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Mar 09 2025
Love0

Play in Santa Rosa crammed with gags, sexuality, insightful opinions

By Woody Weingarten No Comments

Clyde (Shanay Howell) weaponizes a kitchen knife in comedy at the 6th St. Playhouse. (All photos by Eric Chazankin.)

By Woody Weingarten

Clyde’s, at the 6th St. Playhouse in Santa Rosa through March 23, is a sneaky little devil of a play.

Sandwiched between frequent effervescent sight and verbal gags and a generous helping of street slang mixed with overt sexuality, you can discover layers of caustic but insightful opinions.

The Pennsylvania greasy spoon of the title is a work haven for ex-cons, most of whom regret the reason for their incarceration and yearn for a second chance to become more fully realized human beings.

How do the felons aim to achieve that? Believe it or not, by creating the perfect gourmet sandwich — onstage — despite the truckdriver clientele preferring simple turkey on rye.

Love, anger. Teasing, testiness. Thoughtfulness, spite. All are menu ingredients.

Added in are pinches of racial inequities and pain.

And sporadic munching by the six-member cast.

Light throwaway lines like “Now you’re disrespecting the lettuce” and “Don’t say that — she can hear through walls” are precursors to serious tidbits such as “I can’t walk down the street without feeling like everyone’s hating on me” and “Just ‘cause you left prison, don’t think you’re outta prison.”

Shanay Howell instills in sandwich shop-owner Clyde more piss and vinegar than you might imagine, all the while popping her eyes, pouting her mouth, and exaggeratedly strutting flirtatiously so viewers can’t help but laugh.

Nate Musser portrays Jason, a homeless dude dotted with white supremacy face and arm tattoos whose vitriol knows no limits but who can also draw humor from slapstick postures and soften like room-temperature butter when a scene calls for that attitude.

Jason (Nate Musser) rests his head on chest of Montrellous, who gives him a healing hug.

And Tajai Jaxon Britten re-creates Montrellous, resident philosopher with a sonorous voice and a Zen attitude, as someone to emulate.

Meanwhile, director Marty Pistone resembles a conductor timing multiple instruments to end on the same micro-dot — in this parallel case, when characters excitedly talk over each other and then stop abruptly.

Intermittent music, mainly staccato drumbeats orchestrated by sound designer Laurynn Malilay during the blackouts between frequent brief scenes, acts as a perfect accompaniment.

The set designed by Bruce Lackovic also deserves praise for seamlessly blending real and simulated kitchen equipment.

Cast of Clyde’s are tickled by blurb in a local newspaper.

Have you ever stumbled on a hole-in-the-wall that can dish out melt-in-your-mouth food? Or a place that could satisfy your food-for-thought cravings? Whether or not your answer is “yes,” you might want to taste-test Clyde’s.

Not every performance of the fast-paced 90-minute play by two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Lynn Nottage, is sold out. That, truly, is a shame.

Clyde’s will play on the Monroe Stage of the 6th St. Playhouse, 52 W. 6th St., Santa Rosa, through March 23. Tickets: $29 to $47.95. Info: 707-523-4185 or https://6thstreetplayhouse.com.

Sherwood “Woody” Weingarten, a longtime member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.netor on his websites,

Feb 16 2025
Love0

Waste packs 1906 society’s ills into play paralleling today’s woes

By Woody Weingarten

Amy O’Connell (Liz Sklar) and Henry Trebell (Lance Gardner) contemplate an affair in Marin Theatre’s Waste. Photo by Chris Hardy.

 

By WOODY WEINGARTEN

It’s practically impossible to get away with cramming an excess of philosophical discussions into one drama.

Like abortion, adultery, misogyny, reproductive rights, scandal, suicide, public education, corruption and back-stabbing politics, and church and state morality.

But Carey Perloff, who for years was artistic director at the American Conservatory Theatre, has used a shoehorn to slide all of them into a 119-year-old British play almost seamlessly. She makes sure the accents hold; facial expressions, body language, and timing remain on target; lines sprinkled here and there to elicit laughter do so; and wave-like high and low vocal pitches preclude audience members nodding off.

The director/adaptor apparently could do little, however, about taking playwright Harley Granville-Barker’s 2½ talky hours (plus intermission) to slothfully reach the presumptive climax, which is predictable and therefore anti-climactic.

Waste is both the one-word title and descriptive reference point in the text to a multiplicity of subjects (including the brittleness of human lives).

Lance Gardner, Marin Theatre’s artistic director, paints a flawless onstage portrait of the heavily flawed main character, Henry Trebell, a politician who faces a series of emotional and real hurdles while hoping to eviscerate (“disestablish”) the Church of England.

Gardner, a Shakespearean-quality actor, hasn’t acted in years but must have ridden a theatrical bicycle — his ability to memorize roughly 4,672 lines in conjunction with the audience’s standing-ovation seem to demand he continue his sterling dual roles offstage and on.

Lord Horsham (Daniel Cantor) listens to Justin O’Connell (Joseph O’Malley) as Henry Trebell(Lance Gardner) enters the room and Charles Cantelupe (Anthony Fusco) looks on in Waste. Photo by Chris Hardy. 
He is supported by a nine-member cast that’s professional in every way: stiffly 
Edwardian when appropriate; chewing up the scenery when it’s called for; using 
extreme mugging or body language to convey attitude.

Kudos particularly belong to Liz Sklar (who plays Amy O’Connell, a fragile, conflicted woman on the prowl who repeatedly talks about her “right to choose”); Joseph O’Malley (sharply doubling as Walter Kent, Henry’s scaredy cat secretary, and Justin, Amy’s cuckolded husband); Anthony Fusco (Charles Cantelupe, a blustering church leader); Jomar Tagatac (Dr. Wedgecroft, confidant and friend to Henry, whom the medicine man calls a “visionary”); and Daniel Cantor (Lord Horsham, the cigar-puffing, incoming prime minister).

Noteworthy, too, is the singular angled set, Arnel Sancianco’s large cube with elongated horizontal openings on two sides, perhaps a visual reference to the many dualities in the text.

Waste was banned immediately after its 1906 debut because it deals with adultery and abortion. It was not produced again until three decades later — in a watered-down version. Its themes, however, are parallel to many of today’s dilemmas, and surely Perloff was happy to direct the original narrative for that very reason.

If your buttocks can handle the slow pacing and the fact that any hint of action takes place offstage, and if your mind has the capacity to permanently switch to on, go. If not, there are many mindless Family Feud, Law and Order, and Blue Bloods reruns waiting on your flat screen at home.

Waste plays at Marin Theatre, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley, through March 2. Tickets: $30 to $85. Info: 415-388-5208 or MarinTheatre.org.

Sherwood “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://vitalitypress.com

Feb 12 2025
Love0

Left Edge Theatre’s ‘Motherf– with the Hat’ is funny, heartrending

By Woody Weingarten

by Woody Weingarten, Bay City News   February 10, 2025

L-R, Sergio Diaz, Danny Bañales and Isiah Carter are among the excellent cast in Left Edge Theatre’s production of “The Motherf—- with the Hat” in Santa Rosa through Feb. 22. (Courtesy Dana Hunt/Left Edge Theatre via Bay City News)

Jackie, who dreams of settling down with Veronica, an addict, spies a man’s hat on her nightstand.

“That ain’t my hat,” he growls, and gets fired up to do battle—with her, the owner of the headgear and his own inner demons.

The difference between Romeo and Juliet and the star-crossed Puerto Rican lovers in Stephen Adly Guirgis’ “The Motherf—- with the Hat,” onstage in a Left Edge Theatre production in Santa Rosa, is that Shakespeare’s tragedy focuses on unadulterated young love, while “Mother” is seen through a prism of love desecrated by drugs, alcohol and sexual cheating.

“Motherf—-,” which packs a wallop, is devilishly funny in the first act (an early scene has Jackie sniffing their hand-me-down bed to find smells of betrayal). Yet it’s a poignant and heartrending unfunny drama in the second (“We’re broken,” insists Veronica).

This tragicomedy can’t help but make you think. Each of the dysfunctional, multidimensional

characters—all perhaps difficult to relate to for those who didn’t grow up with their kind of people or toyed with their kind of twisted morality—has complex depth, despite the torrent of f-bombs.

L-R, Danny Bañales and Mercedes Murphy appear in Left Edge Theatre’s “The Motherf—- with the Hat” onstage in Santa Rosa through Feb. 22, 2025. (Courtesy Dana Hunt/Left Edge Theatre via Bay City News)

They lie while craving honesty. All swear with abandon and relish sex as if it were the only life-force worth considering. All the while, they’re on mostly futile quests for loving relationships.

The play offers philosophical tidbits while spewing language of the streets. Yet there’s still room for a line like, “It’s funny how a person can be more than one thing, ain’t it?” Or for a woman to describe her man as having “a PhD in self-loathing” or to say about herself, “I’ve got about 10 minutes more of gravity before it all comes crashing down.”

Directed by Serena Elize Flores, The Left Edge cast is notable.

Danny Bañales artfully, and with deft slapstick, plays Jackie, a parolee alcoholic who struggles physically and mentally. Mercedes Murphy passionately portrays Veronica as someone who can’t help going past the red lines society has imposed on her. Isiah Carter is robust as Ralph D, the sensitive, 12-step sponsor who befriends Jackie. Grace Kent as Victoria, Ralph D’s frustrated wife, is filled with dichotomies. Sergio Diaz is Jackie’s gay, sex-addicted cousin Julio, a guy hell-bent on proving his manhood.

The 105-minute (plus-intermission) show is a rarity. It features fleeting male nudity and avoids female nudity. But its mainstay is naked emotion. In the final analysis, that’s nothing to laugh at.

“The Motherf—- with the Hat” continues through Feb. 22 at Left Edge Theatre, 528 Seventh St., Santa Rosa. Tickets are $33 to $44 at leftedgetheatre.com.  

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

Sherwood “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://vitalitypress.com

Feb 04 2025
Love0

6th Street Playhouse’s ‘Groundhog Day: The Musical’ is whimsical fun

By Woody Weingarten
POSTED INARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Review: 6th Street Playhouse’s ‘Groundhog Day: The Musical’ is whimsical fun

by Woody Weingarten, Bay City News  February 4, 2025

“Groundhog Day: The Musical,” a fun show based on the popular movie, runs at 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa through Feb. 23. (Photo by Eric Chazankin/Courtesy 6th Street Playhouse via Bay City News) 

“Groundhog Day: the Musical” is a well-acted whimsical romp…
“Groundhog Day: the Musical” is a well-directed whimsical romp…
“Groundhog Day: the Musical” is a well-written whimsical romp…
…despite its intentional time-loop repetition.

The 6th St. Playhouse production in Santa Rosa is decidedly edgier, darker and more sexualized than the smash 1993 film starring Bill Murray about a nasty weatherman assigned to cover Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, who finds his humanity after getting trapped in a time warp.

Nelson Brown plays weatherman Phil Connors in 6th Street Playhouse’s “Groundhog Day: The Musical.” (Photo by Eric Chazankin/Courtesy 6th Street Playhouse)

Nelson Brown, who alternates in the Phil Connors lead role with Garet Waterhouse, absolutely owns the stage. His frantic physical-comedy chops are extraordinary, and his voice is potent, too. Michelle Pagano as Rita Hanson, his female foil, plays her part much straighter, but has exquisite vocal cords.

Nelson Brown plays weatherman Phil Connors and Michelle Pagano is Rita Hanson in 6th Street Playhouse’s “Groundhog Day: The Musical.” (Photo by Eric Chazankin/Courtesy 6th Street Playhouse)

Ted Smith, who portrays insurance peddler Ned Ryerson, surprises with a soulful voice in his only solo, the plaintive “Night Will Come.”

A multi-racial chorus of singers in all shapes and sizes acquits itself well by starting and finishing together all the time.

Laughter from the audience occasionally drowns out a line or two, with the heartiest guffaws stemming from clever use of a vehicle that redefines minivan; three raucous drunks in a jeep; small dolls that stand in for a groundhog, a newborn, and a pooch.

But there’s a plethora of other gags. Director David Lear not only draws every possible chuckle from them, but he also creates awesome abbreviated, strobe-enhanced scenes and ensures music and lyrics by Tim Minchin and book by Danny Rubin are skillfully delivered.

The production successfully utilizes projections of falling snow and a speedway, and other highlights include cast members marching up the aisles of the cozy theater, a magnificent upbeat eight-person tap dance choreographed by Karen Miles, and a backstage seven-piece orchestra of live musicians led by Lucas Sherman.

Flaws? The first act is a bit sluggish. Occasional lyrics are muffled. Not much to gripe about.

Multiple words can define “Groundhog Day: The Musical.” Try one of these: bouncy, goofy, fun.
Multiple words can define “Groundhog Day: The Musical.” Try one of these: bouncy, edgy, fun.
Multiple words can define “Groundhog Day: The Musical.” Try one of these: bouncy, amusing, fun.

“Groundhog Day: The Musical” continues through Feb. 23 at 6th Street Playhouse, 52 W. Sixth St., Santa Rosa. Tickets are $29 to $55.95 at 6thstreetplayhouse.com.

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

 

Sherwood “Woody” Weingarten, a longtime member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theater Critics Circle, can be contacted by email at voodee@sbcglobal.netor on his websites, https://woodyweingarten.com and https://vitalitypress.com

 

Dec 21 2023
Love0

Pick! ASR Film ~~ ‘The Crime Is Mine’ — French Screwball Satire Carves Up Justice, Feminism

By Woody Weingarten

By Woody Weingarten

Screwball comedies satirizing traditional love stories peaked in the early 1940s — after having begun to gain popularity during the Great Depression.

New examples of that romantic comedy sub-genre would manage to pop up every few years thereafter, but they’d usually fail to be as funny or polished as those of yesteryear.

But now comes The Crime Is Mine, a French-language satire (with subtitles, of course) that stands up with the best of them. The one-hour, 42-minute film time-warps back to 1930s Paris and provides a Duisenberg-speed storyline that repeatedly twists and turns as it focuses on a sexy, penniless actress who figures she can become famous by confessing to a murder she didn’t commit.

 … “The Crime Is Mine” ain’t subtle, but delightfully tasty it is …

Scheduled for release on Christmas Day by Music Box Films, the flick lays onto the marvelous comedy, an equally marvelous carving up of feminism, the class system, show biz antics, and courtroom machinations.

In the final analysis, though, within weeks after watching the movie, you’re likely not only to have forgotten slices of the plotline but exactly who is who, especially when it comes to lesser characters such as the judge, the prosecutor, the police inspector, and a boyfriend (even though all are amusing) and exactly what who said to whom.

Nadia Tereskiewicz merrily plays blonde bombshell Madeleine Verdier, a talent-less wannabe who desperately craves stardom and her close-up. She’s aided in her quest for fame by her brunette BFF and starving garret roomie, Pauline Mauléon (played by Rebecca Marder), a young lawyer with no other clients who launches a campaign based on the notion of self-defense against sexual assault.

Supporting their skillful acting chops is Isabelle Huppert, a French icon who, while chomping on the scenery, portrays silent film star Odette Chaumette, the real killer turned blackmailer.

All the main characters, each of whom is self-serving, mug a lot (except the murdered producer) — and every now and then, Madeleine’s combined flightiness and earthiness may remind a filmgoer of Renee Zellweger playing Roxie Hart in Chicago.

 … Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 100% rating

François Ozon’s direction of this adaptation of a 1934 stage play is almost as perfect. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a 100% rating with 22 credits so far.

With humor ranging from dry to frivolously farce-like, it’s virtually impossible not to like the film—whether or not you can relate to kooky but intelligent women who easily outmaneuver the men in their lives.

The Crime Is Mine ain’t subtle, but delightfully tasty it is — a cinematic soufflé that never falls.

-30-

ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/

Production The Crime is Mine
Directed by François Ozon
Run Dates Opens December 25, 2023
Venues TBA
Reviewer Score Max in each category is 5//5
Overall 4.25/5
Performance 4.25/5
Script 4/5
Pick? YES!

This story was first published on https://aisleseatreview.com, which publishes independent views and reviews on Bay Area arts, destinations, and lifestyle.

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://vitalitypress.com.

Dec 05 2023
Love0

‘Title of Show’ is OMG! terrific at Santa Rosa’s Left Edge Theatre

By Woody Weingarten

Excellent in Left Edge Theatre’s amusing [title of show] are (from left)Jonathan Blue and Michael Girts. (Courtesy Dana Hunt/Left Edge Theatre)

Then in 2004, two self-described “nobodies from New York” concocted a hilarious autobiographical musical that depicts how two gay buddies wrote a successful four-character play in three weeks (with the aid of two lesbian actress friends) to enter a festival competition.

Their concoction — titled “[title of show]” and detailing every step of what they did (including the use of insipid dialogue from their everyday-speak) — is running at the Left Edge Theatre in Santa Rosa. It’s worth the trip there.

Director-choreographer Serena Elize Flores has created an almost flawless two-act, two-hour version with four superb actor-singers that guarantees you’ll laugh (or at least chortle) a lot at both the clever wordplay and the physical horseplay and mugging.

Jonathan Blue beautifully portrays music-and-lyrics composer Jeff Bowen and Michael Girts does equally well as Hunter Bell, who wrote the book. Both utilize usually broad (and occasionally subtle) expressions that can’t help but entertain. Eating a hot dog, for example, becomes Hunter’s elongated gag in which a mouthful of food becomes a mouthful of giggles for the audience.

The guys’ gal-pal muses are deftly conjured by Molly Larsen-Shine as glorious-voiced Heidi, a wannabe Broadway star relegated to understudy roles, who temps and caters to pay the rent, and Rosie Frater as Susan, who labels her day job as “corporate whore.”

Playing the foursome working on a new musical in Left Edge Theatre’s [title of show] are (from left) Michael Girts, Jonathan Blue, Rosie Frater and Molly Larsen-Shine. (Courtesy Dana Hunt/Left Edge Theatre) 

Language in the show can be prickly, to say the least, with scads of gay and sexual references — all played for laughs.

Repeated bits evoke wide grins, such as: when Jeff condescendingly corrects Hunter’s dance steps and language (“It’s redundant, ATM stands for automated teller machine so you’re saying automated teller machine machine”); when one of the women suggests having the two fellas as her “maids of honor”; when big names are dropped as they mull who’ll star in their show (would you believe Paris Hilton?); when cast members come up with monikers for drag queens (Lady Footlocker, as a for-instance); and when Playbills from a gazillion forgotten Broadway flops are projected onto two vertical screens onstage.

The showstopping song is “Die, Vampire, Die!” a spectacular, incisive look by Susan (and the three others) at fighting inner demons and not compromising when it comes to creativity.

But highly likeable, too, are “An Original Musical,” a comic duet featuring Jeff with Hunter wearing a ludicrous costume as a sheet of blank paper on which they write their original show for the New York Musical Theatre Festival; “I Am Playing Me,” an ideal showcase for Heidi; as well as “Change It, Don’t Change It/Awkward Photo Shoot” and “Nine People’s Favorite Thing” (“I’d rather be nine people’s favorite thing than 100 people’s ninth favorite thing”), both exuberantly mimed and sung by all four performers.

There is no slick scenery design. The set consists of black walls, two upholstered, plastic-covered chairs, two bare-boned others, and an old-fashioned dial phone on top of a stool.

Nothing else in the show, in which the characters continuously deconstruct reality, disappoints.

Left Edge’s “[title of show]” deserves bigger audiences. The musical comedy, which took two years to travel from the New York Musical Theatre Festival to off-Broadway (where the real Hunter and Jeff each won an Obie) and then another two for a crack at the Great White Way, is great fun and, in fact, OMG! terrific.

Left Edge Theatre’s “[title of show]” continues through Dec. 23 at The California, 528 Seventh St., Santa Rosa. Tickets are $20-$29 atleftedgetheatre.com or (707) 664-7529.

 

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://vitalitypress.com.

Nov 29 2023
Love0

PICK! ASR FILM ~~ ASR Film: Hite Documentary Details Woman Sexologist’s Rapid Rise and Exile

By Woody Weingarten

By Woody Weingarten

Cancel culture wasn’t a concept in the 1980s, but slinky sexologist Shere Hite became victimized by something exactly like it.

The feminist author of a 600-page 1976 blockbuster, The Hite Report on Female Sexuality, was not only lambasted as a man-hater because of her writings but partially because, being broke, she’d posed nude for Playboy and modeled for paperback covers and ads that objectified women. She was slut-shamed even though that phrase hadn’t been coined either.

Hite became so distraught at her treatment, mostly at the hands of male critics who felt threatened, she ultimately fled from the states to Europe, mainly Britain and Germany, and relinquished her American citizenship.

Now, The Disappearance of Shere Hite, an R-rated biopic by Nicole Newnham, resurrects the researcher’s life by cobbling together frequent rolling texts of her basic material (and a voice-over by actor Dakota Johnson) with sometimes fuzzy newscasts and archival footage, next to interviews with the Missouri-born writer, her ex-lovers, her detractors, and her friends and supporters, including Kate Millett, author of the groundbreaking Sexual Politics, who bemoans Hite’s public erasure and self-exile and points out that the academic social scientist could no longer earn a living in the United States.

Shere Hite as she appears in new documentary. Courtesy of Mike Wilson. An IFC Films release.

The nearly two-hour documentary strikingly shows Hite being ambushed by tabloid-type television journalist Maury Povich, causing her to leave the interview almost as soon as it started (with the interviewer’s aide forcibly trying to stop her), as well as her haughtily blowing smoke in talk show host Mike Douglas’s face, and trying to cope with a rude, all-male Oprah audience that couldn’t wait to take pot-shots at her research.

It further connects disparate items such as Anita Bryant attacking gay rights, a conference of the National Organization of Women (NOW), Anita Hill testifying at a Supreme Court confirmation hearing that Clarence Thomas had sexually harassed her, Hite’s neighbor and KISS co-lead singer Gene Simmons reflecting on her New York parties that collected endless celebrities, and a James Bond poster for the movie Diamonds Are Forever with two sexy women flanking Sean Connery (Hite had posed for both, one featuring her signature strawberry blonde hair, the other with tousling pure blonde tresses).

Disappearance, which is being distributed by IFC Films, also builds a sense of a whole woman by stitching scenes of raw but lovely sexuality with staged images of women with tots, women cooking dinner, women strolling.

The film was written by director Nicole Newnham, who’d co-directed the Oscar-nominated Crip Camp, an amazing, feel-good 2020 doc that had a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critics’ rating after 99 reviews. That flick managed to link a summer camp for the crippled to both the American disability rights and civil rights movements, making sure to note along the way that the disabled are also sexual beings.

The Hite Report on Female Sexuality — which had started as a post-grad thesis at Columbia University — was based on questionnaires filled out anonymously by 3,000 women. Hite, an admitted bisexual, defended the anonymity of her interviewees by insisting the women wouldn’t have been honest had they been required to list their names because they feared negative reactions from their male mates and other men.

That approach, however, gave major ammunition to vilifiers who claimed her methodology was flawed.

The tome drew as much public attention as those by Kinsey and Masters & Johnson and earned a ranking as the 30th best-selling book of all time. It became a key element of feminist history by stressing that most women felt unsatisfied sexually with their male partners, that women achieved orgasm through clitoral stimulation and masturbated often, that rampant infidelity existed, that 95% of women faked orgasm, that sexual equality was possible, and that few people (men and women) knew much about the female genitalia.

Despite her instant best-seller and subsequent titles (including her first follow-up, The Hite Report on Men and Male Sexuality) that were believed to have advanced the so-called Second Wave of feminism, Hite, because of the extended backlash, never reached her goal of overcoming both gender and class bias — even after having sold 20 million books overall.

Shere Hite. Courtesy of Mike Wilson. An IFC Films release.

The sex educator was criticized heavily for virtually everything she peddled, especially such statistics as 84% of women being unsatisfied emotionally and only 13% of women still loving their husbands after two years of marriage.

Whether you think Hite an innovator or fraud, The Disappearance of Shere Hite is fascinating throughout — and offers viewers an opportunity to see how she flaunted her body and flamboyant costumes at the same time as it provides dramatic insight into her original, creative mind.

-30-

ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/

This story was first published on https://aisleseatreview.com, which publishes independent views and reviews on Bay Area arts, destinations, and lifestyle.

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://vitalitypress.com.

Nov 29 2023
Love0

PICK! ASR Theater ~SF Playhouse Bends Genders in Superb “Guys and Dolls”

By Woody Weingarten

By Woody Weingarten

It’s virtually impossible to rate the new San Francisco Playhouse production of Guys and Dolls as anything but almost perfect, not quite as good as God’s long-running comic-tragedy, Mankind.

Sanitized, slang-spouting characters lifted from two 1920s and ‘30s Damon Runyon short stories remain extremely likeable 73 years after the Tony Award-winning musical comedy debuted on Broadway — New Yawk gamblers and gangsters mostly, but also a couple of inept Chicago crooks/crapshooters. And then, of course, there’s Sarah Brown, the Save-A-Soul missionary heroine who proves that love can conquer all.

Frank Loesser’s music (and lyrics) for this rendition — accompanied by a sprightly, hidden-onstage band under the direction of Dave Dobrusky — reaches the epitome of peppy, ideal for the holiday season.

Sky Masterson (David Toshiro Crane, center) and gamblers roll the dice.

Choreography by Nicole Helfer, even if somewhat derivative, hits an exciting high (with each dancer sublimely connected to all the others). Costumes designed by Kathleen Qiu appear both authentic to the era and playful (especially numbers in the Hot Box burlesque hall where Adelaide comically struts her stuff), augmented by sundry wigs concocted by Laundra Tyme—some straightforward, some whimsical.

Adelaide (Melissa WolfKlain, center) performs with the Hot Box Girls (from left, Malia Abayon, Alison Ewing, Jill Slyter, and Brigitte Losey) in “Guys and Dolls.”

The frequently revolving sets by scenic designer Heater Kenyon come across as exceptionally imaginative, a proverbial wonder to behold. Yet it’s the cast of the superb show — which is labeled a fable, but which adroitly delves into how one segment of society has trouble understanding another — that shines brightest.

Audience faces light right up, for example, each time Melissa WolfKlain, who delightfully and deliberately squeaks as Adelaide steps onto the stage, a stripper-star who’s been engaged for well over a decade to Nathan Detroit a guy whose livelihood stems from running a long-haul floating crap game. She’s particularly marvelous rendering “Adelaide’s Lament” (“In other words, just from worrying if the wedding is on or off, A person can develop a cough”), “Take Back Your Mink,” and “Marry the Man Today” (a duet with Abigail Esfira Campbell, as puritanical but seducible Sgt. Sarah Brown).

Campbell sings with a purity that can make most other vocalists jealous. She’s top-drawer on “I’ll Know” and “I’ve Never Been in Love Before,” with her acting chops becoming an ideal accompaniment to her vocals (her slinky drunk scene in Cuba is most noteworthy). Both melodies are performed, by the way, in duet with David Toshiro Crane as charismatic, cocky, sexy gambler Sky Masterson.

Crane gives the Masterson character a sturdiness that makes you believe he can change from a high-roller to a guy high on life and love. His voice, too, soothes while delivering whatever emotion is required.

Joel Roster acts appropriately oblivious to his doll as Nathan Detroit, the guy who can’t bring himself to commit to her but who’s committed to finding a gambling site somewhere.

Kay Loren, who uses the pronouns they/them, rounds out the frontline performers as Nicely-Nicely Johnson, a part usually filled by a man. Director Bill English and casting director Kieran Beccia, in fact, carefully gender-bent other actor-singers (such as having Kay Loren and Jessica Coker play Nicely-Nickely Johnson and Big Jule, respectively). They ethnic-bent, too, with Asian Alex Hsu assuming the slick role of Irish cop Lt. Brannigan.

But it takes only a minute or two for a theatergoer to fully suspended his or her disbelief and enjoy the binary and racial tampering.

Underscoring what unison truly means — musically and with a racial mix — is the praiseworthy chorus.

Sgt. Sarah Brown (Abigail Esfira Campbell, center) tries to enlist sinners for the Save-A-Soul Mission.

The major plot device is about finding a location for that dice game. The subplot feels terribly familiar: Guy meets and courts girl (because he bets the then huge sum of $1,000 that he can); girl is attracted to and then turned off by guy; guy gets girl.

Other don’t-miss tunes include the title tune, “Luck Be a Lady,” and “Sit Down, You’re Rockin’ the Boat” — and two exhilarating all-dance numbers, “Havana” and “The Crapshooter’s Dance.”

The only thing absent from this two hour-plus version is the thick, unpolished Lower East Side of New Yawk accents — along with the “deses” and “doses” — that instantly tell visitors from Boise, Idaho, that they’re in the Big Apple.

Guys and Dolls has been considered by many as the ultimate musical comedy. The SF Playhouse production shouldn’t disavow that opinion.

Dancers Chachi Delgado and Malia Abayon move fast but sensually in a Havana nightclub.

A Footnote: I’ve told the tale of my wife’s obsession with the show for about 20 years — ever since the last time we saw it.

Before watching a touring company at another San Francisco theater, she’d played the entire score for me on our piano at home. She’d followed by humming most of its tunes during our trip into the city from San Anselmo. And, as I did, she loved the show itself.

But then she inserted a CD of the score on the way back from that performance. I knew she’d adored the show penned by famed theatrical storyline fixer Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling ever since as a pre-teen she’d seen the original with Robert Alda, Alan’s dad, playing Sky Masterson — that final over-the-top fangirl action was much too much for me to handle.

Ergo, I had some trepidation about leading her to the SF Playhouse, even as a MysteryDate, something we’ve been doing for all 36 years we’ve been wed. A MysteryDate, FYI, is an almost-certain way to help keep the sizzle in a relationship — an activity you arrange without your partner knowing where she or he is going until you get there. Or vice versa — that is, one arranged with you in the dark.

After five years of working on it, not incidentally, I’ve just finished writing a book about MysteryDates, one that can double as a travel guidebook while clobbering the myth that long-term relationships are inevitably doomed to become unexciting, monotonous, or drab. The book should be available in January. Check out https://woodyweingarten.com to be sure.

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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle, he is the author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/

Nov 22 2023
Love0

Pick! ASR Theater ~~ Delightful, Funny Radio Play of “It’s a Wonderful Life” at RVP

By Woody Weingarten

By Woody Weingarten

I may not believe in angels, especially bumbling ones, but I do believe in redemption. It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Show fits snugly in that concept.

With at least two major wars raging at the moment, the charming 95-minute throwback is, because it’s mostly cornball, a major relief — and totally delightful.

Yes, this buoyant production by the Ross Valley Players — just like its classic Frank Capra holiday film predecessor starring Jimmy Stewart — toys with a viewer’s emotions. And because I welcome a good cry, I give the trip into Nostalgia Land four-and-a-half handkerchiefs.

The heart-warming, intermission-less play still focuses on George Bailey’s tale of love and loss (and, yes, of course, redemption). But this version also emphasizes wacky sound effects that might have been used by a snowbound 1940s radio station.

That makes the whole enchilada a lot funnier.

For a good chunk of Joe Landry’s play, Clarence Oddbody, George’s 292-year-old apprentice guardian angel, is more likeable than the guy he’s supposed to help. As anyone who’s ever turned on a TV set anywhere near the winter holidays knows, he’s sent to Earth to rescue George, whose father had willed him the family’s moribund savings-and-loan business.

For the three people on our planet who don’t yet know the storyline, heed this spoiler alert: Clarence accomplishes his mission by showing George, who’d been champing at the bit to get out of Bedford Falls where he grew up, what the town and his loved ones would have been like had he not been born. And by convincing the suicidal guy to do the right thing, the angel second class also manages to earn his wings because his actions also wrest control of the town from Mr. Potter (a purely evil dude who aims to deconstruct the savings-and-loan).

If for some demonic reason you’re looking to fault Adrian Elfenbaum’s direction, don’t waste your time — it’s almost impeccable. Rarely can a theatergoer be confused by rapid switches from one character to another to another all mouthed by a single actor.

Loren Nordlund takes a break from tinkering with the piano to voice one of 15 characters he plays. Photo by Robin Jackson.

Outstanding in the five-member ensemble are Evan Held, who flawlessly captures George and each of his changing emotions, and Loren Nordlund, who adeptly plays 15 parts and the piano. But the other three thespians — Molly Rebekka Benson, Elenor Irene Paul, and Malcolm Rodgers — are at most a quarter step behind in excellence.

Malcolm Rodgers reads from script of It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Show while Elenor Irene Paul ponders with some sound effects gadgets. Photo by Robin Jackson.

Each actor grabs items from two large tables to concoct sound effects that range from a big tin sheet that becomes a thunderous gong to sundry women’s and men’s shoes that are used to simulate footsteps. The cast’s dexterity not only eliminates the usual need for a Foley artist onstage but adds to the fun of the production by having everybody move hither and yon with fluidity.

In unison, the quintet twice breaks into the storyline to jointly present comic singing commercials — for a Brylcreem-like hair product and a soap that can clean bugs off your windshield.

Forming a chorus in It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Show are (from left) Molly Rebekka Benson, Elenor Irene Paul, Malcolm Rodgers, Loren Nordlund, and Evan Held. Photo by Robin Jackson.

Viewers are entertained, from before the radio show begins (via a recording of a vintage Jack Benny radio program) to a post-show sing-along (with audience participation) with the words of poet Robert Burns’ New Year’s Eve standard, “Auld Lang Syne.” Between those two events, sentimental moments are enhanced by lighting designer Jim Cave dimming the environment while costume designer Michael A. Berg ups audience pleasure with his ‘40s outfits that include vests, a bow tie, and silk stockings with seams in the back.

What also works perfectly is the conceit of the actors’ alternate personas, radio performers holding scripts, a device that helps them cover any lines they may have truly forgotten and could flub. This spin-off from the 1946 film was first performed in 1996 and has had more than 1,000 productions since then.

Ross Valley Players’ It’s a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Show at the Barn Theatre in the Marin Art and Garden Center is clearly a holiday presentation, but its upbeat message transcends any calendar dates and should be fully absorbed by all local theatergoers (and, in fact, everyone else in our divided society).

With apologies to DC Comics and those who hate parallels, I think this Radio Play is a Superplay — dazzling as a speeding moonshot. See it!

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ASR Senior Contributor Woody Weingarten has decades of experience writing arts and entertainment reviews and features. A member of the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle,  he is the  author of three books, The Roving I; Grampy and His Fairyzona Playmates; and Rollercoaster: How a Man Can Survive His Partner’s Breast Cancer. Contact: voodee@sbcglobal.net or https://woodyweingarten.com or http://www.vitalitypress.com/

Nov 09 2023
Love0

Murder, silliness in Masquers Playhouse’s zany ‘People vs. Mona’

By Woody Weingarten

The cast of Masquers Playhouse’s “The People vs. Mona” includes, from left, Kamaria McKinney, Shay Oglesby-Smith, Steve Alesch, Arup Chakrabarti, Nelson Brown, Michele Sanner Vargas and Harrison Alter. (Courtesy Mark Decker) 

 

“The People vs. Mona,” a zany musical comedy at the Masquers Playhouse in Point Richmond, deserves a needlepoint that labels it laugh-out-loud funny.

Or silly, sillier, silliest.

Because it can be tough to translate visual humor into the words of a review, it is suggested you get to a performance in the cozy (89-seat) theater to see for yourself.

“Mona’s” winning ingredients include exaggerated physical comedy and lyrics that evoke laughter almost every third line; music that ranges from country-rock to gospel (with a marching band tossed in for good measure); a multicultural cast of eight (half of whom play dual roles); a madcap plot by Patricia Miller that features a murder mystery (did Mona Mae Katt bludgeon her honeymooning husband to death with a glitzy guitar?), lots monkey business in the courtroom; and a touch of social commentary about changing an unobtrusive backwater town into a domicile for a shiny new casino.

Enrico Banson, who seamlessly directs the 105-minute “Mona” and inserted tons of unexpected schtick, doubles as an extraordinary musical director who’s onstage with his electronic keyboard throughout.

Michele Sanner Vargas is outstanding in the title role, bringing audience glee with her over-the-top facial and body distortions, not to mention her proficiency twirling a baton. Yet that’s topped by Kamaria McKinney, whose antics as Tish Thomas, a columnist and sex kitten, and blues singer Blind Willy, dare audience members not to smile.

Michele Sanner Vargas plays the title role in “The People vs. Mona” at Masquers Playhouse in Point Richmond. (Courtesy Mark Decker) 

 

Steve Alesch plays Officer Bell with a pseudo-operatic voice and a face so comically rubbery it’s virtually impossible to look away even when there’s another in the spotlight.

Harrison Alter portrays the ninety-something Euple R. Pugh with a flailing level of energy that can make any senior in the crowd jealous.

And Nelson Brown as Mona’s attorney and a hand-waving narrator who involves audience members in rising from their seats, muttering and getting rowdy, also turns in a five-star performance.

The remainder of the cast — Shay Oglesby-Smith, Jeffrie Givens and Arup Chakrabarti — also deserves high praise, as does costume designer Mara Plankers Norleen, responsible for a terrific singing quartet of cats (caps with ears, gloves with fur and imprinted paws, bushy tails) and Mona’s outstanding look with full-length sleeves that replicate tattooed arms and cowgirl boots decorated with butterflies.

Hamming it up in “Mona” are (from left) Arup Chakrabarti, Kamaria McKinney, Harrison Alter and Steve Alesch (Courtesy Mark Decker)

 

Choreographer Katherine Cooper has invented a series of ridiculous moves guaranteed to keep those grins coming.

The production’s location is Tippo, Georgia, in the Frog Pad, a honky-tonk owned by Mona that’s the oldest juke joint in the state and spurring a tune spotlighting a chorus of “Ribbit.”

The show’s campy music and clever lyrics are by the Tony Award-nominated Jim Wann, the primary composer of “Pump Boys and Dinettes,” a 1982 show that jet-streamed from downtown basements to Broadway (with a stopover off-Broadway) and spewed good-ole-boy wisdom via a county rock-pop score.

It’s exciting that the latest incarnation of “Mona” is here. It would be hard to find an Actors’ Equity show that’s better.

While more than few Bay Area theater companies have taken down their curtains recently due to rising costs and diminishing audiences triggered by continuing waves of COVID, “Mona” proves that small, community theaters are not only still viable but can thrive while producing first-rate ensemble entertainment.

“The People vs. Mona” runs through Nov. 26 at the Masquers Playhouse, 105 Park Place, Point Richmond. Tickets are $30 at (510) 232-4031 or https://masquers.org.