Galileo

Galileo Galilei’s mistake was in observing that the earth moves around the sun, in agreement with the theory of Copernicus, and daring to say so. His opinions were denounced as dangerous and “close to heresy” and he was ordered by Cardinal Bellarmin to neither advocate nor teach Copernican astronomy. It’s hard to believe, in this day and age, that such a simple (and monumental) observation would cause such controversy in the religious world. (But then it’s also hard to believe, in this day and age, that we would still be questioning the findings of Charles Darwin, so perhaps we can relate somewhat.)

Barnyard Theater’s fourth season showcases Bertolt Brecht’s “Galileo,” directed by Steven Schmidt. (This is the only version of the play which was specifically written for an American audience, resulting from Brecht’s collaboration with actor Charles Laughton, and staged in 1947.)

While Barnyard Theater traditionally performs its summer offerings in “historic Schmeiser’s Barn” on County Road 31, each year brings new surprises. Last year it was a rotating platform for the audience, rather than for the stage. This year, the entire set has been moved outdoors, with the audience surrounding a rotating stage, flanked by tall platforms at each of the four corners, from which actors introduce each of the various scenes.

Setting this show, which covers the period of time when Galileo first looked at the stars through a telescope through the secret publication of his last book on astronomy, in an open field under the stars was brilliant. (Ian Wallace gets credit for set design and Steven Schmidt for the lighting design) Except for the unexpected arrival of a small plane heading for the UC Davis airport which required more then the usual suspension of disbelief, the audience could imagine itself back in the 16th century, discovering along with Galileo (Andrew Conard) and his apprentice Andrea Sarti (Lindsay Carpenter, as the young Andrea and Dara Yazdani as the adult Andrea), the wonders of the heavens.

Conard gives a solid performance in the title role, appropriately displaying the excitement for new discoveries and the frustration of being forced to compromise his principles to earn a living. This is a man who learns the danger of holding heretical opinions in the age of the Inquisition. Conard was always an actor to watch as he moved through roles with Acme Theater and it’s good to see him blossom as an adult actor.

Lindsay Carpenter does an excellent job as the young apprentice, sharing his teacher’s excitement, and looking on his mentor as a hero, which makes Yazdani’s disillusionment as the adult Sarti learns of the motivations that forced his teacher to make compromises his life understandable. Yazdani has always been a promising young actor and he does not disappoint in this role.

There are sixteen members in the cast, many of them playing several small roles. Some are better than others, but all are more than competent.

Bethany Bishop handles the role of Mrs. Sarti, Galileo’s outspoken maid well. She is a constant element of calm in the sea of controversy that often surrounds her master and she presents an air of respectful insubordination toward the man who has taken her son on as a pupil.

Virginia, Galileo’s daughter, devoted her life to her father, sacrificing her own happiness. Joanna Swan creates a loving, sympathetic character, who remains quite religious and continues to pray for her father throughout the play, even though his heretical views have broken up her marriage to Ludovico (Josh van Eyken).

Anthony Pinto, who is always perfect for sarcastic characters, is Federzoni, the Mechanic, the man who grinds lenses for Galileo. Federzoni represents “everyman,” as Galileo, who believed that science belonged to the common man, includes him in discussion of his discoveries and insists that all conversations be held in the vernacular, since Federzoni speaks no Latin.

A trio of cardinals are played by Maddy Ryen, Mark Carpenter and Alicia Hunt, with Hunt as Cardinal Barberini, who later became Pope Urban VIII. The scene of dressing the pope was well done.

Laurel Cohen gets credit for costume design, some of which are more utilitarian while others are quite luxurious, leading to the suspicion that some Madrigal costumes may have been borrowed for the production.

Again, Barnyard Theater has come up with an interesting, well directed and acted production. It’s worth the price of admission to experience the play under the stars, but be sure to bring a jacket and your mosquito repellant!

The Who's "Tommy"

Let’s be honest: you probably don’t go to see “The Who’s Tommy” for the plot, right?

This classic rock opera by Peter Townsend and Des McAnuff is being presented in concert version by the Davis Musical Theater at the Hoblit Performing Arts Center through July 29, and you really don’t go to a concert version of Tommy for the plot.

Oh, the plot is there. It’s the story of six year old Tommy Walker, who witnesses the murder of his mother’s lover by his father and who then becomes deaf, dumb and blind because his parents tell him he didn’t see the murder, he didn’t hear the murder and he should never tell anybody about the murder. The boy grows up to become a pin ball wizard (“that deaf, dumb and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball”), has a miraculous recovery of his senses, is hailed as a messiah, loses his followers, finds a way to forgive those who have done him wrong throughout his life. End of story.

But if you don’t know the story, the concert version of the plot will be very difficult to follow. In fact, darn near impossible.

A full stage version and the over-the-top movie are replete with dazzling costumes and sets and special effects. You won’t find any of that in this concert version. The cast sits in chairs on stage, in front of the seven-piece band or groups around microphones when time to sing. The few spoken words included are all but inaudible.

The costumes (coordinated by Jean Henderson) are simply black ensembles, with white for the performers who play Tommy at various ages in his life.

There are some projections on the back of the stage, but they are difficult to see because of the lighting and, if you don’t know the plot, they won’t make any sense anyway.

So if you have no costumes, no sets, and no discernible plot, what are you left with? Well, the music and the performances.

DMTC has not been known in the past for outstanding musical accompaniment, so I wondered how they would pull off a show where the orchestra would be the main focus. Quite well, as it turns out. With Director/Musical Director Steve Isaacson center stage, elevated on a platform with his drum set, there is a better than expected assortment of musicians. Jonathan Rothman and Erik Daniells are at the keyboards, Ben Wormeli and Tim Spangler are on guitar, Hal Wright is on the bass guitar and brave Scottt Sabian, on the French Horn does an excellent job of being a one-man horn section.

As for the singers, there are some who are outstanding and some who are not really up for solo rock performances, but fortunately the former outnumber the latter.

Peal Fearn and Kat DeLapp stand out from the rest as Tommy’s parents. Both have fabulous voices and rock out with the best of them.

Tommy is played at various ages by Maya Rothman (young Tommy), Sabrina Schloss (teen Tommy, who for some reason is not quite as tall as the younger Tommy), and Jon Jackson. The two younger Tommys have little to do but be the blind, deaf, mute boy and they handle that job well. Jackson is more a cerebral Tommy than a rocker Tommy, but he handles the task well. His “See Me, Feel Me” is very moving and his “I’m Free” gives him an opportunity to show his stuff.

(I will admit that the pinball number, without a pinball machine or any movement which would imitate someone playing a pinball machine was a little strange.)

Of the supporting cast, Scott Suwabe is outstanding in several small roles, as is Chris Peterson.

Abram Stein-Freer is appropriately menacing as Cousin Kevin, “The school bully,” and Steven Ross is terribly decadent as the child-molesting Uncle Ernie, who likes to “Fiddle About.”

Claire Impens is a somewhat subdued “Acid Queen” (I saw psychedellic graphics on the monitor of light board operator Arthur Vassar, but if there was an attempt to project them onto the back of the stage, it did not work.)

The enthusiasm of the cast for the show they are doing is apparent. The concert version works better than I thought it would. But if you want to know what’s supposed to be going on during the course of the show, I recommend renting the DVD first!

Les Miserables

The Wells Fargo Pavilion had the look of a special event. The crosswalks were jammed with people, there was a line of cars outside the parking lot and a long line of patrons waited to pick up tickets. Once inside the theater, it was apparent that the opening production of Music Circus’s 57th season, "Les Miserables," Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg’s musical adaption of the classic Victor Hugo novel, was nearly a sell-out.

Even before the lights went down, the audience was expecting something extraordinary. With theater companies all around the United States asking for production rights following the close of the Broadway production in 2003 (after 6,680 performances), and the end of the national tour in 2006, Music Circus was one of only 8 theaters in the country given permission to do its own production.

As if that weren’t special enough, this is the first production to ever be done in the round. How would the multi-million dollar production seen during the Broadway Series in 2003, translate to the fairly bare Wells Fargo Pavilion stage?

Under director Glenn Casale’s capable hands, it translated very well. The scenic design of Michael Schweikardt gave a sense of each scene, but not so much that it overwhelmed the stage, making sight lines difficult.

Additionally, the fact that all seats in the Wells Fargo Pavilion are close to the stage adds an intimacy that one misses in a proscenium production. It made subtle nuances easier to create and it brought a dimension to the production that I had not seen before. It made me wonder why the show is not performed in the round more often.

And it was a cast to die for. Ivan Rutherford, whom some may remember for playing Jean Valjean in the 2003 Broadway Series production, reprises the role of the man, released on parole after 19 years on the chain gang for the crime of stealing a loaf of bread to feed his sister's dying child. Rutherford played this role 1,800 times on Broadway in addition to traveling across the country with the touring production.

In the role of Inspector Javert, the man so obsessed with the re-capture of Valjean following his disappearance from parole that he has chased him for more than 20 years, is Brad Little, whom patrons may remember as Music Circus’s "Scarlet Pimpernel." Little just finished 2,100 performances as the Phantom in "Phantom of the Opera," including appearances on Broadway, in Asia, and on tour.

The vocal richness of these two men alone was something very special indeed.

Add to that Andrea Rivette as Fantine, the single mother forced into prostitution in order to feed the child she has farmed out to others for safekeeping. Fantine is a small role with a huge song, "I Dreamed a Dream," which Rivette performs to thunderous applause.

Eight year old Isabelle Flores-Jones is an adorable young Cosette, Fantine’s daughter, whom Valjean adopts. Isabelle sings Cosette’s "Castle on a Cloud" in a perfect, clear, completely on pitch voice.

Comic relief is offered by the innkeeper Thénardier (Ron Wisniski) and his wife, Madame Thénardier (Mary Gutzi). Wisniski is a wonderful comedic talent, last seen as Lumiere in "Beauty and the Beast" and Marcus Lycus in last season’s "Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." In this role he is deliciously decadent, a guy who will pour your (watered-down) wine with one hand and steal the valuables out of your suitcase with the other.

Gutzi is the perfect complement to her husband, at her best when putting him down in her version of their duet, "Master of the House."

Michael Hunsaker is a handsome, sincere Marius, the idealistic young student who falls for Cosette (Laura Griffith).

Juliana Ashley Hansen is Eponine, hopelessly in love with Marius, but realistic about her expectations. Her "On My Own" was beautifully poignant.

Will Ray is Enjolras, the head of the rioting group. He has a strong voice and a commanding presence.

Andrew B. Wilson is a spunky Gavroche, the child who becomes a runner for the revolutionaries and is able to ferret out information that no one else can get.

The chorus for this show is outstanding, and most seem to have solo-quality voices. I was particularly impressed with the intensity of their character immersion when standing in the aisles waiting to make an entrance.

Credit is due to Lighting Designer Kyle Lemoi for creating with light what could not be created with set pieces. The design was perfect.

In fact, just about everything about this production is perfect. It could not be a better harbinger of shows to come throughout the rest of the season.

Music Circus

This was a feature article which appeared in The Davis Enterprise on July 5, 2007.

Carolyn Tucker boycotted Music Circus for nearly 50 years. “My boyfriend Bob promised to take me to a show,” she explained. But the couple had a fight and Bob took another girl instead. “I vowed I would never to go Music Circus,” she said resolutely.

Happily Carolyn and Bob patched things up and have now been married for nearly 50 years, but because of the bad memories, she steadfastly refused to attend a Music Circus production until someone gave them free tickets a few years ago. “I was thrilled!” she said.

She was so thrilled that they returned the following year to bring granddaughter Samantha to “the big tent” to see “Annie.” “We thought it might be her only chance to see a real stage show,” she explained. Samantha was able to get a backstage pass, to meet the cast and have her picture taken with Sandy, Annie’s dog.

Now the Tuckers attend productions regularly. Carolyn’s all-time favorite musical is “Cats,” while Bob “will see anything.”

As Music Circus gears up for the July 10 opening night of “Les Miserables,” a company premiere, the challenges are massive, but everyone rises to the occasion. This will be the first time that “Les Miserables” has ever been presented in the round and Music Circus is one of only eight theater companies in the country which has been given permission to do their own production. “We’re very proud of that,” says publicist Chris McSwain.

This is the kind of experience which appeals to Louise Wilson, who has performed community theater herself and is a seasoned theater-goer. She feels that theater in the round brings a new dimension to old favorites and she enjoys being introduced to new musicals, like “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” which she loved, and to new staging of old favorites, like “Les Miserables.”

For Lindsay Terry, Music Circus reminds her of her childhood, when she used to participate in school plays. Like Carolyn several years ago, Lindsay plans to introduce her five year old daughter Isabella to theater this summer, also with a Music Circus production of “Annie.”

California Musical Theater’s Music Circus is a Sacramento institution which has brought musical theater hits to the area for nearly sixty years and introduced many new generations of children to theater. Music Circus has offered productions of 157 different musicals, many performed more than once, with “The King and I,” “Oklahoma!” “South Pacific” and “Show Boat” leading the pack at twelve different productions each.

In addition to “Les Miserables,” the 2007 season will include two additional new productions, “Jekyll and Hyde” and “1776,”with old favorites “Nunsense,” “Kiss Me Kate,” and “Annie” filling in the rest of the season.

Music Circus history dates to 1949 when a man named St. John Terrell set up a circus tent in an empty New Jersey field and began producing musical plays. The enterprise was innovative, something that had never been done before, a theater that wasn’t quite a theater, a tent that was more than a tent. The experiment was wildly successful.

Russell Lewis and Howard Young were producers who had worked on Broadway and arranged national tours. Watching the success of Terrell’s “Music Circus,” they wanted to try the same thing on the west coast.

Enter Eleanor McClatchy, then president of The Sacramento Bee and the city’s staunchest supporter of all forms of theater. McClatchy felt that Sacramento audiences would support professional quality theater and she invited Lewis and Young to meet with her. It was a marriage made in heaven.

Lewis & Young Productions raised the Music Circus tent in the summer of 1951 and produced its first season, opening with “Show Boat” on June 19th. The choice of shows would set the tone for subsequent seasons–a mixture of well known titles and lesser known titles, musical and operetta: “Annie Get Your Gun,” “Brigadoon,” “The Desert Song,” “The Great Waltz,” “The Merry Widow,” “Naughty Marietta,” “The Red Mill,” and “Rose Marie.”

(The season does not begin until after the 4th of July and runs through Labor day, with generally a 7-show season, though it has included as many as 10 shows, publicist Chris McSwain says.)

Music Circus became an instant success and despite, the summer heat, people flocked to the big tent for a chance to see quality productions of shows they might never see elsewhere. It was “the” thing to do in the valley in the summer. (“I loved the tent – it was a wonder,” said Carolyn Tucker)

When the brand new 2200 seat Wells Fargo Pavilion opened in 2002, replacing with tent with a real building, the director’s chairs with theater seats, adding air conditioning and improving the sight lines it was a major change for Music Circus.

(“The new building is the difference of night and day,” says Louise Wilson. Lindsay Terry agrees. “There is no bad seat in the house. You never have to worry about something obstructing your view.”)

In 1993, Scott Eckern, then a professor of theater (among other things) at the University of the Pacific was hired as full-time general manager and in 2002 became the artistic director. He remembers the days when “name” stars, like Harv Presnell, Leslie Uggams and Alan Young took the lead roles, a practice which began to change in the 1990s. When they stopped casting familiar celebrities, it allowed them to choose the shows for each season differently. They didn’t have to choose shows by what celebrity was available, but they could hold open auditions for the shows they wanted to present. It allowed them to balance the season better.

“Our mission is to keep the classics alive and also help move the art form forward. You look at the classic pieces like Rodgers & Hammerstein or Lerner & Lowe and then add the shows that are the future classics or the newer pieces of musical theater,” explained Eckern. “We try to get a balance. The classics are classic because they are well crafted and they tell good stories, with a solid book. There is a whole generation of actors who haven’t performed many of them.”

Eckern auditions over 2000 actors for some 125 parts. He travels some 14 weeks a year and auditions people in New York, in Los Angeles. “We now cast Tony award nominees and winners, stars on Broadway. Music Circus is ‘the’ summer job to get in the theater.”

“People want to perform with Music Circus,” says Education Director Victoria Plata. “It is a great thing to put on a resume. In Sacramento we’re such an institution that we’re taken for granted. In New York we are considered one of the finest regional theaters in the country.”

(It’s not only the featured players who look forward to Music Circus. Richard Bulda is an example of one of the members of the supporting staff who arranges his summer around the season, and doesn’t make other plans until he’s checked to see into which shows he might fit.)

While Eckern is auditioning performers and Bulda is arranging his summer schedule, Plata is getting ready to welcome her new crop of interns. The internship program, which she “inherited,” allows students to learn about technical theater. Eckern developed a program through American River College where students would receive up to 6 units of theater credit for working 10 weeks during the summer.

Interns rotate through several departments -- costumes, scenic design, and props, and also work with the stage manager. They are also part of the technical crew, those unsung heroes of the Music Circus who run up and down the darkened aisles carrying huge set pieces. Occasionally interns may find themselves on stage in costume for brief periods.

My daughter Jeri worked two seasons at Music Circus, one year as an intern, and another on the paid staff. She found herself on stage several times, for example as part of townspeople raising a ruckus in “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas.” She also remembers Davis’ Stewart Mayhew playing the delivery boy from the bookseller in “Oliver!” “You don’t hire people to play roles like that,” she says.

Music Circus also has a large volunteer program, coordinated by Bryant King. Volunteers run scenery and work as dressers, for example. There may be some 40-50 volunteers working anywhere from one week or through the entire season.

The company has an arrangement with the local stagehands union and hires two professional stage technicians from the local union to oversee “an army of volunteers,” says stagehand Phil Sequeira. “Usually the hired hands get the biggest, heaviest, most awkward pieces to move.”

The combination of professionals on and off stage, interns, and community volunteers is a part of the flavor of what Music Circus is all about. “It’s a community based organization,” says McSwain, adding that the final component of the “community” is the audience. “I never stop bragging about our audiences,” he says, adding that even the national actors who come in for the Broadway Series in the fall are blown away with the support of Sacramento audiences. “Sacramento has the smartest, most responsive audiences,” brags McSwain.

Louise Wilson, Lindsay Terry and Carolyn Tucker have introduced their own children to theater through Music Circus, and there is a generational component to the tech crew as well. Tim Kunz, who currently works as a stagehand, is the son of Clarence Kunz, a former stagehand, who still comes to shows each year. Flyman Jimmy Lovelace, who has been working in the rigging since the tent days, is the son of Russ Lovelace, who also worked as a technician in the old tent.

On July 10, opening night of “Les Miserables,” the office will be full of flowers waiting to be delivered to the performers, the lights will go up in the Wells Fargo Pavilion, several generations of patrons will file into the theater, and the 2007 season will get underway.

The Maxfield Inn

On a recent trip to upstate New York, we booked a three night stay at The Maxfield Inn in Naples, NY.

We chose the Maxfield Inn from the Internet for 3 reasons: the web page was inviting, the price was within our range, and it had wi-fi. With my new laptop computer, I was eager to take advantage.

We had no idea we would make such an incredible find. Starting with the elegant Grecian architecture, the line of white rocking chairs inviting us to sit on the verandah, the beautifully (yet comfortably) decorated interior and the welcome we received from our hosts, Linda and Earl set the stage for what would be an unforgettable experience.

We had booked the suite, which gave us a small bedroom and a small sitting room connected by a bathroom. We immediately noticed the little touches, which the previous review mentioned -- the CD player playing Nat King Cole softly when we arrived, with a selection of additional music for our enjoyment (from classical to jazz), the Lindt truffles (my favorite!), the chilling bottles of water in the ice bucket, the fluffy white bathrobes hanging in the bathroom, the heated massage chairs, which would become a godsend for me, in the sitting room and even the little Serta Mattress lamb waiting on our pillows. The shower was so high tech it should have come with an instruction book, but to step in was to go to another world. I wanted to bring it home with me.

We were invited to share wine and cheese in the dining room at 6 p.m., when we met other residents and discovered everyone was interesting and delightful. As this is a pet-friendly establishment, I was thrilled to find another dog-lover there and we had a good time swapping dog stories and pictures on the first evening.


In the morning, Earl delivered muffins and Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee to our room on a beautiful silver tray and later we adjourned to the screened sun porch for the rest of our 4-course gourmet breakfast. Everything was cooked with such pride and Earl delighted in explaining how Linda created her recipes and telling us tales of the history of the area (in the back of the Inn is the remains of one of the tunnels used for the Underground Railroad).

I could not find a hint of a complaint about this place and cannot reccommend it more highly.

(Oh...and the wi fi works GREAT!)

D & R Depot

When I first set up this "In My Opinion" blog, I intended to review more than just stage shows, but other things as well. I've been falling down on that, so I'm going to try to pick up with a couple of reviews from our recent trip to Upstate New York.

In LeRoy, New York (the birthplace of Jello), someone recommended that we eat at D&R Depot, a converted railroad depot, which was reported as having the best home cooked food and "the best chicken pot pie" in town. I was encouraged when the menu boasted that the pot pie had "the flakiest crust." I'm a crust aficionado and was eager to try it.

The first course was salad, which came with hot rolls. The rolls had, unfortunately, been heated by microwave. As long as you ate them immediately, they were fine, but once they began to cool, they got so hard that you couldn't even bite into them.

When the pot pie arrived it, too, had unfortunately been heated in the microwave. The "world's flakiest crust" had all the flake of a hockey puck. I was very disappointed. The contents of the pot pie were quite good. What a shame that the restaurant had to ruin one of their apparently stellar dishes with microwave heating.

ADDENDUM: I actually had an e-mail from D&R Depot and they assure me that while they do use the microwave for their rolls, they do not use it for heating the chicken pot pie and that the toughness of "the world's flakiest crust" was due to weather factors. They also invited me to come back and try it again and were quite nice about it, so I'll give them the benefit of the doubt, though it seems unlikely I'll ever be in that part of the country again.

Fat Pig

"People are not comfortable with difference. You know? Fags, retards, cripples. Fat people. Old folks, even. They scare us or something... The thing they represent that’s so scary is what we could be, how vulnerable we all are...we’re all just one step away from being what frightens us. What we despise so...we despise it when we see it in anybody else."

The character of the unlikeable friend, Carter (Michael Wiles) has just summed up the message of Neil LaBute’s "Fat Pig," currently running at Capital Stage, on the Delta King, under the direction of Stephanie Gularte.

"Fat Pig" is a one-act, four-person play which centers on the growing relationship between Tom (Shaun Carroll) and Helen (Christin [sic] O’Cuddehy), two people who meet, by chance, in a diner and discover that they love the same movies and the same books, they have the same sense of humor and they just seem to click.

The problem is that Helen is fat (I will resist the temptation to use euphemisms like zaftig or Rubenes-esque or "full figured") and Tom is a tall, slim, handsome, successful businessman who has apparently used his looks to work his way up the corporate ladder. There is also an ex-girlfriend, Jeannie (Katherine C. Miller), who doesn’t realize she’s really an "ex" girlfriend and who can’t understand what Tom can possibly see in "that fat sow."

As a fat person myself, I found a lot of disturbing things in the script of this comedy, particularly in the mean-spirited comments that Carter uses to describe Helen. ("She’s off to the bathroom...with a basket of dinner rolls hidden under her skirt." "They didn’t just send her, did they?–not that she couldn’t eat for five...") – and especially the audience’s laughter at the jokes. But that was LaBute’s whole point. His program biography talks of his own battles with weight (a battle he claims that he is now losing, after a successful period of high self esteem when he was able to stick with a healthy lifestyle.) He wants the audience to look at appearance and our feelings about people who are "different."

Tom, Carter and Jeannie are the "beautiful people," and yet they are seriously flawed and each of them, on some level is unlikeable. Helen is the "different one." Yet she has a beauty about her which is unmistakable and ultimately she is the only truly "good" character in the play.

This is another strong cast for Capital Stage. Christin O’Cuddehy is magnificent. She has a self-assuredness that makes you look past her weight instantly. Like her character, she seems comfortable in her body and she knows she’s good. Her changing emotions throughout the play were beautifully handled, particularly at the end. It would be difficult to think of an actress who could have done this role better.

Shaun Carroll is a fussbudgety Tom, unsure of himself, knowing how much he cares for this woman, yet torn between his growing feelings for her and his fear of the derision he will receive at the hands of the rest of the world if he were to continue the relationship.

I want to say that Michael Wiles was terrible as Carter...but my negative feelings are only because he was such a good Carter. He created the perfect sleazeball, a snobby, snide, self-indulgent character who pretends to be Tom’s friend, but who is never there for him, except when he can have some fun at his friend’s expense.

Katherine C. Miller is a spitfire as the scorned Jeannie. Though she did a wonderful job in the role, I feel that LaBute’s scenes between Jeannie and Tom were overly long and repetitious. We never really learn much about their previous relationship (LaBute tantalizes us with whether there was actually a physical relationship or not), other than that it ended badly and Jeannie still hopes for a reconciliation.

While this is really a comedy, like LaBute’s other works (such as "Nurse Betty"), it has a distinct dark side to it. Throughout the evening, we wonder which will win out – will love conquer all, or will peer pressure force Tom to give up his one big chance at a meaningful relationship?

Throughout the journey, perhaps we can all learn a bit about ourselves and how we view the world around us, and give some thought to how we treat those who aren’t part of the "beautiful people."

Fat Pig

“People are not comfortable with difference.  You know?  Fags, retards, cripples.  Fat people.  Old folks, even.  They scare us or something...  The thing they represent that’s so scary is what we could be, how vulnerable we all are...we’re all just one step away from being what frightens us.  What we despise so...we despise it when we see it in anybody else.”

The character of the unlikable friend, Carter (Michael Wiles) has just summed up the message of Neil LaBute’s “Fat Pig,” currently running at Capital Stage, on the Delta King, under the direction of Stephanie Gularte.

“Fat Pig” is a one-act, four-person play which centers on the growing relationship between Tom (Shaun Carroll) and Helen (Christin [sic] O’Cuddehy), two people who meet, by chance, in a diner and discover that they love the same movies and the same books, they have the same sense of humor and they just seem to click.

The problem is that Helen is fat (I will resist the temptation to use euphemisms like zaftig or Rubenes-esque or “full figured”) and Tom is a tall, slim, handsome, successful businessman who has apparently used his looks to work his way up the corporate ladder.  There is also an ex-girlfriend, Jeannie (Katherine C. Miller), who doesn’t realize she’s really an “ex” girlfriend and who can’t understand what Tom can possibly see in “that fat sow.”

As a fat person myself, I found a lot of disturbing things in the script of this comedy, particularly in the mean-spirited comments that Carter uses to describe Helen. (“She’s off to the bathroom...with a basket of dinner rolls hidden under her skirt.”  “They didn’t just send her, did they?–not that she couldn’t eat for five...”) – and especially the audience’s laughter at the jokes.  But that was LaBute’s whole point.  His program biography talks of his own battles with weight (a battle he claims that he is now losing, after a successful period of high self esteem when he was able to stick with a healthy lifestyle.)  He wants the audience to look at appearance and our feelings about people who are “different.” 

Tom, Carter and Jeannie are the “beautiful people,” and yet they are seriously flawed and each of them, on some level is unlikeable.  Helen is the “different one.”  Yet she has a beauty about her which is unmistakable and ultimately she is the only truly “good” character in the play.

This is another strong cast for Capital Stage.  Christin O’Cuddehy is magnificent.  She has a self-assuredness that makes you look past her weight instantly.  Like her character, she seems comfortable in her body and she knows she’s good.  Her changing emotions throughout the play were beautifully handled, particularly at the end.  It would be difficult to think of an actress who could have done this role better.

Shaun Carroll is a fussbudgety Tom, unsure of himself, knowing how much he cares for this woman, yet torn between his growing feelings for her and his fear of the derision he will receive at the hands of the rest of the world if he were to continue the relationship.

I want to say that Michael Wiles was terrible as Carter...but my negative feelings are only because he was such a good Carter.  He created the perfect sleazeball, a snobby, snide, self-indulgent character who pretends to be Tom’s friend, but who is never there for him, except when he can have some fun at his friend’s expense.

Katherine C. Miller is a spitfire as the scorned Jeannie.  Though she did a wonderful job in the role, I feel that LaBute’s scenes between Jeannie and Tom were overly long and repetitious.  We never really learn much about their previous relationship (LaBute tantalizes us with whether there was actually a physical relationship or not), other than that it ended badly and Jeannie still hopes for a reconciliation.

While this is really a comedy, like LaBute’s other works (such as “Nurse Betty”), it has a distinct dark side to it.  Throughout the evening, we wonder which will win out – will love conquer all, or will peer pressure force Tom to give up his one big chance at a meaningful relationship?

Throughout the journey, perhaps we can all learn a bit about ourselves and how we view the world around us, and give some thought to how we treat those who aren’t part of the “beautiful people.”   

Beauty and the Beast

If I were forced to give a one-word review of the Davis Musical Theater Company’s new production, “Beauty and the Beast,” directed by Steve Isaacson, with musical direction by Erik Daniells, it would have to be: wow.

“Beauty and the Beast” is a huge show. It started life as a Disney animated cartoon and was the first of such films to cross over from the silver screen to the stage in 1991. Its phenomenal success spawned the likes of “The Lion King” and “Mary Poppins,” and “Tarzan.”

With the financial backing of the Disney corporation, the stage show could dazzle with opulent costumes, intricate sets and wonderful special effects, something almost impossible for a small community theater on a small budget to reproduce. But DMTC does the best it can and can hold its head high for the end result.

You won’t find intricate sets, but you will find utilitarian sets (designed by Isaacson), and more set changes than I remember in a DMTC show.

Costume design by Denise Miles is outstanding. Belle’s final costume alone would not be out of place in a professional production. It’s gorgeous.

But what gives this show the “wow” factor is the energy, the stunning choreography by Ron Cisneros, who is wonderful at making non-dancers look like dancers, and the quality of the acting and singing.

Rachelle Jones is delicious as Belle, the spunky heroine, who, to save her father’s life, agrees to live in the castle of the Beast forever. Jones does not have a strong voice, but a sweet, clear, genuine voice and she created a real character, not a caricature. It was a captivating performance.

Gil Sebastian is perfect as Belle’s eccentric father, Maurice, the town inventor who gets lost in the woods and ends up in the dungeon of the Beast’s castle.

Tevye Ditter made an impressive Beast, a prince under the spell of an enchantress (Kristen Meyers, who appears later as Babette), doomed to live inside a hideous body unless he can find a woman to love him for who he is, not for how he looks. His growing love for Belle is unmistakable to the audience, less so, at first, to the Beast. Ditter has a powerful voice and his “If I can’t love her,” which ends Act 1, was the high point of the evening.

Gaston is the town hunk, whose self-esteem needs no bolstering. In his mind, he’s gorgeous and he knows it and has set his eye on the most beautiful girl in town, Belle, to be his wife, whether she wants to be or not. JR Humbert does a wonderful job at being the egotist who can’t believe that there could possibly be a woman who would not swoon at his advances.

Fifteen year old Chris Peterson is very funny as Gaston’s foil, LaFou, who gets tossed around so much one wonders if Peterson is going to end the run black and blue.

The bewitched prince’s house staff also comes under the curse of the Beast, and are gradually turning into furniture and other household objects. As the candelabra, Lumiere, Jon Jackson provides lots of fun. Lumiere gets all the best lines (“You’ve cut me to the wick...”) and Jackson makes the most of them.

Adam Sartain is Cogsworth, the major domo who is slowly becoming a clock and who plays off of Lumiere beautifully.

The ever-wonderful Lenore Sebastian is Mrs. Potts, the round little tea kettle, who pushes her son “Chip” (Sara Pinto) around in a tea cart and who sings the beautiful title song as the Beast and Belle’s romance begins to blossom.

Kristen Meyers is adorable as Babette, the feather duster in a feathered dress Ginger Rogers would have loved.

Carolyn Gregory is Madame de la Grande Bouche, the opera star who is now becoming a chest of drawers.

The trio of Silly Girls (Shannon Kendall, Carolyn Self, and Wendy Young), all vying for the love of Gaston, deserve special mention for their valiant attempt at a high-kicking can-can.

The 10 piece orchestra under the direction of Erik Daniells provides better than average accompaniment.

This is a huge cast for DMTC – I count 36 actors involved. While it moves fairly quickly, the pace may be a bit slow for younger children (two youngsters near me were quite squirmy), but children 8 and up (especially little girls) should love it.

Light in the Piazza

Sacramento audiences will give a standing ovation to just about anything, I have discovered over the past seven years. The audience at the Community Theater did not give a standing ovation to “Light in the Piazza,” the final musical of this year’s Broadway Series.

Several people did not return after intermission and one woman, passing me on her way out said “We’ve had enough.”

“Well, ya don’t come out singin’ anything,” commented a woman behind me walking out of the theater.

“It was....uh...different,” said a grandfatherly type to his granddaughter.

“Light in the Piazza,” based on a 1950s novella by Elizabeth Spencer and made into a non-musical movie in 1952 (with Olivia DeHavilland, Yvette Mimieux, George Hamilton and Rossano Brazzi), is the winner of 6 Tony awards, including best original score.

It tells the story Margaret Johnson (Christine Andreas), traveling through Italy with her daughter Clara (Katie Rose Clarke) and the romance between Clara and a young Florentine, Fabrizio Naccarelli (David Burnham). Margaret wants to introduce her daughter to the places that she visited with her husband Roy (John Procaccino) on their honeymoon ... and perhaps recapture the magic of that time, since the joy seems to have gone out of her marriage, we gradually discover through telephone calls home to the husband throughout the show.

Katie Rose Clark made her Broadway debut in the role of Clara, and she is lovely in it. She beautifully portrays the sense of a woman, much too young for her years and we gradually begin to realize that all is not right with Clara.

Burnham exudes Italian sexuality as he falls madly, hopelessly in love with Clara on first meeting.

Margaret tries to prevent a romance from developing, for reasons which are made clear later in the show, but gets swept up in the blossoming love of Clara and Fabrizio as well as the boy’s expansive family – his father (Craig Bennett), mother (Diana DiMarzio), philandering brother Giuseppe (Jonathan Hammond), and Giuseppe’s wife Franca (Wendi Bergamini), all of whom are captivated by Clara.

Emotional undertones drive this story, with Margaret’s anguish about Clara, her desire to control the girl’s life for fear she cannot control herself, and her desire to let her daughter have the normal life she feared would never be possible.

This is a visually beautiful show, with sets by Michael Yeargan and complementary earth toned costumes by Catherine Zuber.

The story is sweet, but the distortions of the amplification system (perhaps it was just where we were sitting) made it sometimes difficult to follow, especially when the women were singing. The authors (Craig Lucas, book and Adam Guettel, music and lyrics) have crafted a show which has the feel of an old-fashioned musical, relying on a simple story instead of the flashy special effects of some of the Disney-based musicals of recent years.

Guettel’s music has been compared to Sondheim in its sophistication. There are truly beautiful musical moments, such as Clara’s rendition of the title song, and many, especially when sung in Italian, have an almost operatic quality. (The one jarring moment of the evening is during “Aiutami,” an animated, operatic multi-person song in Italian, when Signora Niccarelli steps into the spotlight in speaks to the audience in unaccented English – which she admits she does not speak – to explain what is going on in the song. It seemed out of character with the rest of the show.)

But unless you have been listening to the endless television promos for this show, you will not find yourself remembering any of the songs once the cast has left the stage.

For all of its good points there was just something “off” about this show for me (and apparently for others in the audience). Perhaps a lot of it had to do with the inability to understand, not only the Italian (a libretto or supertitles might be needed!), but also the exposure done in song in English.

There is also a basic dislike of the storyline which, though lovely in its concept of love conquering all, involves a bit of deceit on the part of the mother and leaves the audience with even more of a question about the “happily ever after” of the young lovers.

Beauty and the Beast

If I were forced to give a one-word review of the Davis Musical Theater Company’s new production, “Beauty and the Beast,” directed by Steve Isaacson, with musical direction by Erik Daniells, it would have to be: wow.

“Beauty and the Beast” is a huge show. It started life as a Disney animated cartoon and was the first of such films to cross over from the silver screen to the stage in 1991. Its phenomenal success spawned the likes of “The Lion King” and “Mary Poppins,” and “Tarzan.”

With the financial backing of the Disney corporation, the stage show could dazzle with opulent costumes, intricate sets and wonderful special effects, something almost impossible for a small community theater on a small budget to reproduce. But DMTC does the best it can and can hold its head high for the end result.

You won’t find intricate sets, but you will find utilitarian sets (designed by Isaacson), and more set changes than I remember in a DCOC show.

Costume design by Denise Miles is outstanding. Belle’s final costume alone would not be out of place in a professional production. It’s gorgeous.

But what gives this show the “wow” factor is the energy, the stunning choreography by Ron Cisneros, who is wonderful at making non-dancers look like dancers, and the quality of the acting and singing.

Rachelle Jones is delicious as Belle, the spunky heroine, who, to save her father’s life, agrees to live in the castle of the Beast forever. Jones does not have a strong voice, but a sweet, clear, genuine voice and she created a real character, not a caricature. It was a captivating performance.

Gil Sebastian is perfect as Belle’s eccentric father, Maurice, the town inventor who gets lost in the woods and ends up in the dungeon of the Beast’s castle.

Tevye Ditter made an impressive Beast, a prince under the spell of an enchantress (Kristen Meyers, who appears later as Babette), doomed to live inside a hideous body unless he can find a woman to love him for who he is, not for how he looks. His growing love for Belle is unmistakable to the audience, less so, at first, to the Beast. Ditter has a powerful voice and his “If I can’t love her,” which ends Act 1, was the high point of the evening.

Gaston is the town hunk, whose self-esteem needs no bolstering. In his mind, he’s gorgeous and he knows it and has set his eye on the most beautiful girl in town, Belle, to be his wife, whether she wants to be or not. JR Humbert does a wonderful job at being the egotist who can’t believe that there could possibly be a woman who would not swoon at his advances.

Fifteen year old Chris Peterson is very funny as Gaston’s foil, LaFou, who gets tossed around so much one wonders if Peterson is going to end the run black and blue.

The bewitched prince’s house staff also comes under the curse of the Beast, and are gradually turning into furniture and other household objects. As the candelabra, Lumiere, Jon Jackson provides lots of fun. Lumiere gets all the best lines (“You’ve cut me to the wick...”) and Jackson makes the most of them.

Adam Sartain is Cogsworth, the major domo who is slowly becoming a clock and who plays off of Lumiere beautifully.

The ever-wonderful Lenore Sebastian is Mrs. Potts, the round little tea kettle, who pushes her son “Chip” (Sara Pinto) around in a tea cart and who sings the beautiful title song as the Beast and Belle’s romance begins to blossom.

Kristen Meyers is adorable as Babette, the feather duster in a feathered dress Ginger Rogers would have loved.

Carolyn Gregory is Madame de la Grande Bouche, the opera star who is now becoming a chest of drawers.

The trio of Silly Girls (Shannon Kendall, Carolyn Self, and Wendy Young), all vying for the love of Gaston, deserve special mention for their valiant attempt at a high-kicking can-can.

The 10 piece orchestra under the direction of Erik Daniells provides better than average accompaniment.

This is a huge cast for DMTC – I count 36 actors involved. While it moves fairly quickly, the pace may be a bit slow for younger children (two youngsters near me were quite squirmy), but children 8 and up (especially little girls) should love it.

Urinetown

There is a real problem writing a review of the hilarious “Urinetown,” the musical with the unlikely title, currently entertaining audiences at UCD’s main theatre, through June 3.

The problem is that it contains so many funny things on so many levels that I’m reluctant to give anything away—part of the fun is in the discovery.

“Urinetown,” with music and lyrics by Mark Hollman, and book and lyrics by Greg Kotis, began life as a production for New York’s International Fringe Festival, where it was so successful that it moved first to an off-Broadway theater, and in September 2001 (not exactly a great time for theater – in fact, the opening was postponed following 9/11), it opened on Broadway, where it ran through January of 2004, for a healthy 925 performances.

This timely piece, which explores a world where water is in short supply and the ability to relieve oneself becomes a social / political firestorm.

Travis Dukelow acts as the quasi narrator, Officer Lockstock (whose partner (Yahya Rouhani) is Officer Barrell), who opens the show in conversation with “Little Sally” (Allison Minick). Dukelow is perfect for this role. He has a deep voice that exudes confidence, and the sardonic delivery that lets the audience know that the whole show is really a big joke.

Minick is cute as a button as Little Sally, as she goads Lockstock into telling the story.

“Say, Officer Lockstock, is this where you tell the audience about the water shortage?... The hard times. The drought. A shortage so awful that private toilets eventually become unthinkable.”

Lockstock sets the stage with the explanation “suffice it to say that in Urinetown (the musical) everyone has to use public bathrooms in order to take care of their private business. That's the central conceit of the show!

Better hope your pennies
Add up to the fee -
We can't have you peeing
For free
If you do, we'll catch you
We, we never fail!
And we never bother with jail

All the public restrooms are owned by one company, run by Caldwell B. Cladwell (Jesse Merz), who believe he is above reproach, that he can do whatever he wants, that he can reward his cronies and the hell with the rest of the people (any resemblance between Cladwell and any current politicians is purely coincidental).

Cladwell’s daughter, appropriately named “Hope” (Emma Goldin) is returning home after graduation from college. Daddy expects her to take over the running of his company, but the idealistic Hope isn’t exactly ready to follow in Daddy’s footsteps.

Goldin is absolutely great. Her costume helps to make her the center of attention (kudos to costume designer Maggie Morgan) and throughout the show, she exudes wholesomeness and goodness. She is at her absolute best in act 2, after her abduction. She’s a walking cliché and pulls it off flawlessly.

Bobby Strong (R. Andrew Hess) works for the worst public toilet in town, under the leadership of Penelope Pennywise (Ara Glenn-Johanson). Hess is delightfully idealistic, a young firebrand who is determined to win back the right to “pee for free” for all the people. He imbues Strong with the same impish likeability that he gave to Sancho Panza in the recent “Man of La Mancha.” His “Run, Freedom, Run” is the high point of the show.

Glenn-Johnson would make a great Evita. Her spirited Penelope is great fun and she does a wonderful job with “It’s a Privilege to Pee.”

This whole show is an homage to classic musicals, with the musical arrangements as much fun as the songs themselves. How many classic musicals can you spot?

The appeal of this particular production, in addition to a stellar cast, is director Mindy Cooper’s crisp direction and choreography. Dancers dance with Rockette-like precision and she creates wonderful groupings and angular freezes that are simply delicious.

Robert Broadfoot has designed a set which nicely represents some futuristic time, without being so over the top that it is unbelievable.

The entire evening is great fun and there are parts which are so funny they will …. well … have you wondering if you can “hold it” until you can get to the public facilities!

Midsummer Night's Dream

If you’re going to set a play in a leafy glade, what better stage for it than a leafy glade? It seems impossible that Acme Theater Company is presenting its 25^th free Shakespeare in the Park – where has the time gone?

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” staged and directed by David Burmester, is being presented free of charge at the Outdoor Pavilion behind the Davis Art Center. It seems fair to say that in Shakespeare’s day, the performers didn’t have ambulance sirens and skateboarders zipping through the audience to contend with, but the actors handle all the auditory distractions with aplomb. The lack of amplification in the outdoor venue is always a problem and some actors handle it better than others, but it is still an enjoyable production nonetheless.

Every couple of years Acme faces a big turnover in company, where the more experienced actors graduate out of the company and there is an influx of younger, less experienced talent. From the look of “Midsummer Night’s Dream”’s cast, we’re in for a couple of exceptional years as these younger actors hone their skills. Only a couple of the cast of this show are seniors and the rest are 9^th, 10^th and 11^th graders. Heading the list of actors to watch are Delany Pelz as Puck and John Ramos as Bottom.

The play tells several stories, each of which occurs during a single summer night in a magical forest outside Athens, in which fairies play pranks on lovesick mortals, earnest youths endure comical romantic confusion, and a group of mechanics attempts to rehearse a play in secret.

Acme, which often sets its productions in strange time periods, seems to have chosen no specific time period for this production. Instead, the three groups of characters are color coded. The mortals of the court of Thesius, Duke of Athens (Ethan Jaffee) are all dressed in black and white. The “Rude Mechanicals,” who are rehearsing their play to present to the king all wear pastel jumpsuits, and it is the members of the fairy kingdom who sport the colored costumes. (Tatiana Ray gets credit for costume design.)

The Duke and his bride-to-be, Hippolyta (Kate McFarland) direct the events of the evening, with their request to Philostrate, the Mistress of Revels (Anna Sparrevohn) to arrange entertainment for their upcoming nuptials

Plans are interrupted by the arrival of Egea (Victoria Gimpelevich), a noble woman asking for help in forcing her daughter Hermia (Genevieve Whitman) to marry Demetrius (Alex Kravitz), the husband of the mother’s choosing, though Hermia is in love with Lysander (Brandon Raphael). (Whitman is particular good as the rebellious daughter.)

To further complicate things, Hermia's friend Helena (Vivian Breckenridge) is in love with Demetrius--setting the stage for all of the twists and turns which develop over the course of the story.

Hermia and Lysander flee Athens into the woods, intending to be married at the home of his aunt. They are followed by Demetrius, determined to win his bride's hand, and Helena, determined to win Demetrius' love.

The mechanics are rehearsing in the woods, under the direction of the carpenter, Quince, a delightful interpretation by Celsiana Warwick. Her four actors are Bottom, Flute (Matt Northup), Starvelling (Julieanne Conard) and Snout (Anthony Estrella). Ramos’ Bottom is expansive, hammy and delightful. Northrup is particularly funny in the female role of Thisbe in the play within a play, while Ali Moreno as Snug is just plain adorable. Anthony Estrella is a solid “wall” with a chink through which the lovers Pyramus and Thisbe communicate and Julieanne Conard makes a good moon under which the lovers die.

No production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" would be effective without a solid Robin Goodfellow ("Puck"), Oberon's jester, a mischevious fairy who delights in playing pranks on mortals. Delany Pelz is just what the doctor ordered. She is lythe and impish and delights in the tricks she performs.

Emily Tracy is tall and regal as Titania, the Queen of the Fairies, under a spell to fall in love with a donkey. Sean Olivares is her king Oberon, while the fairy band is rounded out by Tatiana Ray as Peaseblossom, Hope Raymond as Cobweb, Hanna Feldstein as Moth and Madelyn Ligtenberg as Mustardseed.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" is a delicious piece of merriment, and a nice diversion on a warm summer's evening. Take the night off and go romping in a magical forest with a bunch of fairies. And if a skateboarder happens to roll through the audience at an inopportune time, think of it as one of Puck’s pranks.

Urinetown

There is a real problem writing a review of the hilarious “Urinetown,” the musical with the unlikely title, currently entertaining audiences at UCD’s main theatre, through June 3.

The problem is that it contains so many funny things on so many levels that I’m reluctant to give anything away—part of the fun is in the discovery.

“Urinetown,” with music and lyrics by Mark Hollman, and book and lyrics by Greg Kotis, began life as a production for New York’s International Fringe Festival, where it was so successful that it moved first to an off-Broadway theater, and in September 2001 (not exactly a great time for theater – in fact, the opening was postponed following 9/11), it opened on Broadway, where it ran through January of 2004, for a healthy 925 performances.

This timely piece, which explores a world where water is in short supply and the ability to relieve oneself becomes a social / political firestorm.

Travis Dukelow acts as the quasi narrator, Officer Lockstock (whose partner (Yahya Rouhani) is Officer Barrell), who opens the show in conversation with “Little Sally” (Allison Minick). Dukelow is perfect for this role. He has a deep voice that exudes confidence, and the sardonic delivery that lets the audience know that the whole show is really a big joke.

Minick is cute as a button as Little Sally, as she goads Lockstock into telling the story.

“Say, Officer Lockstock, is this where you tell the audience about the water shortage?... The hard times. The drought. A shortage so awful that private toilets eventually become unthinkable.”

Lockstock sets the stage with the explanation “suffice it to say that in Urinetown (the musical) everyone has to use public bathrooms in order to take care of their private business. That's the central conceit of the show!

Better hope your pennies
Add up to the fee -
We can't have you peeing
For free
If you do, we'll catch you
We, we never fail!
And we never bother with jail

All the public restrooms are owned by one company, run by Caldwell B. Cladwell (Jesse Merz), who believe he is above reproach, that he can do whatever he wants, that he can reward his cronies and the hell with the rest of the people (any resemblance between Cladwell and any current politicians is purely coincidental).

Cladwell’s daughter, appropriately named “Hope” (Emma Goldin) is returning home after graduation from college. Daddy expects her to take over the running of his company, but the idealistic Hope isn’t exactly ready to follow in Daddy’s footsteps.

Goldin is absolutely great. Her costume helps to make her the center of attention (kudos to costume designer Maggie Morgan) and throughout the show, she exudes wholesomeness and goodness. She is at her absolute best in act 2, after her abduction. She’s a walking cliché and pulls it off flawlessly.

Bobby Strong (R. Andrew Hess) works for the worst public toilet in town, under the leadership of Penelope Pennywise (Ara Glenn-Johanson). Hess is delightfully idealistic, a young firebrand who is determined to win back the right to “pee for free” for all the people. He imbues Strong with the same impish likeability that he gave to Sancho Panza in the recent “Man of La Mancha.” His “Run, Freedom, Run” is the high point of the show.

Glenn-Johnson would make a great Evita. Her spirited Penelope is great fun and she does a wonderful job with “It’s a Privilege to Pee.”

This whole show is an homage to classic musicals, with the musical arrangements as much fun as the songs themselves. How many classic musicals can you spot?

The appeal of this particular production, in addition to a stellar cast, is director Mindy Cooper’s crisp direction and choreography. Dancers dance with Rockette-like precision and she creates wonderful groupings and angular freezes that are simply delicious.

Robert Broadfoot has designed a set which nicely represents some futuristic time, without being so over the top that it is unbelievable.

The entire evening is great fun and there are parts which are so funny they will …. well … have you wondering if you can “hold it” until you can get to the public facilities!

Death of a Salesman

Willy Loman is living the American dream, the dream of being rich and well liked by lots of people. The problem is that for 60 year old Willy, after years of chasing the dream, it still remains just a dream.

Willy Loman is the central figure in Arthur Miller’s 1949 classic, “Death of a Salesman,” now being presented at the Woodland Opera House, under the direction of Dean Shellenberger. In Patrick Murphy, Shellenberger has found an excellent Willy. He so beautifully plays the complex emotions of a man who is coming to the end of his life, leaving so much undone, yet whose personality will not allow him to admit failure, a man who is beginning to lose his grip on reality and lives much of his life in a dream state, remembering the past, when the dream seemed possible.

Willy tells his sons, Biff (Eric Baldwin) and Happy (David Campfield) that personality is more important than smarts. He explains, "the man who makes an appearance in the business world, the man who creates personal interest, is the man who gets ahead. Be liked and you will never want."

Willy has given up a lot chasing that carrot that always hangs just out of reach. At one point he decides he must buy seeds. "I've got to get some seeds. I've got to get some seeds, right away. Nothing's planted. I don't have a thing in the ground." He talks about retiring and buying a little place in the country where he and his wife Linda (Lydia Venables) can raise chickens.

Despite Willy’s view of his world, the Loman family is a classic dysfunctional family. Biff, the favored son, hit his peak as the high school football star and has never been able to live up to his father’s inflated goals for his son. He blames Willy for telling him that he can do anything, when he is finding the reality quite the opposite. "I realized what a ridiculous lie my whole life has been!"

Baldwin gives a fine performance, bringing out all the bitterness and hopelessness of the character, with a seething anger just under the surface, waiting to explode at his father. "Pop! I'm a dime a dozen, and so are you!" he yells at his father.

"I am not a dime a dozen! I am Willy Loman, and you are Biff Loman!" his father insists.

Hap shares his father’s dream and has tried all his life to live up to the promise that his father found in Biff, but remains the invisible son, nothing quite good enough for his father. Campfield gives a compelling performance as the son who has tried all his life for his father’s recognition.

Lydia Venables is Linda, the woman who tries to hold it all together, who supports her husband and tries to believe his dreams, though she understands the reality of his life. She acts as the referee between Willy and their children. She is a woman who is beaten down by life but who is the soul of the family.

Venables does not inhabit the character consistently. In the earlier scenes one is aware that she is “acting,” saying the roles, following the directions, but it’s not until later that she truly becomes Linda and then her performance is riveting.

There is a mostly strong supporting cast. Greg Collett is Charlie, the next door neighbor who has always been Willy’s friend and who attempts to lend a helping hand when things begin to go sour.

Dan Slauson is Bernard, Charlie’s nerdy son. Micail Buse is Uncle Ben, "The man knew what he wanted and went out and got it! Walked into a jungle, and comes out, the age of twenty-one, and he's rich!" It is Ben, with whom Willy has many imaginary conversations, who is Willy’s excuse for continuing to chase the dream, even as it begins to fade.

Philip Pittman is Howard, who has to let Willy know that his usefulness to the company he has served for all of his career has come to an end.

Early in the play Willy fantasizes about the hoards of people who will come to his funeral, which will show his family how much he is loved. The reality is just the opposite, with just family and neighbors gathered at his gravesite, where it is Hap who vows that his father will not have died in vain and who promises never to let go of the dream.

The audience for opening night was small, which is a shame because this is an excellent production which will wring every ounce of emotion from those who immerse themselves in the action.

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Oscar Levant once said that “a pun is the lowest form of humor…if you didn’t think of it first.” For lovers of puns, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels,” by Jeffrey Lane and David Yazbek, this week’s Broadway Series presentation at the Community Center in Sacramento, will have you in hog heaven. The puns come fast and furious. Groaning was a frequent response of the audience throughout the evening. (“I’m Muriel of Omaha.” “Pleased to meet you.” “It’s mutual.”)

Based on the 1988 movie starring Michael Caine and Steve Martin, this production is slick looking with fabulous sets by David Rockwell and costumes by Greg Barnes.

Tom Hewitt is Lawrence Jamison, who has been living on the Riviera, playing a faux prince and bilking rich American women out of their money for years. He becomes a Henry Higgins-esque mentor who takes a brash American con-man, Freddy Bensen (D.B. Bonds) under his wing to teach him the finer points of swindling.

“Chimp in a Suit,” sung by Jamison’s right hand man, the gendarme Andre Thibault (Drew McVety) is a scene right out of “My Fair Lady,” as Jamison attempts to teach Freddy how to dress and act the part. Freddy is a more than willing pupil when he looks around Jamison’s mansion and decides that he, too, wants “Great Big Stuff.”

When the first lesson, the wooing of the hyperactive oil heiress Jolene Oakes (Jenifer [sic] Foote), goes terribly wrong, Jamison is helped out of his predicament by Freddy pretending to be a brother with one too many (or perhaps too few) chromosomes in his DNA.

It soon become apparent that the Riviera isn’t big enough for two scoundrels, and so when the “Soap Queen,” Christine Colgate (Laura Marie Duncan, from the Broadway cast of this show) arrives on the scene, Jamison and Freddie agree to a contest—whoever can get $50,000 out of her will be the winner and the other will leave town. The contest soon turns personal, as they each vie not for her money, but for her affections. There are more than a few surprising twists and turns in the plot before the finale.

This is a delightful cast, with Hewitt the suave, elegant and debonair gentleman to Bonds’ crass yet delightful cad.

McVety is a Frenchman (“only by birth and affectation”) who hasn’t learned to be a ladies man yet, until forced to deal with Muriel Eubanks (Hollis Resnik), one of Jamison’s conquests, who must be kept distracted. The two provide a delightful subplot to the central story.

Duncan is earnest and saccharine as the naive heroine, who proves to have more than one side to her.

Foote is high powered, brash and deliciously over the top as she describes life in the panhandle of Oklahoma to the clueless Jamison, who finds himself engaged in more than just a little hanky panky with her. She has one of the better dance numbers, aided by some outrageously costumed cowboys.

There are no songs in this show which are memorable, but a few, like “Dirty Rotten Number,” a duet for Freddy and Jamison, and Jamison’s “Love Sneaks in” hit high marks.

This is a new musical which has the feel of a classic musical with modern elements to it. It is at times raunchy, the dialogue is rapid-fire and the jokes come one on top of the other. The two heroes are lovable scalawags, so we forgive many of their antics.

While this show may never go down in theatrical history as one of the greats, it is nevertheless a fun evening and worth checking out.

fig (a): the heart

The heart beats approximately 100,000 times a day and 40 million times a year. The left side of the heart could shoot water 6 feet in the air.

These are just two of the bits of information from the program of what is perhaps one of the most original plays you’re likely to see, “fig (a): the heart,” written and directed by Emily Davis, about an organ which, the author points out is, both “meat and metaphor.”

“fig (a)” is part play, part medical lecture, part philosophy, and all intriguing. It also has the most original finale that I think I have ever seen.

The printed program for this play is a little difficult to follow, given the frequent difficulty in understanding names spoken from the stage (or the fact that characters apparently have names, but they aren’t ever used except in the program) and the fact there is no “cast of characters” per se, but only a list of performers. Actors play more than one role so, though the many roles are included in individual bios, this review may confuse one actor for another.

The experience begins before the actors take the stage, with pre-show music by Susan Alexjander. “Sequencia” is derived from the vibrational frequencies of molecules found in the chemistry of DNA.

As the action begins on stage, Ruby (UC Davis visiting lecturer, Melanie Julian) has just had a heart transplant. She received the heart of a young man, Luca (Christopher Jee), who died in an auto accident. The one-act play follows Ruby as she adjusts to her new heart, attempts to discover the identity of her donor, and to find her old heart. Julian is such a natural for this sometimes odd role that it would seem it had been written for her.

Jzeela Refah plays the role of Ruby’s doctor, Dr. Al-Qalb. Refah appears to be handling the acting well, but even straining to listen in the small confines of the Mondavi Studio Theatre, most of her lines were inaudible and important pieces of information were missed. She definitely needs to work on projection.

No such projection work is needed for (I think) Sara Zimmerman, who plays a medical lecturer who introduces various medical texts and philosophical readings about the heart, illustrated by clever shadow puppets created by Art Grueneberger and performed by Shayna Carp and Dustin Murray.

In her surgical recovery, Ruby is met by Wepawet (Daniel Reano-Koven), the Egyptian Jackal Guard Dog, who guides her to the Hall of Two Truths, where her heart is to be weighed and judged. But when she explains that the heart in her body is not her heart, she is returned to the present time to begin the search for her own heart.

(The boat in which she is transported is also very clever, with kudos going to Carrie Mullen, the scenic designer. I don’t have a clue as to the name of the masked character or identity of the actor who steered the boat, whose Hannibal Lecter-like breaths were quite effective.)

On her quest to find her old heart and the donor of her new heart, Ruby finds herself in the Egyptian Underworld, in Venice under the guidance of The Venetian (Brittany Barba), and at the Heartbreak Hotel.

She is visited by a number of mythical figures, including an hilarious Cupid (Bradley Castillo) and his Hindu counterpart, Kama (Reano-Koven). And Elvis, of course.

Ruby attempts to relate her experiences to her sister, Maddie (Lauri Smith), who feels she needs some sort of psychotherapy. Enter Dr. Beatrice Bloomset (Claire Blackstock), who explains that the kinds of experiences Ruby is having are not uncommon among transplant patients, and she gives a fascinating explanation of the workings of the heart, which is described as much more than “just a pump,” and is often called a “little brain,” because of its seeming ability to “think” independent of the brain itself.

The play comes to a logical, if unusual, conclusion.

In the end, incorporating all the various information we have received throughout the evening, we are left with questions about what exactly makes us human. It is up to each of us to find the answer to that questions by…following our own heart.

Hair

Margaret Mead once wrote, “A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”

I wonder if anybody believes that any more.

In 1967, when “Hair,” the “American Tribal Love-Rock Musical” by Gerome Ragni and James Rado, with music by Galt MacDermot, first burst on the scene, they did.

Artistic Difference’s excellent, energetic production, now running at The Space theater in Sacramento, is both a reminder of a time, 40 years ago, when we were engaged in a disastrous war — and the passion with which people protested that war. It was a time when, despite the horrors of a bad war, people still believed they could make a difference, they cared about raising their voice in protest.

“It’s no coincidence that we’re presenting this show at this particular time in history,” writes director Maggie Hollinbeck. “We’re here all over again, aren’t we? In a war that has divided the country, fighting for equal rights, witnessing horrific acts of violence and racism and hatred on the nightly news.”

The experience of this production of “Hair” begins with the somewhat dilapidated building itself, which could easily have served as some hippie pad in the 1960s. Members of the cast greet the arriving audience with smiles, flowers, and happy pills. Upon entering the theater itself, the audience is transported back 40 years by the set decoration, the cast wandering around the theater offering to share drags of herbal cigarettes (at least we assume they were herbal!) with anyone who wants. There are even seats on the stage for those who want to interact more fully with the cast.

Scenic designer Ian Wallace has nicely recreated the feel of Greenwich Village in the 60s.

The company has also devised an ingenious way to make the opening announcements about cell phones, pagers, and exit signs.

There is a plot of sorts – Claude Hooper Bukowski (Christian St. Croix) has received a draft notice and struggles with his conscience over whether to present himself for induction, or burn his draft card and remain with his friends, enjoying the free lifestyle and protesting the war. St. Croix brings poignancy to the role.

But while Claude’s struggle may be the plot line that drives the action, this is really a show about music, and this was the country’s first “rock musical,” with minimal dialog. Songs like “Aquarius” (hauntingly sung by Netty Carey) and “Let the Sunshine In,” the closing anthem, led by Lindsay Grimes and the irrepressible Cierra Tahsini, have a permanent place in our musical history.

Director Hollinbeck has a strong cast for this production. Jerry Lee, who was so perfect as the very British Earnest in Woodland Opera House’s production of “The Importance of Being Earnest” is equally perfect as Claude’s good friend George Berger, long-haired, barefoot, anti-establishment, and rocking out to songs like “Donna.”

Lee and St. Croix work well together, with Grimes the third point in a love-triangle. Grimes has the task of pointing out that the free-living, free-loving lifestyle is not always what it’s cracked up to be (“Easy to be Hard”).

Joelle L. Wirth as Jeannie, hopelessly suffering an unrequited love of Claude has a stand-out moment with “Hippie Life,” while Tygar L. Hicks stands out in the poignant “Frank Mills.”

Ryan P. Adame adds comic relief as Margaret Mead.

The first act “nude scene,” so shocking when “Hair” first opened in 1967, seems a more natural part of the action than anything to raise an eyebrow over, in this day when nudity in the media has become more commonplace. Some of the cast continued the partial nudity into the second act.

Michael Coleman is costume and wig designer and has done a terrific job recreating the period. The Afro on Inertia deWitt as Dionne is particularly striking.

Musical direction is by percussionist Elaine Lord, aided by DMTC’s longtime musical director Erik Daniels, while the production manager for the show is Mike McElroy, last seen as Frank in DMTC’s “Annie Get Your Gun.”

I was living in Berkeley when “Hair” premiered and I remember the feeling of hope and possibility. Seeing this production makes me realize that I’ve lost that feeling, and I came away from the show wondering if we will ever again see the dawning of the Age of Aquarius, when peace will guide the planet.

Someone's Somebody

Regina Louise would like you to know that love is never wasted, and the love you give a child can change that child’s life forever.

To raise awareness about issues concerning foster care, Sacramento Theater Company is kicking off “May is National Foster Care Month” with the world premiere of an original one-woman show, “Someone’s Somebody,” adapted from her autobiography of the same name, performed by Regina Louise, a survivor of the foster care system, and directed by Peggy Shannon, who helped Regina develop it for the stage.

“Every pair of shoes tells a story,” begins Regina. The set, designed by Marion Williams, consists of a couple of chairs and two racks of shoes, which the actress removes, one pair at a time, and puts on, to illustrate the various periods of her life.

You begin to think about the simple things most children take for granted — like shoes that fit. On stage is a sign for ShoesThatFit.org, an organization which provides new shoes and clothes to children in need to help bolster their self esteem and enable them to do better in school.

Regina remembers her first shoes were a pair she made herself by cutting up the belt that was used to whip her and nailing sections of it to blocks of wood.

The child of a wannabe singer father and an alcoholic don’t-wannabe-mother, Regina was placed into the foster care system at an early age and passed around from foster home to foster home, each with its own set of problems. She took to running away and boasts that her shortest stay in a foster home was 17 minutes.

“I just wanted someone who smelled good,” she says, wistfully.

In time she was placed with Jean Kerr, a white woman who gave her the first sense of love and stability she’d ever had. She began to gain confidence. The simple task of learning to use a napkin took on great significance for the young girl. More importantly, she received something she had never had before: a sense of belonging.

The two created a strong bond and Kerr petitioned to adopt Regina, but her petition was denied because it was felt that Regina belonged with a black family. She was removed from Kerr’s home and put back into the system again.

She talks about mental health hospitalizations where she was kept doped up for over a year, and sexual molestation which occurred in the home of a minister over a six month period of time, and records which branded her as borderline retarded.

When she turned 18, she was handed all of her belongings in a garbage bag and set out on the streets--she had aged out of the system.

Regina Louise is a remarkable woman of great strength, who never forgot the kindness of Jean Kerr and who says that throughout her life, whenever she needed to fill out an application which asked for her parent’s name, she would use Kerr’s and make up an address. It was the closest thing she had to a real “mother.” The inner strength she gained from her short stay in Kerr’s home taught her that she was better than the system assumed her to be.

She began writing her memoir, “Somebody’s Someone” and following its publication, she decided to quit her day job as a hair stylist and salon owner and become an advocate for the more than 500,000 misplaced children in the foster care system.

Now a strong, successful woman, a published author and lecturer, Regina Louise has racked up over 100,000 rail reward miles on Amtrak, traveling across the country to share her amazing story of triumph in every state of the union.

The translation of her story from book to stage, with the haunting musical accompaniment of Aladrian Elmore makes “Someone’s Somebody” a thought provoking evening whose triumphant finale will bring the audience to its feet with applause.