standing ovation.

Football injuries, especially brain injuries associated with the violence of the sport has been examined through the actual words of those who were involved. It is appropriate that the creators of the show were intimately attached to the sport. Writer KJ Sanchez is a die-hard fan and Jenny Mercein is the daughter of former pro player Chuck Mercein.  After interviewing former National Football players, their families and fans their loyalty to the sport has been thoroughly shaken but remains partially/ (mostly?) intact.

Originally co-commissioned by Berkeley Rep and Center Stage in Baltimore, the play was developed in The Ground Floor: Berkeley Rep’s Center for the Creation and Development of New Work. Sanchez is known for ReEntry a docudrama based on interviews with Marines returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.  Like that show most (95%) of the words used in Xs and Os come from their interviews that included sports medicine experts needed to clarify the term Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) that results from hard to detect repetitive small injuries to the brain by concussions. The phenomenon is explicitly demonstrated by word and x-rays by Marilee Talkington playing a neurologist.

The entire cast is well suited to playing their multiple roles and becoming members of the chorus without missing a beat. An authentic touch includes Dwight Hicks, a former NFL player with the 49ers, in the cast. Bill Geisslinger a 25 year member at the Oregon Shakespeare represents the ‘white’ player faction of NFL football that has become a minority as most teams are now composed of mostly black players. Hicks, Anthony Holiday and Eddie Ray Jackson fill out the multiple roles of black players and fans with each turning in superlative performances. Mecein and Talkington are never overshadowed by the male contingent and share a touching scene as the wives of brain damaged players.  

It is Eddie Ray Jackson who played Mohammed Ali in Marin Theater Company’s production of Fetch Clay, Make Man who almost steals the show as a young player performing physical exercises to build up his body to become even better on the football field. His versatility is demonstrated in the fore mention scene with Mecein and Talkington playing a young boy bemoaning, and not understanding the physical and mental change of his father wrought by CTE.

And then there are the spectacular visual/sound appearing on the multiple screens situated above the stage in a half circle where the historical and pertinent vignettes are projected often to the musical interlude of Monday Night Football ending with “Are you ready for some football?” Berkeley Rep under the brilliant direction of Tony Taccone certainly is. Running time about 85 minutes without an intermission. Advise: A must see production.

CAST: Bill Geisslinger, Frank, Rocky, Tough Guy & Chorus; Dwight Hicks (George Coleman, Ramon & Chorus); Anthony Holiday (Addicott, Ben & Chorus); Eddie Ray Jackson (Eric, BJ, Anthony & Chorus); Jenny Mercein (Kelli, Martha, Roberta & Chorus); Marilee Talkington (Caroline, Team Physician, Laura & Chorus).

CREATIVE TEAM: Todd Rosenthal (scenic designer);, Meg Neville (costume designer); Alexander V. Nichols (lighting and projection designer); Jake Rodriguez (sound designer); Kimberly Mark Webb (stage manager).

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

Photo by Kevin Berne

Free-spirited English poet Flora Crewe (Brenda Meaney) reflects on a painting by Nirad Das (Firdous Bamji), an Indian artist who is fascinated with London in Indian Ink, Tom Stoppard’s epic romance that weaves decades, continents, and cultures. Photo by Kevin Berne.

Indian Ink by Tom Stoppard. Directed by Carey Perloff. American Conservatory Theater (ACT), 415 Geary St., San Francisco, CA. (415) 749-2228 or www.act-sf.org.

January 14 – February 8, 2015

INDIAN INK is beautifully staged at A.C.T. [RATING:4]

American Conservatory Theater’s (A.C.T.) artistic director Carey Perloff continues her unabashed love affair with Tom Stoppard with the production of Indian Ink in association with Roundabout Theatre Company. Like the fictional poet Flora Crew (Brenda Meany), the major character in the play, she has found an intellectual soul mate in Stoppard. The theatrical love affair between Stoppard and Perloff is abundantly apparent in Perloff’s brilliant direction of the play. Such intricate direction is absolutely necessary to make the always verbose Stoppard palatable to diverse audiences.  However three hours of a Stoppard play can and does wear thin.

Like Stoppard’s Tony Award winning Arcadia the action of the play shifts between two time frames, often with scenes from both eras intercutting each other. Initially it is the 1980s England where Flora’s sister Nell (Danielle Frimer) is sharing Floras letters with Eldon Pike (Anthony Fusco) an American biographer. Pike’s fascination with the unfinished portrait and its unknown painter piques his inquisitive nature allowing Stoppard to move the action back and forth in time filling in the background with nary a sentence of exposition.

The play originated as a 1991 radio play In the Native State for BBC with the stage version opening in 1995 in London. It had its American premiere (where else?) at A.C.T. in 1999. Since that time Stoppard and Perloff  have re-worked the script and it received a sold out production in New York by the Roundabout Theatre.

Flora is a free-spirited British poet who arrives in Jummapur, India controlled by a Rajah (Rajeev Varma) with the tacit consent of the British Colonial office. She is here to give a lecture to the Theosophical Society and to recuperate from an unexplained illness. During that lecture Das has created a pencil sketch of Flora and upon presenting it to her he expresses his great interest in London and desire to have a British personality. This allows Stoppard to insert references to the Bloomsbury Group and other well-known 1930s luminaries. Flora then consents to allow Das to paint her portrait, not in the manner of a British artist but as an Indian painter.

As the play progresses other characters are introduced and references to Indian inequities under British rule are expertly inserted in the dialog as love blossoms between Flora and Das. Mystery concerning the portrait and an ancient priceless miniature painting of a nude given to Flora by a Raja play a pivotal role in story line. However the storyline is just a vehicle for Stoppard to demonstrate his intellectualism.

The play is handsomely staged, acted and directed. I quote and fully agree: “Neil Patel’s pristine scenery, subtly lit by Robert Wiertzel, enables the large cast to fluidly negotiate the play’s two worlds with minimal props. Candice Donnelly’s gowns for ‘ Brenda Meaney’ are breathtaking, but she has also dressed the other actors to period perfection.” However, to this reviewer and guest the running time of three hours, including the intermission, detracted from a beautiful love story unfolding at a time of cataclysmal upheaval in India.

CAST:  Flora Crewe, Brenda Meaney; Coomaraswami, Ajay Naidu; Nazrul, Vandit Bhatt; Eleanor Swan, Roberta Maxwell; Eldon Pike, Anthony Fusco; Amish Das, Pej Vandat; Nirad Das, Firdous Bamji; David Durance, Philip Mills; Rajah/Politician, Rajeev Varma; Dilip, Kenneth De Abrew; Resident, Mike Ryan; Englishwoman, Mary Baird; Englishman, Dan Hiatt; Nell, Danielle Frimer; Eric, Glenn Stott.

CREATIVE TEAM: Tom Stoppard, Playwright; Carey Perloff, Director; John Carrafa, Choreographer; Neil Patel, Scenic Designer; Robert Wierzel, Lighting Designer; Candice Donnelly, Costume Designer; Dan Moses Schreier, Composer and Sound Designer; Janet Foster, CSA, Casting; Dick Daley, Stage Manager; Megan McClintock, Assistant Stage Manager

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

Free-spirited English poet Flora Crewe (Brenda Meaney) reflects on a painting by Nirad Das (Firdous Bamji), an Indian artist who is fascinated with London in Indian Ink, Tom Stoppard’s epic romance that weaves decades, continents, and cultures. Photo by Kevin Berne.

Sandra Shipley as Mrs. Bradman, Charles Edwards as Charles Condomine, Susan Louise O’Connor as Edith, Angela Lansbury as Madame Arcati, Charlotte Parry as Ruth Condomine and Simon Jones as Dr. Bradman in the North American tour of
Noël Coward’s BLITHE SPIRIT.
PHOTO BY JOAN MARCUS

BLITHE SPIRIT: Comedy/Farce by Noel Coward. Directed by Michael Blakemore . SHN Golden Gate Theater, 1 Taylor Street at Market, San Francisco. 888-746-1799 or www.shnsf.com.

January 20-February 1, 2015

A standing ovation for Angela Lansbury and cast in BLITHE SPIRIT [RATING:5]

Famed playwright Noel Coward is British to the nth degree and his plays are mostly drawing room comedies about the upper crust of Britain’s society of the 1930-40s. His sharp, acerbic, glib wit requires a light touch, ensemble acting with a delicate balance between the characters. For these reasons theater groups in the United States do not often successfully perform his plays.

In 2012 California Shakespeare Theatre (CalShakes) produced a memorable brilliant production of Blithe Spirit with actors rounded up from A.C.T.’s stable of performers. This reviewer suggested that it was the definitive staging. That honor has been replaced by Michael Blakemore’s staging with Angela Lansbury and a combined British and American cast that received a standing ovation last night at the Golden Gate Theatre.

It was a brilliant move to resurrect this 70 year old drawing room comedy with stage and screen icon Angela Lansbury as the inimitable Madame Arcati who brings to protoplasmic life Elvira who had passed over to the “other side.” Lansbury received a (another) Tony Award for the 2009 Broadway production and played to sold out audiences in the 2012 London production. The present National Tour is the London staging. Charles Edwards and Jemima Rooper from the London cast are recreating the roles of Charles Condimine and Elvira.

Noel Coward wrote the play in one week during a visit in Wales where he had gone to escape the German Blitz of 1941. It opened one month later and ran for 1,997 performances.  It is a delightful comedy-fantasy-farce set in pre-war1937. Charles Condomine, a twice-married novelist living with his 2nd wife Ruth in an elegant English Manor home (Set by Simon Higlett) is doing research for a new mystery book. He arranges for Madame Arcati (Angela Lansbury)the  local spiritual medium and suspected charlatan, to perform a séance. Dr. and Mrs. Bradman (Simon Jones and Sandra Shipley), having shared a pre-séance dinner served by klutzy maid Edith (diminutive, hilarious Susan Louise O’Connor), remain for the séance expecting a bit of fun at Madame Arcati’s expense.

While in a trance during the séance Madam Arcati unwittingly conjures ups the ghost of Charles’ dead wife Elvira. Only Charles can see and converse with Elvira and the fun begins. Conniving Elvira has ulterior motives. The major one is that she wants Charles for herself in the ‘other world’.  The fact that he is married to Ruth is no obstacle to her machinations. Eventually both Charles and Ruth want Elvira to return to her rightful place. . . away from their home and back to the netherworld. Unfortunately Madame Arcati is unable to oblige the Condemines.

The fact that only Charles can see Elvira allows Coward to write some witty bits of dialog between Charles and Elvira that are misinterpreted by Ruth who becomes hysterically distraught. Things go from bad to worse when the selfish and spoiled Elvira, with murder in her heart, decides to sabotage Charles’s marriage to Ruth. Hilarious wildness ensues with surprising plot twists and disastrous results that keep the audience enthralled. Charles Edwards, Charlotte Parry and Jemima Rooper are pitch-perfect in their acting, dialog and physical interaction.

The main character is not Madame Arcati, although actors covet playing the role that is designed to steal scenes. Angela Lansbury is perfect for the part and director Blakemore has created stage action for her that bring down the house. An example is the ritual prancing she performs in preparation for her trance that is stylistic and farcical bringing gales of laughter and applause.  Blakemore’s directional skills carry over to every actor with some of the best reserved for Susan Louise O’Connor’s performance as Edith.

The richly appointed setting of the play designed by Simon Higlett is a book-lined drawing room, with fireplace and ubiquitous wide French doors with billowing sheer curtains. What happens to that tidy set in the final scene is shocking. Not to be outdone by the acting, directing and sets are Katherine Roth’s costume designs and Martin Pakledinaz specific costumes for Lansbury’s Madame Arcati that earn their own accolades.

The play is performed in two acts with written projections informing us where and when each scene takes place. Running time is two hours and 30 minutes including a 15 minute intermission. This is a must see play.

Cast: Angela Lansbury as Madame Arcati; Charles Edwards as Charles Condomine; Jemima Rooper as Elvira; Charlotte Parry as Ruth Condomine; Simon Jones as Dr. Bradman; Susan Louise O’Connor as Edith and Sandra Shipley as Mrs. Bradman.

Creative Staff: Simon Higlett, scenic and costume designs;  (Lansbury’s costume designs are by Martin Pakledinaz); Mark Jonathan, lighting design;  Ben and Max Ringham, sound design; John Atherlay, stage manager.. 

Kedar Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagzzine.com

The Anarchist: Psychological Drama by David Mamet.  Directed by John Fisher. Theatre Rhinoceros, Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson Street, between Front & Battery, SF, CA Box office: www.TheRhino.org or 1-800-838-3006 (24-hour ticket Hotline).

January 2 – 17, 2015 – Limited Engagement – 15 Performances Only!

Two powerful performers salvage a murky The Anarchist by The Rhino. [rating:3]

David Mamet is an accepted master as a playwright and has received, nay earned, all the prizes heaped on his body of work. His star ascended in 1975 with the premiere of Sexual Perversity in Chicago, continued in 1975 with American Buffalo. Other well-known titles of his voluminous body of work include Glengarry Glen Ross, Speed the Plow, Oleanna and Race, all of which have been produced in the Bay Area. He has not always been given accolades and his Faustus that had its world premiere at the Magic in 2004 was a colossal bomb and apparently never seeing another production.

The latest Mamet play to reach San Francisco is The Anarchist now in a limited engagement at the Eureka Theatre under the auspices of The Rhino Theatre organization.  The decision for The Rhino and their noted Artistic Director John Fisher to stage this two-hander play raises questions even though it is extremely well performed by Velina Brown and Tamar Cohn and thoughtfully directed by Fisher. If Patti Lapone and Debra Winger could not garner favorable reviews on Broadway in 2012 where the play lasted only 17 performances what convinced Fisher to mount it here?

Like Oleanna it is a verbal battle between two discordant characters that lasts bout 80 minutes and has a gut-kicker ending. Whereas Oleanna involved a university professor and his graduate student, The Anarchist involves a lesbian prison inmate Cathy (Cohn) and the warden Ann (Brown). Cathy has been incarcerated for 35 years with consecutive indefinite sentences that is really a life sentence for terrorists’ acts that killed two police guards. The play is based on true acts committed by groups similar to the Weather Underground and the Brinks robbery of 1981 that involved Patty Hearst.

Although parole hearings involve a board with the family of the deceased allowed to speak for or against release, Mamet reduced the board to one with a member of the family off stage with the warden making references to her desires. To make up for the lack of a parole board, Fisher has placed six chairs on each side of stage with audience members sitting there. The central area of the fine stark set by Jon Wai-keung Lowe is uncluttered allowing Fisher to move his two characters around like boxers in a ring with each actor circling for advantage. The advantage is in the language. Mamet puts forth his ideas about crime against the State, the State’s response to those crimes and the damage inflicted on humanity/individuals and rehabilitation.

Both Velina Brown and Tamar Cohn give bravura performances adding verisimilitude to their   characters and doing justice to Mamet’s intellectual dialog with nary a swear word.

Theatre Rhinoceros is proud that they are “America’s longest running and most adventurous queer theatre that explore both the ordinary and the extraordinary aspects of our queer community. .” The fact that Cathy has a lesbian lover who has not been caught is integral to the plot and is most likely the major reason the play is receiving its West Coast Premiere.

CREATIVE CREW: Director, John Fisher; Stage Manager/Assistant Director, Sarah Young; Scenic/Lighting Designer, Jon Wai-keung Lowe; Costume Designer, Christine U’Ren; Assistant Lighting Designer, Sean Keehan; Sound Designers,        Gene Mocsy, Sarah Young; Graphics/Ads/Photography, David Wilson; Prop Design , John Fisher.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

OUR TOWN by Thornton Wilder. Directed by Susannah Martin. Shotgun Players, Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. (510) 841-6500. www.shotgunplayers.org.

EXTENDED TO JANUARY 25, 2015

Impressive but uneven OUR TOWN by Shotgun Players [rating:4]

Thornton Wilder is best known for his full length play Our Town, but he was also an accomplished master of the short play form, specifically creating shorter works to be staged in spaces such as Shotgun’s Ashby Theatre, with the action taking place with the audience seated on either side of the performing area. Lifelong friends with Gertrude Stein and a mentor to Edward Albee, Thornton Wilder tirelessly experimented with theatrical forms and conventions. In the early 1930s he wrote The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden (1931), which features the first appearance of Wilder’s narrating Stage Manager character (seven years before Our Town was produced). Later he wrote The Long Christmas Dinner” in which he breaks the boundaries of time as we measure it, following 90 years of an extended family’s holiday dinners. Those two conventions foreshadow his magnum opus Our Town that won a Pulitzer Prize and is probably the most popular play still being produced around the world.

The Shotgun Players has put together a fine production of the play adhering to the Wilder’s tenants of bare bones staging with the cast miming the actions, breaking the fourth wall and taking the characters through a 14 year journey. It all takes place in a specific time and place. The Stage Manager tells us that the place is “Grover Corners, New Hampshire – just across the Massachusetts line-   and the day is May 7, 1901.”

Written in three acts, Act 1 introduces “Daily Life”, Act 2 is “Love and Marriage” and Act 3 is “Death and Dying.” The Stage Manager (Madeline H. D. Brown) describes the town and introduces the major and minor characters who have cogent remarks or observations that create a ‘real town’ of the fictional Grover’s Corners. The major characters are the Webbs (Mrs. Webb [Michelle Talgarow], Mr. Webb [Don Wood] and Emily [El Beh]) and Gibbs families (Mrs. Gibbs [Molly Noble], Doc Gibbs [Tim Kniffin] and George Gibbs [Josh Schell]). The denizens of the town are introduced by the Stage Manager who has cogent remarks about each as they enter the acting area. Their entrance and exits are through the audience and up and down the raked seating area, often sitting with the audience.

Director Susannah Martin has grasped Wilder’s intent and inventively moves the actors about drawing the audience into the play. Accolades are earned by (alphabetically) Tim Kniffin, Molly Noble, Josh Schell, Michelle Talgarow, Don Wood and Christine Macomber.  This  reviewer has ambivalent feelings about depicting an androgynous Stage Manager.  This may be to emphasize the universality of Wilder’s play but is not necessary since both males and females have effectively played the role. Madeline H. D. Brown beautifully under-plays the role and does not miss a line but just misses giving superb performance.

One should see this staging since it does justice to Wilder’s concepts of theatre. Running time is 2 hours and 20 minutes with two intermissions.

CAST: MADELINE H.D. BROWN (Stage Manager); EL BEH (Emily Webb); WILEY NAMAN STRASSER (Howie Newsome, Ensemble); MICHELLE TALGAROW (Mrs. Myrtle Webb); MOLLY NOBLE (Mrs. Gibbs); SAM JACKSON(Mrs. Soames, Ensemble); KAREN OFFEREINS (Rebecca Gibbs, Ensemble);TIM KNIFFIN (Dr. Gibbs); VALERIE FACHMAN (Constable Warren, Ensemble); CHRISTINE MACOMBER (Professor Willard, Ensemble); JOSH SCHELL (George Gibbs); CHRISTOPHER W. WHITE (Simon Stimson, Ensemble); ELI WIRTSCHAFTER (Joe/Si Crowell, Sam Craig); DON WOOD (Mr. Webb);

ARTISTIC CREW: SUSANNAH MARTIN (Director);  (NINA BALL (Set Design); HEATHER BASARAB (Lighting Design); ABIGAIL NESSEN BENGSON & SHAUN BENGSON (Music Directon); THEODORE J. H. HULSKER (Sound Designer); KATHERINE BICKFORD (Production Assistant); ANNE KENDALL (Technical Director); KATJA RIVERA (Assistant Director); DEVON LABELLE (Props Designer;) ASHLEY ROGERS (Wardrobe); CHRISTINE CROOK (Costume Designer); ELIZABETH HITCHCOCK-LISLE (Production Manager); HANAH ZAHNER-ISENBERG (Stage Manager & Acting Production Manager; PATRICK DOOLEY (Founding Artistic Director)

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

Michael Arden (center) and the cast of La Jolla Playhouse’s U.S. premiere production of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Musical. Book by Peter Parnell. Music by Alan Menken. Lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. Directed by Scott Schwartz. Choreographed by Chase Brock. Based on the 1831 novel by Victor Hugo. La Jolla Playhouse, Mandell Weiss Theatre, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla, CA (UC San Diego Campus) 858-550-1010 or www.lajollaplayhouse.org. 

October 28 – December 14, 2014

Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame a solid ‘bell ringer.’  [rating:5]

There always has been a theatrical fascination for Victor Hugo’s 1831 novel “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” American film versions began in 1923 in the silent era starring Lon Chaney and in the 1939 talkie with Charles Laughton as Quasimodo and Maureen O’Hara as Esmeralda. In 1956 the French film “Notre-Dame de Paris” was the first to appear in color. The 1996 animated musical film version was produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz. The stage musical with Menken and Schwartz still in control of the music was produced in Germany in 2002 where it played for 3 years.

I predict that the present musical version having its world premiere at the La Jolla Theater in conjunction with New Jersey’s famous Paper Mill Playhouse (March 4 – 29, 2015) before heading to Broadway will have  a similar run. It is a re-working of both the animated film and the stage production under the auspices of Disney Theatrical. They have brought aboard Peter Parnell to revise the book, Scott Schwartz (son to Stephen) to direct and rounded up a superb production crew.

The evening starts with the spectacular opening number “The Bells of Notre Dame” led by Clopin (Erik Liberman) as a narrator and later as King of the Gypsies, to tell parts of the story. The on-stage choral ensemble is the famed local Sacra/Profana.  Parnell has written a brief prolog and we learn that the deformed baby Quasimodo has been sired by the wastrel the brother of Dom Claude Frollo (Patrick Page).When the storyline continues it is years later and Frollo is inculcating the adult Quasimodo (Michel Arden) that his time in the bell tower has been his “Sanctuary.”

When Quasimodo does leave the tower to attend the Feast of Fools (beautifully staged)he is initially allowed to perform before the crowd begins to beat and badger him and Gypsy  Esmeralda (Ciara Renee) intervenes. A deep affection develops between the two. When Phoebus (Andrew Samonsky) arrives to arrest Esmeralda he like Frollo is infatuated with her. Frollo’s infatuation turns to sexual obsession and in a fit of rage he orders the destruction of the Gypsies and the Court of Miracles.

Each major character has a leitmotif that is carried throughout the show in either words or music. Quasimodo’s is the plaintive “Out There” (a re-wording of the original “Up There”) expressing his desire to see life outside the tower even though he is on “Top of the World.” For Frollo the theme is expressed in “Hellfire” and for Esmeralda it is emphasized with “God Help the Outcasts” and “Someday.” For Phoebus it is “Rest and Recreation” and for the fictitious patron Saint Aphordisius ( Neil Mayer) it is “Flight into Egypt.”

Michael Arden turns in a heart touching performance as Quasimodo using his marvelous tenor voice to accentuate the torment built into his twisted body. Ciara Renee’s beauty and stage presence creates an Esmeralda that believably would torment Frollo turning him into a monster. Patrick Page is able to modulate his powerful baritone voice displaying menace with a touch of vulnerability giving a stunning fully rounded performance.

Ciara Renée (center) and the cast of La Jolla Playhouse’s U.S. premiere production of THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME

The total production is mesmerizing, adroitly directed by Scott Schwartz with exciting choreography (Chase Brock), superb choral arrangements and just the right amount of humor to take the edge off a dark story.  Running time 2 hours an 20 minute with an intermission.

FEATURING: Michael Arden as Quasimodo; Patrick Page as Dom Claude Frollo; Ciara Renee as Esmeralda;  Andrew Samonsky as Captain Phoebus de Martin; Erik Liberman as Clopin Trouillefou; Neal Mayer as Saint Aphrodisius; Ian Patrick as Lieutenant Frederic Charles. Sacra/Profana choral ensemble.

ARTISTIC STAFF: Scott Schwartz, director; Chase Brock, choreographer; Michael Kosarin, music supervisor and arranger; Brent-Alan Huffman, music director; Michael Starobin, orchestrator;  Alexander Dodge, scenic designer; Alejo Vietti, costume designer; Howell Binkley, lighting designer; Gareth Owen, sound designer and M. William Shiner, production stage manager.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternnetmagazine.com

Photos by Kevin Berne

Thea Brooks (Lucy), EuriamisLosada (Ricky), Kevin Remington (Fred), and Lori Hammel (Ethel), in I LOVE LUCY® LIVE ON STAGE. PHOTO BY: Ed Krieger

I LOVE LUCY® LIVE ON STAGE: Comedy.  Adapted for the Stage and with new material byKim Flagg and Rick Sparks.Staged and directed by Rick Sparks. SHN Curran Theatre, 445 Geary St, San Francisco, CA.www.shnsf.com  and 888-746-1799.

November 11, 2014 – November 23, 2014

I Love Lucy: Live on Stage is hilarious nostalgic look at 1952 TV icons. [rating:5]

I Love Lucy: Live on Stage had its beginnings in the year 2000 as an exhibition that traveled around the country to state and county fairs called “I Love Lucy 50^th Anniversary Experience.” It was so successful it became the seed for the stage show that is producing gales of laughter and applause at the Curran Theatre.  It is cleverly wrapped up with the theatre audience witnessing the live taping of two episodes of I Love Lucy TV show at the Desilu Playhouse soundstage.

For the younger generation unfamiliar with black and white TV, I Love Lucy shows starred husband and wife team red-headed Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez as Lucy and Ricky Ricardo. Their neighbors were Fred and Ethel Mertz who drifted in an out of the storylines.  The two episodes selected for the play are “The Benefit” and “Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined.” 

In “The Benefit” no talent Lucy (Thea Brooks) agrees to coax talented singer/band leader Ricky (Euriamis Losada) into performing at Ethel’s (Lori Hammel) Fine Arts Club benefit. The stipulation being that she, Lucy, would share the spotlight.  Lucy’s rehearsing to improve her non-melodious voice is actually ear piercing since she can hardly sing on key. Ricky rigs the performance giving Lucy minimal lines and not equal billing. No one turns the table on Lucy who steals the punch lines and the duet ends on a happy note.

In the second episode, “Lucy Has Her Eyes Examined,” Ricky invites a producer home to dinner. Lucy, Ethel and Fred (Kevin Remington) discover the producer will be auditioning for a new Broadway show. Lucy, Ethel and Fred are not to be denied their chance for fame. Lucy hires a jitterbug teacher (fantastic Richard Strimer) and they put together an acrobatic dance that has the audience cheering with Ricky’s terrific band as backup. Ethel and full-bodied Fred in a lavender outfit are a kick and a holler with their “Varsity Drag” song and dance. When the eye doctor puts drops in Lucy’s eyes that blur her vision, the audition dance becomes hysterically hazardous.

Although the interaction between all involved in each episode is terrific comedy, the fill in between scenes involve commercials that almost steal the show. Members of the Crystaltone Singers are superlative with their over-the-top renditions of the jingle-driven commercials for Brylcreem, Alka-Seltzer, Halo shampoo and Chevrolets. Then too you can enjoy (or laugh at) the1950s costumes that are changed for almost every scene. The women of a certain age will surely ask, “Did I wear that?!!”

Euriamis Losada (Ricky Ricardo) and the company of the national tour of I LOVE LUCY® LIVE ON STAGE. Photo: Hyra George

Added to all this is the fine singing of the Euriamis Losada and the terrific Tropicana Nightclub Latin Band complete with drummers pounding bongos that appear at appropriate intervals.  The 90 minutes without intermission flies by. Highly recommended.

CAST: Thea Brooks as Lucy Ricardo; EuriamisLosada as Ricky Ricardo;    Kevin Remington as Fred Mertz;Lori Hammel as Ethel Mertz. With Sara Jayne Blackmore, Sarah Elizabeth Combs, Gregory Franklin, Jody Madaras, Carlos Martin, Denise Moses, Cindy Sciacca, Kami Seymour, Richard Strimer, Mark Christopher Tracy.

THE BAND: Andy Belling, Musical Director, Conductor and First Keyboard; Bryan Miller, Alternate Conductor, Second Keyboard and Conga;            Ron Barrows, Trumpet; Dave Lotfi, Drums/Conga; David Olivas, Saxophone and Flute;       Nicholas Stankus, Banjo and Bass

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com

Thea Brooks (Lucy), EuriamisLosada (Ricky), Kevin Remington (Fred), and Lori Hammel (Ethel), in I LOVE LUCY® LIVE ON STAGE. PHOTO BY: Ed Krieger

Michaela Greeley as A; Terry Bamberger as B; Katharine Otis  as C; Nathan Brown as The Boy in Custom Made’s production of  Edward Albee’s Three Tall Women

Three Tall Women: Drama by Edward Albee. Directed by Katja Rivera. Custom Made Theatre Company, Gough Street Playouse,1620 Gough St. (at Bush), San Francisco, CA 94109. Gough Street Playhouse is attached to the historic Trinity Episcopal Church. 510-207-5774 or www.custommade.org.  November 11 – December 7, 2014

Three Tall Women an engrossing voyeuristic journey at Custom Made [rating: 4]

Bay Area theatre-goers know that Custom Made Theatre Company does not shy away from producing difficult plays and in this reviewer’s experience they occasionally fall short of excellence. That is not so with their latest mounting of Three Tall Women, Edward Albee’s demanding Pulitzer Prize winning play. It is well cast and well directed with a couple of minor caveats and will keep your attention for the two hours (not including the intermission) it plays out on the stage.

The play is semi-autobiographical with an intriguing construction alone worthy of accolades. Albee has brought to life the dead past and in doing so exorcised his own demons. The “three tall women” are reincarnations of the same character, his adoptive mother A (superb Michaela Greeley ) is his dying senile, forgetful  at age 92, having conversation with herself  B at middle age (great understated performance by Terry Bamberger) and her 27 year old self C (Katherine Otis).

Remembrances of things past are often faulty. Each recollects, with intensity and occasionally with unexpected spontaneous humor, the events that shaped the personality of each to become what they were at the three stages of their lives. Albee, the adoptive son, has created a non-speaking part for himself as The Boy (Nathan Brown) who shows up to see the dying/dead A. After a confrontation with B, he had ‘deserted” the family at age 21 not returning until the impending death of A.

Act one is basically a monolog for the infirm A with B and C as sounding boards for her faulty yet cogent memory. You need not be familiar with Albee’s life to appreciate the turmoil within the family. Albee’s superlative play construction and use of dialog completely fills in the three stages of the women’s lives and brings to life his one-eyed adoptive womanizing father whose proclivities have been disastrous for B.

Act two takes place with A dead in bed as the three women continue their verbal interaction. At this point, Albee fills in the development of B and C with A as the sounding board and occasionally the voice of reason. At times B and C seek approval from the audience and one might wonder if it is a directorial conceit or written into the script. No matter, either way it works.  The only caveat might be the over-acting of Katherine Otis that could be attributed to the directing that slightly throws the play off balance.

Stewart Lyle’s fine scenic design and Scarlett Kellum’s costume design are compliment by Hamilton Guillén’s varied lighting design that fades in and out reflecting shifts in time also between fact and fancy. Three Tall Women is another winner for Custom Made.

Cast: Michaela Greeley as A; Terry Bamberger B; Katharine Otis  as C; Nathan Brown as The Boy.

Staff/Crew: Katja Rivera, Director; Melissa Costa, Stage Manager/Props Design; Stewart Lyle, Scenic Design; Hamilton Guillén, Lighting Design; Scarlett Kellum, Costume Design; Liz Ryder, Sound Design.

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com.

The cast of Broadway’s CHICAGO.
Photo by Jeremy

CHICAGO, The Musical: Book by Fred Ebb and Bob Fosse. Music by John Kander and lyrics by Fred Ebb. SHN Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market at Hyde Street, San Francisco.

www.shnsf.com  or 888-746-1799.  NOVEMBER 7 – 16, 2014

CHICAGO the Musical lights up the Orpheum Stage. [rating: 3]

When Chicago, The Musical burst onto the Broadway stage in 1976, the opening number “All That Jazz” had finger snapping Chita Rivera as Velma leading the ensemble. Her costars were Gwen Verdon as Roxie Hart and Jerry Orbach as Billy Flynn. The Tony Award winning 1997 revival was equally populated with stars including Ann Reinking, Bebe Neuwirth and James Naughton. The not-to-be-out-done movie version included Catherine Zeta-Jones, Renée Zellweger and Richard Gere. It was nominated for a slew of awards winning the Best Picture Award. In that movie, that is still fresh in the minds of many, accolades went to John C. Reilly as Amos Hart and Queen Latifah as Matron “Mama” Morton.

Following such an illustrious group of actors this national road show is at a disadvantage since their time on stage will be compared with the previous unforgettable performances. Even though most of the starring cast performs with class and superb energy the total evening was marred by second level characters that are designed to compliment the leads and add raucous humor to the proceedings.

Humor is paramount to the show since it is a satire of the judicial system and sad reflection on the prohibition era populous of Chicago that cheered for basically unsavory (but maybe loveable in a macabre sort of way) characters. The first baddy we meet in prison is Velma Kelly (Terra C. MacLeod) who murdered both her husband and her sister when she found them in bed together. She welcomes the audience singing and dancing (finger snapping) with “All That Jazz” and a great ensemble backup.

Next up we meet, married in name only to Amos (Jacob Keith Watson), Roxie Hart (Bianca Marroquin),  who pumps multiple bullets into her lover who is going to leave her. She is thrown into the hoosegow controlled by Matron “mama” Morton (Roz Ryan ) who, for the right price, can get the ‘girls’ anything they wish. “Mama”, despite the consternation of Zelma arranges for Roxie to be defended by notoriously successful handsome lawyer Billy Flynn (John O’Hurley).

Before that happens the ‘girls’ tell their stories in the hilarious grotesque “Cell Block Tango”.  Billy makes his gala entrance with a Busby Berkeley type dance number replete with huge white feathered fans manipulated by the girls in “All I Care About [is love]). The final main character is news/radio reporter Marry Sunshine (C. Newcomer) whose external personality is sung with “A Little Bit of Good.’

The story line is carried out in appropriately named songs with a plethora of energetic dances with Roxie and Velma physically intertwining with the ensemble keeping a fast and furious pace. In Act 2 there is another Billy/John O’Hurley production number with the girls that is the marvelous “Razzle Dazzle.” The penultimate dance of the evening by  our two female stars “Hot Honey Rag” allows you to leave the theatre with a bounce in your step.

Terra C. MacLeod’s Velma is really great and outshines Bianca Marroquin’s Roxie. Roz Ryan is miscast as Matron “mama” Morton and seems embarrassed in her duet with MacLeod of “Class.”  Jacob Keith Watson plays nerdy Amos to perfection but is misdirected in his solo “Mister Cellophane” that should be a show stopper. As for C. Newcomer as Mary Sunshine, all is not what it seems.

Even with all the caveats the show is well worth visiting or revisiting. The dancing, staging and lighting with the excellent 15 piece onstage band are excellent. Running time 2 hours and 15 minutes with an intermission.

Cast: Bianca Marroquin as Roxie Hart, Terra C. MacLeod as Velma, John O’Hurley as Billy, Jacob Keith Watson as Amos, Roz Ryan as “Mama”, C. Newcomer as Mary Sunshine.

Artistic Staff:  Supervising Music Director, Rob Fisher; Music Director, Robert Billig

Scenic Design, John Lee Beatty; Costume Design, William Ivey Long; Lighting Design, Ken Billington; Sound Design, Scott Lehrer; Orchestrations  , Ralph Burns ; Dance Music Arrangements, Peter Howard; Choreographer Original New York Production, Ann Reinking, in the style of Bob Fosse; Re-creation of Original Production Choreography by David Bushman; Director Original New York Production, Walter Bobbie; Re-creation of Original Production, Direction by David Hyslop

Kedar K. Adour, MD

Courtesy of www.theatreworldinternetmagazine.com.