The Jacksonian

Kurt Johnson and Jaime Jones perform in “The Jacksonian,”
playing now at the B Street Theatre.
In the background is Jason Kuykendall and Gina Hughes. 
Courtesy photo

 
The best thing that can be said about Beth Henley’s “The Jacksonian,” now at the B Street Theatre under the direction of Buck Busfield and Jerry Montoya, is that with only one act, it lasts only 90 minutes.

Watching the audience leave the theater silently and one of the performers slipping out unobtrusively into the parking lot without glancing at anyone leads me to believe I am not alone in that opinion.
 
Henley is a Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright; my husband turned to me at the end of this show and said, “I don’t think she won the prize for this one.” (It was for “Crimes of the Heart.”)

This story is Southern Gothic set in a seedy hotel in Jackson, Miss., with a load of family dysfunction thrown in just for fun. Publicity for the play says that it is “set against the backdrop of the civil rights movement,” but other than the fact that it takes place in Mississippi in 1964 and contains quite a bit of racist language, you’d never know it.

The set is quite nice (designed by Samantha Reno), with a bar along the back side, one of the hotel’s guest rooms toward the front, and an alley with an important ice machine along one side.

Dentist Bill Perch (Kurt Johnson) has moved into the hotel after having been thrown out by his wife Susan (Jamie Jones). He sees it as a trial separation. She holds him responsible for a hysterectomy he agreed to while she was under anesthesia. Daughter Rosy (Gina Hughes) is made the go-between, carrying messages back and forth to each of her parents.

As Dr. Bill plunges deeper into depression, he takes to sniffing nitrous oxide with the same sadistic glee as Orin Scrivello in “Little Shop of Horrors.”

The hotel bartender, Fred Weber (Jason Kuykendall) ,seems cheery and affable until he becomes weird and one wonders what he is hiding.

Housemaid Eva White (Tara Sissom) is voluptuous and sensual and desperately looking for a man, upset that she has been dumped by Fred and setting her sights on Bill, whose idea of “penetration” seems to be sticking his finger in her mouth. (Ironic that her name is “White,” as she is the most racist of the group).

One of these characters will die before the play ends, and another of the characters will be the murderer … and ultimately do we really care?

Disappointment with the script aside, the actors were fine. Johnson is pleasant and affable to begin with, hopeful for a reunion with his wife and a loving father to daughter Rosy. and then slowly deteriorates as periodic meetings with Susan go from bad to worse.

Jones is always fun to watch and she does “anger” wonderfully. I never figured out what she was wearing to the hotel, under her fur coat — a long flimsy formal gown, or her nightgown. In either event, it was perhaps a strange costume choice by designer Shelley Russell-Riley.

Hughes, as Rosy, seems to change in age from younger to older, depending on her hope for her parents to reunite, and her desire to flirt with Fred. She is plagued by a bad case of acne (another appropriate character name, perhaps), which doesn’t really seem to serve much purpose to advance the plot, other than to point out that she has been ostracized by peers for it. Until “acne” was mentioned, I thought she had a horrible make-up accident.

Kuykendall seems the most likable of the bunch until he shows his true colors as he leers at Rosy and begins to creep her out.

Sissom’s character delivers perhaps the most memorable line of the night, referring to her relationship with God, “Every Sunday I get His forgiveness. Regular, like a bowel movement.” Now there’s a conversation stopper!

The scenes are presented out of sequence, which adds to the confusion and leaves one feeling, at the end, that this is a muddled melodrama without much point.

Pirates of Penzance

Photo by Barry Wisdom

Saving the best for last, the Sacramento Theater Company closed out its current season with a sparkling new production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance,” directed by Michael Laun and choreographed by Ryan Blanning, with musical direction by Samuel Clein.

I was somewhat concerned, checking the program and seeing that there did not appear to be a women’s chorus, other than the principal women and how were they going to get both a band of pirates and a bunch of policemen with only five non-principal men?

Silly me.  This show is so tightly directed and so exquisitely choreographed that the small cast was more than adequate.  The whole show moved with the precision of the Rockettes. Every move was sharp and crisp with wonderful little bits added, such as the Pirate King’s interaction with the small band, and in one spot the spectators, in unison, following an exchange between two characters with the head turns of an audience at a tennis match.

It was a dream cast.  Michael RJ Campbell was outstanding as the Pirate King, with eyes that flashed, and body language that left no doubt whatsoever that he was In Charge of things. 

Gary S. Martinez was beautifully befuddled as Major General Stanley, plagued with agony over his lie to the Pirate King to save his daughters from being carried off to the nearest Doctor of Divinity to be married.  Stanley’s “Modern Major General” may be the most famous of Gilbert & Sullivan’s patter songs and Martinez delivered it flawlessly, with impeccable diction.  And just when you are left breathless at the speed with which he spews out these lines, he speeds it up.

Zak Edwards is making his STC debut in one of his dream roles, Frederic, the apprentice pirate celebrating his 21st birthday and finally out of his indentures and able to live a blameless life.  And he is a dream in the role, with a full steady tenor and wonderful actor to boot.

Aviva Pressman is likewise making her STC debut in the role of Mabel, who captures Frederic’s heart.  Whether not so coyly enticing Frederic or militantly leading the band of policemen to attack the pirates, she is a powerhouse.

Ruth, the piratical maid of all work, is deliciously portrayed by Martha Omiyo Kight.  She is the only female face young Frederic has seen in his life and tries to convince him that she has won her way into his boyish heart (though, as she was his nursemaid when he was a baby, this has always struck me as somewhat creepy!)

The second act trio of Ruth, Frederic, and the Pirate King was great fun and, as did Joseph Papp in his modernized version of this operetta, STC opted to include the “Matter Matter” trio from “Ruddygore,” in addition to the song “Paradox” because it just fits so well.

Mabel’s sisters, Edith (Miranda D. Lawson), Kate (Katherine Cooper) and Isabel (Abbey Williams Cambell) were fun, but it is the youngest, Lucy (Courtney Shannon) who stands out by blending in so beautifully that you just want to watch her the whole time.  This role is double cast and Shannon will share the role with Meghan Greene.

Jeffrey Lloyd Heatherly is the Sergeant of Police, big and blustery and not at all enthused about going off “to glory and the grave.”

I must also give kudos to whichever of the scenic designers (Jarrod Bodensteiner, Renne Degarmo or Brian Watson) was responsible for the ever changing (but very subtly) sky.

If I have any criticism at all, and it is a very slight one, it is that I wonder if body mics were necessary.  Everyone had a big voice that easily filled the small theater, one mic malfunctioned all night long and a couple of other performers had such strong voices that the amplification was almost overpowering.

On the whole, however, this is just a superlative production.  I’ve been following Gilbert & Sullivan around the world for some 50 years and I think this ranks up there as one of the best productions of “Pirates of Penzance” that I have seen.

The Wizard of Oz

The Davis Musical Theater Company has opened a perfectly charming production of “The Wizard of Oz,” directed and choreographed by Jan Isaacson.

While this is a bare bones production, as far as tech is concerned, there is nothing bare bones in the delightful performances, the costumes or the choreography.  The production is a mostly faithful interpretation of the iconic movie.

Cass Olson is a lovely Dorothy, sweet and innocent and full of wonder, yet longing for her Kansas home.  She has a strong, clear voice that gives perfect pitch to “Over the Rainbow” and she has good rapport with all of her fellow actors.

“Pico Taormina” (who has his own Instagram account) was one of the best behaved Totos I have seen.  He entered the stage when he was supposed to, stood when he was supposed to stand, ran off stage when he was supposed to, and never barked once.  He even chewed Professor Marvel’s hot dog when he was supposed to.  The last time I saw this show, at a different theater, Toto was so obstreperous he disrupted every scene he was in.

Dannette Vassar is an Auntie Em to be reckoned with, while the Uncle Henry of Scott Daughterty was more subdued.  Both appear later in Oz, with Daughterty also playing the Captain of the Winkie guard.

Edward Arakelyan is just wonderful as the Scarecrow (and in Kansas, the farmhand Hunk).  He is winsome and engaging and it’s no wonder he and Dorothy become BFFs.

Gabe Avila maneuvers around in that big Tin Man suit and was also the farmhand Hickory.  He has a big heart in that empty chest of his.

And what can one say about Steve Isaacson as the Cowardly Lion (and farmhand Zeke).  He’s big and cuddly, with a powerful voice.  He is wonderfully reminiscent of Bert Lahr and is truly a Dandy-lion.

The delightful Brian McCann is Professor Marvel and, in Oz, the Wizard.  This role is just perfect for him and he is so much fun to watch on stage.

Lucinda Otto must have been channeling actress Billie Burke because she sounded just like her as Glinda.  She enters and leaves from the wings instead of in a magical bubble, but while there She’s perfect as the Good Witch of the North.

Sarah Kraemer, on the other hand is not good at all...which means she was very good portraying the Wicked Witch of the West (and nasty Kansas neighbor, Almira Gulch).  She had a marvelous time chewing the scenery and at times with that green makeup, her eyes seemed to glow as she spat out her hateful words at...well...everyone.

Fiona Cubbage and Veronica Kyker were great at the Mayor and Coroner of Munchkin land, while Ava Guisino, Lexi Telles and Gillian Cubbage were the cutest Lullabye League you’ve ever seen, particularly six year old Gillian, who stole the show whenever she was on stage.

The other Munchkins, flying monkeys, jitterbugs, snowmen, apple trees, Ozians, and Winkies were a mixture of adult actors and members of DMTC’s Young People’s Theater.  All were delightful. 

Special note should be made of Ryan Everett, who played the lead snowman, as well as other roles throughout the show, and stood out from the rest for his dancing ability.

DMTC needs a video person.  The show could have been enhanced in several places by using projections for, for example, the tornado, the flying monkeys, and the Witch’s “Surrender Dorothy” written in the sky, but they did as well as could be expected within the constraints of a small budget.

The yellow brick road, for example, was played by Tessa Hickman, also an excellent dancer, who wore a yellow tux with a long brick-printed tail, who went ahead Dorothy to show her the way.  It was a little odd, but it worked.

The review would not be complete without mentioning the DMTC orchestra, which sounded better than usual, and the marvelous costumes of Jean Henderson, who must have had a wonderful time putting this show together.  It showed. I loved that all the Kansas costumes were in grey, black and white, saving the explosion of color for Oz.

Bring your kids, bring your grandkids, and bring yourself, if you loved the movie.  You’ll have a wonderful time at this production.

Little Shop of Horrors

It’s always interesting when a director takes a new approach to a familiar show. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so much.

Based on the Roger Corman 1960 film of the same name, the musical “Little Shop of Horrors,” with book and lyrics by the late Howard Ashman and music by Alan Menken, had its world premiere off Broadway in 1982, where it ran for more than 2,200 performances.

The movie musical version, starring Rick Moranis and Steve Martin, was produced in 1986, and in 2003, “Little Shop of Horrors” hit the big time with a real on-Broadway production.
A new production, directed by Jason Hammond, opened last weekend at the Woodland Opera House.

“Little Shop” is the story of Seymour Krelborn (Spencer Alexander), a nerdy employee at Mushnik’s Florist shop, a failing business on Skid Row. Seymour, somewhat of an experimental botanist, bought an odd plant from a Chinese flower shop during a solar eclipse. He named the plant “Audrey II” to honor his colleague, Audrey (Christianne Klein), for whom he has tender feelings.

Audrey, however, is in an abusive relationship with a dentist Orin Scrivello (Dan Sattel), whose mother encouraged him to go into dentistry because of his love of inflicting pain.

Audrey convinces Mr. Mushnik (Gil Sebastian) to display Audrey II in the window of his shop and it begins to attract customers. But the plant soon starts dying because Seymour can’t figure out what to feed it. Accidentally pricking his finger, he then discovers Audrey II needs human blood to thrive.

Seymour is in the position of having to find more and more blood to feed his plant, while the plant grows to eventually practically take over the flower shop, when Seymour finally learns the terrible truth about her.

Traditionally, Audrey II is a large blob of fabric that has an opening through which food can be tossed. An unseen puppeteer manipulates the plant while its voice, sounding like the voice of Satan, booms out ominously from a speaker somewhere.

In this production, Audrey II looks more like — sorry I have to say it — a giant vagina, with a gaping opening through which the indomitable Deborah Hammond stands and sings as the voice of the plant. Though Hammond is definitely menacing, it just doesn’t give the same degree of horror as the original staging.
The actors, however, are excellent. Alexander is a wonderful nerd, uneasy, especially around Audrey. He’s uncomfortable in his new role as celebrity as the fame of Audrey II spreads. And he is both horrified and repulsed by the things he is willing to do to keep Audrey alive.

Klein is sweet as the ditsy Audrey who believes she is unworthy of anyone but an abusive male because she is a woman with “a past.” Yet she fails to recognize that Seymour is in love with her.
Actually, anyone would fall in love with her as she sings “Somewhere That’s Green,” her wistful wish for her perfect dream life. I liked that Klein used a Bronx accent, but didn’t go overboard with it, as some actresses do.

When Audrey and Seymour finally confess their feelings for each other, their duet “Suddenly Seymour” is a lovely break from all the horror going on in their lives.

Sebastian was an appropriately grouchy and blustery Mr. Mushnik, who rescued Seymour from a Skid Row orphanage and gave him a bed under the shop counter and allows him one Sunday off every two weeks. He is not above offering to adopt Seymour if it will ensure that he will keep Audrey II at the flower shop.

Doing his best to steal the show in the small, but important role of the nitrous oxide-sniffing dentist Orin Scrivello, Sattel is deliciously unlikable. A Michael Imperioli lookalike, Sattel is also able to transform himself rapidly into several other small roles, with several looks, including that of a woman.

The trio of doo-wop singers who act as a quasi Greek chorus throughout the show are Emily Jo Seminoff, Julia Spangler and Erin Bruni. They each get a moment to shine and display their strong voices.

Also, Lenore Sebastian appears in the small role of a Skid Row homeless woman. A consummate actress, Sebastian makes the most of her character, though she has no lines to speak.

Jason Hammond and Denise Miles are credited with costume design. Those for Audrey are particularly appropriate while the red gown for Hammond is stunning, and the transformation of the girls’ trio from drab Skid Row clothes to sequined dresses was fun.

Special mention should be made of the small orchestra — Jia-Min Rosendale, Dale Proctor, Scott Plamondon, Alex Rieff and Dave Gill — who provided the perfect accompaniment.

There is no great message in this show, unless it’s “if you find a strange plant which appears suddenly following a total eclipse of the sun, walk by and leave it alone.” But this musical is fun for the whole family.

Buyer Cellar

Playwright Jonathan Tollins wants everyone to know that his hilarious one-man play, “Buyer Cellar,” now at the B Street Theater, is a work of fiction.  In fact, actor Nick Cearly takes great pains to explain to the audience before the play starts that this whole story is Tollins’ fantasy based on the then-newly released Barbra Streisand book, “My Passion for Design,” in which she photographs the rooms in her mansion and takes the reader on a tour.  But Tollins has never been in Streisand’s house and he certainly would do nothing to upset  "someone as famous, talented and litigious as" Barbra Streisand.  “The whole thing is preposterous,” Cearly says.  “You know that, right?”

The one thing that is true, apparently is that the book shows a shopping mall in the basement of Streisand’s house, set up with different stores (including a toy shop, vintage clothing shop, and soda fountain) to display the many tsatskes collected over her lifetime.

Cearly also tells the audience that he doesn’t “do” Streisand and that there are lots of Streisand impressionists out there (“some of them women”) and that while Streisand will appear in the piece, it won’t be an attempt to mimic her, but rather to suggest her.

Explanations out of the way, let the fun begin. Over the next 90 minutes, I can’t remember laughing so hard in a long time.

Cearly plays Alex More, an out of work actor (he was recently fired from Disneyland for threatening an obstreperous child with a churro) who is offered a job by some mysterious person in an estate in Malibu.  He explains to the audience that he ultimately learns this is the home of Barbra Streisand and hastens to assure us that though he is an out and proud gay man, he is not a Barbra Queen or a Judy Queen, though his boyfriend Barry is and so he knows a bit about Streisand through Barry.

Alex’s job is to sit in the mall all day, keep the shops organized and await the only customer who will ever shop there.

She arrives on the third day and decides to shop in the toy store, where she is taken by a certain French doll and asks the price.  It’s all play acting, but Alex, the actor, is up to the challenge and there is a fun give and take with him and Streisand, who doesn’t want to pay full price (for this doll which she already owns).  The interplay sets up a relationship between the two which continues over the coming weeks, as Streisand shops for this and that and the conversation between the two becomes more intimate, two somewhat lonely people developing a fantasy friendship.

Growing bolder, Alex tells her she should play Mama Rose in Gypsy and swept away by his enthusiasm she hires him as her acting coach

Barry, who at first was omigawd thrilled that his boyfriend would be in the presence of Streisand, begins to grow jealous and, feeling her behavior is becoming very odd, warns Alex not to get too involved and that he is just her plaything du jour.

But Alex sees a real friendship developing with the megastar, especially when she invites him upstairs to tour the main house, where he makes a social blunder which brings an end to his employment and teaches him a lesson about real friendship.

The play is never not double-you-over funny, though has moments of poignancy, the whole thing handled beautifully by the talented Cearly, who smoothly handles several different personalities with body posture, facial expression, and slight voice changes.  He is at his best in handling both sides of conversations with Streisand.

This is a not to be missed production if you like funny, if you like Streisand, and if you like to see a talented actor at the top of his game.

Once

 

“Once,” with the book by Enda Walsh and music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova, is not your typical Broadway musical. It was based on the movie by John Carney, made for an unbelievable $150,000.

Proving that you don’t need lots of CGI or to spend billions of dollars, this low-budget film became a big hit and won the 2007 Academy Award for best song and the 2007 Independent Spirit Award for best foreign film. It also grossed more than $9 million in the United States alone.

In 2011, the New York Theater Workshop brought a stage version to Broadway. It opened to a sold-out extended run, and picked up eight Tony awards. Now “Once” has come to Sacramento and, judging by the waves of crowds flowing into the Sacramento Community Theater, it is going to be a mega-hit here, too.

The original songs from the movie are in the stage show, though the book has been expanded.

This is a quiet show that doesn’t hit you over the head with any message. There are no fancy tech pieces flying about, no glitz, no loud synthesized music. It’s a love story — or it isn’t — and it’s a joyous celebration of music and relationships between people, through making music together. Its brilliance is in the impeccable direction of John Carney, and in the wonderful performances of the actor-musicians.

The set is a Dublin pub, slightly more expansive feeling than a real Irish pub, but they have lots of stage space to fill. The set design is by Bob Crowley, who cleverly includes a large mirror behind the bar, which allows the audience to see both sides of conversations that take place at the bar itself.
The musicians start “jamming” about 15 minutes before the show actually begins and audience members are permitted to join them on stage to enjoy the music, both toe-tapping Irish tunes, and the less-well-known, but equally lively Czech music.

The show begins without fanfare and, in fact, you aren’t sure it has really begun until the lights in the theater slowly begin to dim.

The hero, identified only as “Guy” (Stuart Ward), is a disillusioned young musician whose girl has just left to go to America and who has lost his confidence in himself and his ability to write music that others want to hear. He’s about to give up his dream of a musical career and continue to work in his father’s vacuum cleaner repair shop.

The heroine, identified as “Girl” (Dani de Waal), is a Czech young woman who hears Guy sing his song of unrequited love (“Leave”) and is taken with his passion. She offers to let him clean the vacuum cleaner she just happens to bring into the pub and in return she will pay him with music. She is an accomplished pianist.

DeWaal is a quietly winsome yet vulnerable Girl and her optimism about Guy’s talent is hard to resist. Over the next week she forces Guy to believe in himself again, to get a loan from the bank to pay for a recording session and, over 24 hours, to record a CD. Though that may seem a bit far-fetched in reality, you really do believe that this could be possible.

Girl’s costume helps in keeping space between herself and Guy as, though they are obviously having feelings for each other, she keeps her hands in her pockets almost all the time. We find out why in time.

A huge part of what makes this musical work is the musician-actors. Every musician on stage is also an actor — and a dancer, dancing some wonderfully choreographed numbers (movement by Steven Hoggett). Particularly delightful is Benjamin Magnuson (who also plays the bank manager) dancing with his cello, with moves Woody Allen never thought of in “Take the Money and Run.”

Also delightful is Evan Harrington (guitar, percussion, ukulele) as Billy, the owner of the pub. He’s big and blustery with that wonderful hair-trigger Irish temper that adds such authenticity to his performance.

Tina Stafford (accordion and concertina) plays Baruska, Girl’s mother, who seems to be developing a “thing”for Billy.

The only non-musician on the stage is Sarah McKinley Austin, as the child Ivanka. She is appearing in her first touring Broadway show and is adorable.

The final duet, “Falling Slowly,” with Girl at the piano and Guy on his guitar, is achingly beautiful and is at once a promise of a happy ending and a bittersweet reality of what might have been, and never will be.

This is an unforgettable musical and should appeal to everyone.

Point of Departure

UCD’s master of fine arts in dramatic arts program brings together actors, choreographers, designers and directors to work collaboratively over two years in a range of traditional and experimental pieces.

The finale of the program is for each student to choose to create an individual exploration or to work with one or more of their cohorts investigating research questions surrounding theater, dance and performance.

This year’s performances examine war, sex, technology, cross-dressing and more, under the collaborative title of “Point of Departure.”

A two-night event is taking place on the campus right now. The two pieces of Program 1 are being presented on Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m at the Arena Stage in Wright Hall. Program 2 can be seen on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at 8 p.m., starting with two pieces on the Wyatt Theater stage and then moving to the Della Davidson Studio for the final piece.

The “Echo Theater Suitcase Project: Yolo County” is the work of Daniel Bear Davis and his talented cast. The ensemble has been working together for the past six months in a process of continuous inquiry into our personal relations to war and the military.

A multi-generational group relate stories dealing with war experiences. The show is powerful and in some instances gut-wrenching as people relay either their own memories or experiences of others.
Audience members are given cookies and asked to think about their own sense memories, the sounds, smells and sights that evoke powerful past memories, while a veteran talks about his post-traumatic stress disorder triggers. It is a well-integrated piece that combines acting, dancing and video.

Performers are Cynthia Arellanes, Hien Huynh, Tiffany Martin and Ian Rowland, plus veterans Jim Corbett, a Vietnam vet, and Francis Resta, a veteran of World War II, who performs wearing his oxygen tank. Resta’s performance in particular was quite moving, especially when he dances the waltz with another performer.

At the conclusion of this piece, the theater is emptied and the audience asked to stand in the halls outside while the configuration is changed (and chairs blocked off).

“iGeneration,” the brainchild of Christopher Wolfe, answers the question “How have you been affected by smartphones?” Cast members Karina Chahal, Jesse Chung, Claire Wonjeong Jeong, Nicole Pinto, Michael Poole, Andre Starr, Edward Sukla, Lily Tanner and Christopher Wolf perform with cell phones in hand, the lights shining up into the cast members’ faces.

The story unfolds in Internet-speak and involves making and breaking of relationships, the debate over “winkie faces” and “Bitmojis,” and an active video game. It ends with a very cleverly choreographed cell phone hand-off from person to person and back again that must be seen to be understood.

In the talk-back with Wolfe following the show, the audience members were very enthusiastic and excited that the piece so accurately depicted their lives. For those of us who grew up in the day of dial telephones, it was a little less relatable.

“iGeneration” is an ongoing project. This is the first in a series of theatrical investigations into smartphones and how they affect us. It will be interesting to see where Wolfe takes the investigation from here.

Evening two begins with my personal favorite of the whole program. “Indecency (& Other Bawdy Bits)” is a one-woman show by JanLee Marshall as Mary Frith (aka Moll Cutpurse), a notorious pickpocket, pimp, and fence in 16th-century London.

Dressed in her favorite costume, this cross-dressing woman addresses questions about: What is indecent? What is it to be a woman on the stage in the 16th century? — as well as our fascination with celebrity and indecency.

Marshall has an easy rapport with the audience and her piece involves both monologues and conversation with the audience. She is so at ease in her skin that when her work is interrupted by a knock at the back door by latecomers, she makes it part of the act without missing a beat.

By the end of her work, I wanted to rush home and do some investigation about Mary Frith, who seems to have been a fascinating woman.

From the bawdy 16th century to the lascivious present, Joyful Simpson’s “Tales of a Sexual Tomboy (a one-woman comedy)” is definitely not for the tiny tots, or anyone offended by blatant sexual conversation. While there is nothing visually offensive, there is certainly a lot implied and mimed.

Simpson is a very funny woman, not afraid to reveal (and exaggerate on) her sexual exploits from a very early age. She’s not afraid of telling her truth, whether joyful or painful.

“I have taken a fair amount of poetic license with my stories to maximize their theatricality,” she explains. Still, she mentioned that her parents will be coming this weekend and I wonder if she is going to edit herself a bit for that performance!

For the final work, Brandon Gonzalez’s “Vibrant Matter,” the audience left the Wyatt Theater and walked over to the new Della Davidson Studio. Gonzalez’s work examines how objects might use us or have an effect on us.

In a multi-media work that includes video, sculpture, design and choreography, a floral quilt interacts with a piece of foam, a video dances on air currents and human bodies transform into still-life images. The results were fascinating. This quilt actually came to life, the video on airwaves was mesmerizing and the final piece did amazing things with balance.

The talk-back following the Program 2 pieces was interesting, and helpful in answering those unanswered questions.

The Whipping Man

Photo by Barry Wisdom

Whoever thought a guy named Lopez would write such a gripping play about black Jews in the South at the end of the Civil War? But playwright Matthew Lopez has delivered an unforgettable drama now on the Sacramento Theatre Company’s Pollock stage, under the direction of Buddy Butler.

The notion that there were a number of Jewish families living in the South during the Civil War is perhaps not surprising — though we rarely hear of them as a group apart from everyone else — so it is also not surprising that some of their slaves, particularly those raised from childhood with Jewish traditions, would have converted to Judaism, or that spirituals like “Go Down, Moses” would be an integral part of a Passover Seder.

The play covers three days in April 1865. Gen. Robert E. Lee has surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and young Caleb DeLeon (Sean Patrick Nill), wounded and barely able to drag his gangrenous leg, has returned to the family estate, to find the place in ruins.

His father and the rest of the family (including the now-emancipated slaves) have taken shelter elsewhere until it is safe to return to Richmond, Va. The house is being watched by former slaves Simon (Michael J. Asberry), and the younger John (Anthony Simone).

Simon, who has obviously been with the family for many years, is devoted to them and to keeping the house safe from looters, while the opportunistic John is thrilled to be looting the nearby mansions for little luxuries like liquor, candles, silverware and a mattress and rug that will help them to survive until things settle down and the family returns.

There is an uneasy reunion of the former slave and former master, as Caleb falls into his old habit of ordering the older man about. Simon reminds him that given his emancipated status, the boy should make requests rather than issuing orders. It takes a bit for this shift in relationships to sink in.

The rich are now poor, and the slaves are now free. Caleb has lost his faith, while Simon and John continue to believe and practice their adopted religion. Discussions of faith and religion take prominence as the three men try to make sense of this new, uncertain world.

“Were we Jews or were we slaves?” John wonders aloud to Caleb, recalling the years before the war.
“Were we the children of Israel or we just the heathen that were round about you? Because we couldn’t be both, that was clear. And now you say you’ve given up praying just as easily as that.”

It is clear that Caleb’s leg must be removed to save his life, but the former soldier refuses to go to the hospital, so Simon, with some little medical experience, assisted by John, performs the deed.

Fortunately for the audience, there is a convenient blackout to cover Caleb’s screams and when the lights come up again, the surgery is over and Caleb is lying comatose in bed.

As the two-hour play moves forward, tempers grow short, old wounds are aired, long-buried secrets are revealed and all comes to a head during a Passover Seder.

One could not ask for a better cast. Asberry imbues Simon with a quiet dignity in the face of the horror around him, and a hope that on his return, his former master will keep his promise to give him money so that he and his family can get their own little house.

His speech when he learns of President Lincoln’s assassination, given with tears running down his face, had many in the audience crying with him. He also sings bits of spirituals in several spots, displaying a deep, rich voice that left the audiences wanting more.

Nill gives a notable performance, and manages to handle the task of being bed-ridden and comatose for a long part of the action, though he is given the opportunity to express himself on two good legs in a flash-back scene.

Simone’s John is a cynical character who has a sense of style in the new duds he liberates from deserted mansions, and he has a devil-may-care attitude, until topics turn more serious and he shares his memories of “the whipping man,” to whom the father would take his slaves when they needed to be disciplined.

His character confronts reality when he finally understands that his feelings about the DeLeon family may have been mistaken.

This is a powerful play that not only examines a little-known chapter of Southern history, especially in the post-Civil War era, but also raises questions about race, religion and responsibility.

A Year with Frog and Toad

I have heard for years that “A Year with Frog and Toad” with music by Robert Reale, and book and lyrics by Willie Reale, based on the popular series of children’s books by Arnold Lobel, was a wonderful show. So I was thrilled to find it on the Woodland Opera House schedule. I knew it was on their Family Theater schedule but I assumed it was adults performing for kids, as in the videos I’ve watched.

So it was a surprise to discover that this production, directed by Emily Jo Seminoff, was by talented child actors, some as young as second-graders, but to my delight, it was a charming production with strong actors, singers and dancers.

This delightful family musical is a series of vignettes taken from the Lobel books, which show two good friends living through four seasons and learning the value of friendship.

In the title roles are Bailey Robinson-Burmester as Frog and Jimin Moon as Toad. Continuing the family legacy, Robinson-Burmester gives a wonderful performance. This young man is already a veteran of many productions and his experience shows. He is totally at home on the stage and takes command of his character. He is assisted by a wonderful costume by Denise Miles, a sort of blend of a tailcoat and a sports coat.

Fourteen-year-old Moon, who performed solo at Carnegie Hall last December, is the more laid-back, sometimes petulant Toad, but every bit Robinson-Burmester’s equal as the two friends plant a garden, swim, bake cookies and ride a sleigh down a snow-covered hill (among other activities). The two even do a darn good tap dance for “He’ll Never Know.”

As back-up, there are groups of young actors as birds, lizards, moles, bees/squirrels, snow dancers and trees, some of whom also have solo roles as well. The bees/squirrels are the youngest group of kids and steal the show with cuteness whenever they are on stage.

Alex Romero, in her ninth production at the Woodland Opera House, is Mouse, a small role that she performs well.

Hattie Craven, who recorded her first CD at age 11, makes the most of her role as Snail, the mailman to whom Frog gives a letter to deliver to Toad because Toad is sad that he never gets mail. Craven’s role is a small one, but she brings laughs at every appearance and her song, “I’m Coming Out of My Shell,” is a good message for anyone:

“I thought, ‘I’m just a snail.
A lot of shell. A little goo.
But all of that has changed,
As now the following is true
I got something I do
Something I’m proud of
Because I do it pretty well”

James Hayakawa and Chloe Sears leave the birds’ nest for a scene in which they play Mother and Father Frog, with Alyssa Denman outstanding as Young Frog.

Seminoff, no stranger to children’s theater herself, gets high marks for her direction and choreography, which is exuberant without going overboard and all the kids do her proud.

John Bowles has designed a utilitarian stage with two blocks for the houses of Frog and Toad, which rotate to show different rooms of the house, or to blend into the grassy background, when necessary.
This is a show that gives its audience — and the Opera House was filled with exceptionally well-behaved children of all ages — a great time enjoying good songs, good comedy and plenty of heart.

Crawdads CD Release Party

 

The Putah Creek Crawdads are throwing a party at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, March 28, at the Palms Playhouse in Winters to celebrate the release of their second CD, “Rolling On.” Their first CD, “Going Back” was released in January 2009, which was the last time I met with the group for an interview.

The Crawdads are an acoustic vocal and string band, which plays folk, Americana, gospel and bluegrass music. They have been playing around Yolo County and beyond for almost 50 years. Members reside in Davis, Woodland, Knights Landing, Winters and Arbuckle. They span an age range from 45 to 93. They often can be seen playing at the Davis Farmers Market, at Ludy’s Main Street BBQ in Woodland or at a host of charitable events to which they donate their time and talents.

There is disagreement about the exact start date of the group, but agreement that the distant genesis was a yearly gathering held by members of the Unitarian Universalist Church over at Dillon Beach, when everyone would sit around in the evening and sing music.

Marc Faye, a farmer from Knights Landing, remembers that he and the other three original members —Ray Coppock, Cap Thomson and Oliver “Chip” Northup — started playing together in the 1960s when hootenanny music was popular and everybody seemed to be playing guitar.

The Crawdads eventually grew to include: Coppock, a retired information specialist for the UC Ag Extension and the senior member; Thomson, former director of Yolo County Mental Health and former director of Sutter Center for Psychiatry; Wayne Ginsburg, a retired English and journalism teacher, who now acts as the band manager; Kate Laddish, the fiddle player who learned to play the fiddle in order to be a Crawdad; and Northup.

John Rominger joined the group in 2011, having returned to Davis after his retirement. He had been playing guitar with various groups, and as a solo keyboard performer in the Bay Area.
“I had known Marc and Cap for many years and when I was talking to Marc I made a comment about looking for someone to play music with,” Rominger said. “They invited me to play a few times and after awhile invited me to join the group.”
At a recent rehearsal at the Thompson home, band members discussed why they decided to put out a CD now.
“Well, we have a very fine guitarist (Rominger) now,” Thomson said, with Coppock adding, “All we had before was Chip and me … and we aren’t really guitar players.”

“We’ve reconstituted and we’re celebrating that,” Thomson said. “We love to make music, and we were grateful for the opportunity.”

“Reconstituted” refers, of course, to the tragic loss of Oliver “Chip” Northup, one of the original Crawdads, who had played guitar and taken many of the lead vocals for the group since its formation 50 years ago.

“After we lost Chip, one of the things we did, was substitute duets for Chip’s solos,” Coppock said.
“Chip had a wonderful memory for words and for music,” Thomson said. The group laughed, fondly remembering their friend, but in agreement that Northup was religious about never changing the key, never modulating, never straying from the original way a song had been performed.

“There are certain songs we don’t sing any more because they were all Chip. Songs like “Strawberry Run” … he’s the only one who knew all the words!” Coppock said.

“There were lots of songs that I never had a role in singing and thus never learned the words,” Faye added.

The group paused to specify that the dedication of this album reads, “We dedicate this album to the memories of Oliver “Chip” Northup and Claudia Maupin. Chip was our lead singer for 48 years (1965-2013), and the warmth in his voice matched the warmth in his heart and spirit. They were two of the most generous and giving people we’ve known. We miss them deeply.”

Ginsburg also talked about the value producer Keith Little has had in the Crawdad history and in the production of this album.

“Keith has helped the group grow vocally over the last several years,” Ginsburg said.

They met Little at a band camp and he became their producer, coach and friend. In fact, both CDs were recorded at the Crockett recording studio of Little’s singing partner, Jim Nunally.

“One of the things that really shows (comparing) our pre-Keith days and now is our understanding of arranging and the difference in what you can do when you are performing versus what you can do in a studio, in terms of what is happening behind the singing,” Laddish explained. “When you listen to our recording now versus when we first went into the studio in 2007 there’s a huge difference.”

They called this album “Rolling On” because they knew this is what Northup would have wanted — that the group keep “rolling on.”

In fact “Rolling on” is a theme which parenthetically encloses all of the 17 songs in this new album, which starts with a traditional bluegrass song, “I’m rolling on,” first recorded by Bill Monroe, the granddaddy of bluegrass, in a special Crawdad version.

The final song is Woody Guthrie’s “Roll On, Columbia,” recorded by the Crawdads in 2007, but never released until now. This version features Northup. “Chip’s voice, as you will hear, was something special,” the album cover states.

In between are popular tunes like Stephen Foster’s “Camptown Races,” and less familiar tunes like the instrumental “In Memory of Herbie MacLeod,” which features Laddish’s fiddle.

“Cap taught me the tune in about 2002, and we brought it to the full band when we were looking for an instrumental for this album,” Laddish said, explaining that it was inspired by the music of Cape Breton and was written by Jerry Holland in memory of Helen Thomson’s late father, Herbie.

After 50 years, what keeps these guys together is their enjoyment in playing together. Coppock remembers that he was told by Keith Little that the thing that drew him to the group in the first place was that they were the only group who had been together for a long time where the members all actually still liked each other.

Not to be found on this new album (but will be on the next CD, they promise) is a brand new song written for the Crawdads by John Rominger, which nicely traces the history of the group and sums up their popularity very well:

“Those crawdads have a knack for makin’ people want to smile.
They love to entertain their fans with a laid back down home style”

Come out to The Palms Playhouse on March 28 and get a preview of the new song, as well as the songs on the album. Let the Crawdads entertain you with their laid back style and let their music “soothe your mind.”

Rain

 

I had not seen that many arms waving the peace sign in decades.

The Beatles Tribute band, Rain, has returned to the Sacramento Community Center with a new and improved Beatles tribute, and the hundreds of ecstatic fans were screaming and whistling and clapping as soon as the lights went down, before the curtain even went up.

Their excitement was rewarded by a two-hour homage to the Fab Four by a group that has been celebrating The Beatles phenomenon for longer than The Beatles themselves actually were together (the Rain band started in 1975).

Aided by an incredible multi-media presentation using LED and hi-def screens, “Rain: A Tribute to the Beatles” takes the audience through Beatles history, starting with their appearance on “The Ed Sullivan Show,” through the Shea Stadium concert, into their psychedelic years and their final concerts together, becoming more socially conscious and working to “give peace a chance.”

Included in this updated tribute are songs The Beatles recorded in the studio, but never performed for an audience. It’s all music, with no scripted dialog, though there are some clever asides to the audience now and then.

The audience whistled and cheered, clapped, waved their arms, sang along with familiar songs, got up and danced and in general had a fabulous time, all the while waving at themselves projected large on the screen on stage at the grand finale.

All four of the performers in Rain — Joey Curatolo (Paul), Steve Landes (John), Joe Bithorn (George) and Ralph Castelli (Ringo) — also performed in various versions of the Beatlemania band. All were profoundly affected by The Beatles at an early age.

Castelli knew from the moment he saw Ringo Starr on “The Ed Sullivan Show” that he wanted to be a drummer. He not only toured as Ringo in Beatlemania, but also played Starr in “Beatlemania: the Movie.”

Bithorn likewise was smitten after watching the Sullivan show and took up the guitar. He toured with Beatlemania as George until he joined Rain in 1983.

Curatolo, who taught himself to play the guitar at age 10, toured with the Broadway production after winning multiple McCartney sound-alike contests.

Landes is a second-generation Beatles fan who also taught himself guitar at age 10 by listening to Beatles records. He also traveled with Beatlemania and joined Rain in 1998.

The four are joined by keyboardist Mark Beyer, to fill in not only piano sounds, but also, when necessary, violin, harp and other instruments.

In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I was never a Beatles fan, so I cannot speak to the accuracy of arrangement or vocal imitation, though it all sounded pretty spot-on to me, and the audience loved it. These are talented musicians and they put on an amazing show.

The opening segment alone, with banks of TV screens showing clips from Ed Sullivan — the host and the group and then thousands of screaming fans in the audience — set the stage for what was to come.

Later, the Shea Stadium concert was given authenticity by a stage-wide projection of the audience at that concert that made you feel you actually were there in the stands looking at the audience on the other side of the field.

The clever introduction of period television commercials to entertain the audience while the group members change costumes was fun. (Who remembers that Fred and Barney were once spokespersons for Winston cigarettes?)

As the group hits the ’60s and ’70s, light shows enhance the psychedelic years along with “Yellow Submarine”-type animation.

What is best about this show for the audience is the shared experience, remembering back to those bell-bottom days. Everyone (except perhaps me) has their own memories of how they were affected by The Beatles and Rain gives them a chance to relive those days.

It doesn’t matter that these guys aren’t the real deal — they sound real, they look real and they sing the songs that became the fabric of our lives.

Rapture, Blister, Burn

 

The message of Gina Gionfriddo’s hilarious “Rapture, Blister, Burn” — now given a wonderful treatment at Capital Stage, under the direction of Shannon Mahoney — is “be careful what you wish for.”

Catherine (Megan Pearl Smith) is a beautiful, intelligent successful author, a darling of the talk show circuit, who was a recent guest on Bill Maher. She’s the author of books delving into “the connection between reality TV and the collective loss of national privacy, torture porn as a reaction to second-wave feminism, and the rise of degradation as entertainment in the wake of 9/11.”

She’s also single and “living the dream” in New York City.

Her former college roommate Gwen (Kelley Ogden) has it all — a beautiful home, two children, a hunky husband any woman would want.

Husband Don (Sam Misner) is the dean of a small college, counselor to students with behavior problems. He is also Catherine’s former lover. When Catherine went off to London for a year, Gwen moved in and married him.

When Catherine’s mother Alice (Phoebe Moyer) has a heart attack, Catherine decides, based on family history, that her mother’s death is imminent and she rushes home to take care of her in her final days (though Alice seems fine).

Concern for her mother brings the three old college chums together again, as Don uses his contacts to get a teaching job for Catherine while she is waiting for Mom to die. As the play begins, there is an awkward reunion of the trio.

Apparently, Catherine and Gwen had a telephone conversation which, owing to having drunk too much, Catherine does not remember, which prompted her invitation to visit the couple and which explains Gwen’s nervous constant chatter.

When Gwen leaves the room, it is apparent that the old sparks have rekindled for Catherine and Don.
Rounding out the cast is Madilyn Cooper as Avery, the baby-sitter with a black eye whom Gwen insists on firing because “we can’t let our son thinking this is normal, like someone punching out his baby-sitter is no big deal.”

The plot device of having Catherine teach a special seminar in her home to only two people — Gwen and Avery (with Mom on hand to provide martinis) — is contrived, but an efficient way to get to the meat of the show, which is feminism as viewed by three generations of women.

As each of the three gets fuel for her own particular fire, unhappy Gwen, who wishes she had pursued a career, agrees to switch places with unhappy Catherine, who misses marriage and a family. Gwen will take her older son, with whom she has a better relationship, and take over Catherine’s apartment and her bank account. Catherine and Don will move in together with the younger son, who is the problem child.

As expected, there is some crabgrass in that greener grass on both sides of the fence as each woman discovers that her heart’s desire may have been in her own front yard after all.

There is first-rate acting in this comedy. Ogden is a wonder as Gwen, her insecurity and people-pleasing personality leading to nervous chatter, changing to a dark mood when she realizes that Catherine wants her husband. The personality change is night and day, and wonderful.

Smith’s Catherine is self-assured and confident until hormones and suppressed longing take over and then she leads with her hormones and loses herself in the passion of what Avery calls “the love drunk.”

Misner’s Don goes along for the ride. He spends his time watching porn, with which he finds no problem. He drinks too much. He’s lost his ambition. He lusts after Catherine. He is unlikely to change his behavior, though Catherine is convinced that the love of the right woman can restore him to the man she knew in college.

Cooper’s Avery is the most level-headed one of them all, a young woman who rejects the feminism of Betty Friedan and her opposite, conservative Phyllis Schlafly, both of whom she finds outdated. Avery and the rest of her generation believe they have seen the mistakes made by the older generation and have learned from them.

Her observations are right on target, and she has a comment about Google maps that may be the funniest line of the night.

Phoebe Moyer is a jewel as Alice, Catherine’s mother, raising her child in the days before feminism became a “thing,” with some solid, down-home observations. She also is ready to make a martini at the drop of a hat.

If you suspend disbelief in some of the plot, and just enjoy the snappy dialog and the comedy, this is a very funny show, but one with a bit of substance to make one think.

And by the way, Sam Misner and Megan Pearl Smith comprise the popular Davis-based musical group, Misner & Smith, which is playing a concert at Capital Stage on Sunday, March 29.

Oblivion

Julie’s parents have always taught her to think for herself. As the 16-year-old entered adolescence, they were prepared for her to experiment with drugs or alcohol or with sex (gay or straight) and they were OK with that.

They are modern parents raising a modern kid, but when Julie decides to explore religion, specifically Christianity, all those parenting values come into question and set off an exploration not only of parent-child relationships, but the husband-wife relationship as well.

“Oblivion” is a comedy by Carly Mensch, perhaps better known as a writer for the popular Showtime series “Weeds” and “Nurse Jackie.” It opened, in its West Coast premiere, last weekend at the B Street Theatre, under the direction of Buck Busfield.

Dad Dixon (Kurt Johnson), a non-practicing Jew, is an attorney who just quit the profession when he had a nervous breakdown. Now he spends his time sitting in the house, wearing pajamas, smoking pot and writing what his wife thinks is a John Grisham-type novel, but in reality, porn. Dixon is the “dad-pal,” who cares more about being Julie’s buddy than about being her father.

Mom Pam (Elisabeth Nunziato) is an atheist, the high-powered breadwinner who works for HBO, making documentary films. She is also the disciplinarian in the family, the “bad guy” who battles Dixon when it comes to issues concerning Julie’s behavior.

The two of them are described by Julie’s best friend, wannabe filmmaker Bernard (Arthur Keng), as “the most open-minded, liberal people on the planet.”

The problem starts when Julie (Julie Balefsky) returns from a weekend with Bernard. She says it was visiting Wesleyan College, but Pam and Dixon think they know better and question her unmercifully. When they discover (through snooping through Julie’s diary and grilling the intimidated Bernard) that she has been attending his Baptist church and reading the Bible, all hell (or what passes for hell in an atheist household) breaks loose.

Julie’s curiosity about Christianity is only the jumping-off point for the more serious revelations that expose the cracks in the relationship between Pam and Dixon.

Like Mensch’s “Nurse Jackie,” this is a comedy with lots of dramatic overtones to it, so it may be more appropriately called a “dramady.”

Balefsky gives a fine performance as the rebellious teenager, trying to find her own path. Julie isn’t a bad kid. She’s trying to discover who she is, and is surprised that she has none of the sexual angst of many of her peers. Her friendship with Bernard is strictly platonic but she has a yearning to fill a hole in her soul and hopes that Christianity will provide the answer.

Nunziato is both strident and vulnerable in her portrayal of Pam. Her long-held ideas are falling around her and she is desperately trying to hold on to them.

Johnson's Dixon is laconic and detached from life. He has withdrawn from just about everything, but the crisis with Julie is slowly bringing him back to life, a life he may find difficult to adjust to.

Though Bernard seems an odd character in this dramady, Keng is actually the soul of the story — a geeky kid who wants to invent something “new” in film that has never been seen before. Critic Pauline Kael is his hero and he writes her heartfelt letters and holds imaginary conversations with her. He is devastated to discover that she died several years before.

The end of the story is almost a cop-out, though it is Bernard who kind of ties it all together.

This is an odd show, but with lots of laughs along the way.

(The multi-level set by Sam Remo is wonderful.)

Italian opera

When playwright Leslie Lewinter-Suskind was a graduate student at the University of Oklahoma, she wrote a play called “Italian Opera,” which won an excellence in play writing award.

Fast-forward through marriage, four children, nine grandchildren and travels around the world, and now the play has been rediscovered and graces the theater at California Stage, under the direction of Ray Tatar.

Why this gem of a comedy-with-music has lain dormant lo these many years is anybody’s guess, but how lucky we are that it has finally been revived to be enjoyed by Sacramento area audiences.

This is a farce that lampoons all of the excesses of elements of Italian opera, particularly of the 19th century. There are divas, love, affairs, murder, suicide — all that fun stuff that makes opera so enjoyable.

Everything about this production is perfect, starting with the set, designed by Niels Larsen and constructed by Buzz Weitz, a large living room with interchangeable pieces that turn it into a different luxury villa (a pillow, a hat rack, a floral arrangement, family photos). Funny and clever.

Then there is the dream cast, talented actors and singers all. Katherine Cooper is Lucrezia, barren wife of the sterile Mario (Jonathan Blum), having an affair with Nemorino (Michael R.J. Campbell), the philandering husband of Vestalina (Naomi Wilson), the mother of his nine children, all of whom look like their father.

And there is Janet Motenko, delicious as either the maid Zerbinetta or the maid Berta, depending on whose villa is being featured. Her performance as narrator and everything else (including parish priest) is so wonderful it has to be seen to be believed.

The costumes, from the 1930s era (designed by Jeanette Trimble), are perfect. Most wonderful is the costume switch from Zerbinetta to Berta and back again, which brings laughter every time.

There must be a plot to drive the action and give a reason for characters to break into song. Lucrezia discovers she is pregnant by Nemorino, but because she has not been intimate with her husband for more than three years, it’s going to be difficult to pass the child off as his.

The lovers conspire for ways Lucrezia can seduce her husband but hilarity ensues when Vestalina begins to get suspicious, and Mario reveals his own shameful secret.

The songs, also by Lewinter-Suskind (arranged by Peter Kagstrom and David Taylor and played by Jane Fanucci on the piano), are perfect examples of what you might hear in a real opera, from romantic arias to humorous duets and emotional death scenes. (It’s opera; of course everybody dies!)

In fact, the final death scene had me wondering, as Vestalina leaps to her death, if the whole thing had been a shaggy dog story.

The play is very funny, well crafted, wonderfully acted and a real treasure that I hope large numbers will come out to see. You don’t need to know (or appreciate) opera to enjoy this play. It stands on its own as a unique comedy with music.

Julius Caesar

The first thing to notice, entering Sacramento Theatre Company’s main stage for its current production of “Julius Caesar,” is the beautiful set by scenic designer Eric Broadwater.

Plain and simple, the series of walls with graceful arches in a light brownish/salmon color is striking. On the walls behind the arches can be seen posters in various sizes, giving it the look of a pending political rally, which, in fact, it is.

When Matt K. Miller, as the title character, is wheeled in on a large pedestal, arms upraised, to greet the adoring crowd, the only quote that comes to mind is that he “doth stride the world like a Colossus,” which is, of course, exactly what is said about him.

While so many of the phrases in common usage come from the works of William Shakespeare, it seems that Julius Caesar is filled with more of them than most. It’s almost as if the entire play was written using colloquial expressions that we commonly use today. This is perhaps a result of the truncated script for this production, but still notable.

Directors Kirk Blackinton and Brian Harrower have set their production in modern times in a world filled with selfies and paparazzi. Everyone has a cell phone and even when the Soothsayer (Bert Andersson) warns Caesar about the Ides of March, he does it by showing him a warning on his cell phone. It’s amazing how this little device makes the Shakespearean dialog more accessible, recited as it might be on “Law and Order” or “CSI.”

There is also gender bending at play. While Brutus and Marc Antony (Jeb Burris and Ryan Snyder, respectively) are men, Cassius and Casca are both played by women, both making their STC debut.
Melisa Pereyra lends an aura of sensuality and seduction to the role of Cassius, displaying a deep hatred and a resolve that the ruler should die, while Melinda Parrett could have stepped off the set of “House of Cards,” in her portrayal of Casca as crisp, businesslike and as ruthless as Claire Underwood (whom she resembles).

While Miller owns the role of Julius Caesar and is as professional as he ever is, the role is a small one and the show really goes to Brutus (Jeb Burris) and Marc Antony (Ryan Snyder).

And while Caesar’s murder resembles more a street fight gone wrong than a neatly coordinated execution taking place in the large Senate chamber, enough blood was spilled that the stage required mopping during intermission.

Miller also deserves kudos for doing nothing, lying as a dead body on the stage after his assassination, and as a draped corpse on a pallet during his eulogy. It takes a lot of talent to play “dead” so convincingly.

Burris is excellent as Brutus, the man who is truly noble, but makes the wrong decisions over and over again. He is like a son to Caesar, whose pained “et tu, Brute?” is the wail of a man who, realizing that even those closest to him have turned against him, seems to give up his will to live. The decision to help murder his mentor is obviously a difficult one for Brutus.

The production, however, may really belong to Snyder, as the charismatic Marc Antony. His oration to the people of Rome — seeming to support the assassination, but all the while provoking the crowd to anger against the assassins — was masterful.

Costume designer McKayla Butym has chosen an eclectic assortment of costumes, resembling more Times Square than a Roman Forum, but fitting for the period in which the production was set.
This is perhaps “Julius Caesar” light, for those who fear heavy-duty, unexpurgated Shakespeare, but nonetheless enjoyable.

Sweeney Todd

When you look through your program and see that the production you are about to witness has a “blood manager” on the tech crew, you have a pretty good idea that it’s going to be messy.
Indeed, Davis Musical Theatre Company’s current production of Stephen Sondheim’s “Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street” lives up to that promise. This dark tale of kidnapping, rape, murder and cannibalism doesn’t have a lot of laughs (though they do manage to find one here and there).

Director Steve Isaacson (who is also musical director [with Jonathan Rothman], set designer and lighting designer) has created a first rate cast who do justice to this Sondheim classic.

John Haine plays Benjamin Barker, a young barber sent to a penal colony in Australia on false charges because the infamous Judge Turpin (Nathan Lacy) had designs on his wife, whom he kidnaps and rapes. Barker has now returned to London, under the name Sweeney Todd, and seeks revenge on the man who destroyed his family.

He returns to the apartment he shared with his wife and infant daughter and is told by the landlady, Mrs. Lovett (Cyndi Wall), that his wife committed suicide and daughter Johanna (Jori Gonzeles) is now a ward of Judge Turpin.

Mrs. Lovett, who runs a bakery under the apartment and bakes what she admits are “the worst pies in London” reveals that she has kept his barber tools and produces a box of shiny razors. An idea is born, and Todd sets up his barber shop once again, hoping to lure his enemies to his chair, and to use his blades, and then kill them.

The affable Mrs. Lovett, never one to let opportunity pass her by, hates to see all that good “meat” go to waste as Todd begins his killing spree (“Seems an awful waste… / I mean, with the price of meat / What it is, / When you get it, / If you get it…”) and so they work together to improve the quality of her pies, which soon become the talk of London.

Their duet, “A Little Priest” is one wonderfully macabre moment of lightness in an otherwise very dark musical. Wall is delightfully coquettish as Mrs. Lovett, enjoying her new-found success as a pie baker, and attempting to woo Todd and move him out of London.

Haine is a surprisingly charismatic Sweeney Todd, filled with rage, but you can’t help but feel his pain and root for him with each throat he slits. Those who surround him are so much more evil that we feel empathy, we care about him, and we hope for his success in avenging the terrible things that were done to him.

One might have hoped for a tad more volume from Haine, but he gives a wonderful performance.
F. James Raasch is Anthony Hope, a sailor who rescued Todd at sea and who falls in love with Johanna. He has a steady, strong voice and a great presence on stage. His relationship with Johanna is touching.

As for Gonzales, she is a beautiful, innocent Johanna with a lovely voice, who has a chance to shine in “Greene Finch and Linnet Bird,” and sing a beautiful duet, “Kiss Me” with Anthony. The two are symbols of goodness in the evil world that surrounds them.

Also important to the plot is the beggar woman (Eimi Taormina), who seems to be the only one aware that terrible things are happening in the pie shop, but her mind is so far gone, nobody will believe her. Taormina gives an outstanding performance, displaying a strong voice and an ability to go mad in memorable fashion.

Outstanding in the minor role of Tobias Ragg, a simple young man who is devoted to Mrs. Lovett, is Joshua Smith, whose final scene is one of the most poignant in the play, and who got the strongest applause at the curtain call.
The chorus deserves its own mention for its impeccable diction. The pasty-face makeup they seemed to be wearing, with the darkened eyes, made them look like they were auditioning for an episode of “The Walking Dead,” but they sang the heck out of their songs.

Mention also must be made of the new barber chair, designed by Tim Shockley, which is the central part of Act 2. A simple chair rigged to easily drop Todd’s victims into the bakery below was ingenious.

This is not a fun night of theater, based on plot, but based on execution, it’s a good way to spend the evening. Davis Musical Theatre Company has done it again.

Woyzeck

Woyzeck is the original bad luck kid.  Poor guy can’t get a break to save his soul.

Woyzeck is the subject of the sumptuous play, directed by Granada Artist in Residence Bob McGrath, currently on the UCD Main Stage.  Written by Georg Büchner, and unpublished at the time of his death in 1837, at the age of 23, it is one of the most performed and influential plays in the German theater repertory.

“Woyzeck,” “an investigation of desire, exploitation and madness,” is known as the first great drama to feature a member of the working class as the central character and is hailed as a masterpiece of expressionist theater, years ahead of its time. It deals with the dehumanizing effects of doctors and the military on a young man’s life.

The play is based on the true story of Johann Christian Woyzeck, who murdered his mistress in 1821. At the trial, his defense was that he had experienced hallucinations and paranoid delusions, but the court decided that he was ultimately in control of his actions and the man was executed in 1824.

Though there have been many translations and interpretations of this ground-breaking play, the current production is adapted by Neil LaBute, a playwright famous for his black humor and violent tales in which often women run afoul of men with borderline personality disorders.  In this production, there are fewer characters, and fewer episodes than in the original, but the mad, intense quality remains.

Hien Huynh gives a masterful performance in the title role.  A movie, directed by Werner Herzog, portrays Woyzeck as somewhat of a simpleton, while McGrath’s hero has principles and dignity, even as being the victim of the experiments of a sadistic Mengle-like physician (Michael Harris), who insists that his patient eat nothing but peas. 

At the same time Rose Kim is a strong Marie, Woyzeck’s common-law wife.  She is wildly sensual, though tender as a mother.  She taunts Woyzeck with her attraction to the Drum Major (Taylor Church).

Harris is a powerful Doctor, using Woyzeck as an example to his students as he lectures to them in the operating theater.  He also plays a carnival barker, putting a horse through its paces.  The comparisons between the hapless Woyzeck and the trained horse are clear, though the horse is better able to express how he feels about being so used (one of the funny moments in the otherwise bleak show).

Likewise David d’Olimpio is overbearing and dictatorial as the Sergeant who does his best to make Woyzeck’s life a living hell.

Special mention should be made of Karl Uriza, as “Karl,” a disembodied head offering comment on the action going on on stage.  His delivery was, to say the least, “unique.”

McGrath has set the action for this production in the China of the 1930s, as represented by slides and video projected onto a scrim in front of the action.  (Projections are by Joan Grossman).  The projections very effectively create the world of the proletariat and its abuse under those in power.

Projections are also used to create scenes, such as a door, or an apartment so that the play can progress with minimal pieces of scenery and still have that rich feeling of a full stage of scenery, though watching all of the action through a scrim does remove a layer of intimacy that one gets in other types of theater.

The often discordant mood music is by David Lang, who manages to create both the strident tenor of the times and the progression of Woyzeck into madness.

Woyzeck has been called the single most influential play of European theater and the beginning of modern drama.  Yet, it is rarely performed.  U.C. Davis is fortunate, indeed, to have the opportunity to  present this work, and happily it done extremely well.

Dia de los Cuentos

 

There were a lot of happy, excited children at the opening performance of the new B Street Theater Family Series production, “Dia de los Cuentos.” I had a great view of one little guy, about 5 years old, who sat and watched intently, clapped enthusiastically, talked back to the performers and just about turned himself inside out with delight at the parts that he liked.

“Dia de los Cuentos” (a day of stories) is the 161st original play written by B Street (46 in the Family Series alone) and the first collaboration among B Street writers Buck Busfield, Jerry R. Montoya and David Pierini.

It celebrates Mexican-American folk tales, in celebration of California’s Latino influence. The four stories (a fifth was removed from the production due to union restrictions on length for theater for young audiences) dramatized the myths and fables that remain at the heart of Latino culture.

The multicultural ensemble cast — Nestor Campos Jr., Amy Kelly, Joel Ledbetter, Dena Martinez and Armando Rivera — worked well together and nicely engaged the children in the audience.
Scenic design by Samantha Reno consisted of a few pieces, mostly two large staircases, that were able to be moved around to represent several scenes and sites, with the addition of a table here, a bed there and a few other pieces.

Costumes by Paulette Sand-Gilbert were over the top and brightly colored, to appeal to children. Perhaps the most clever and most colorful was a parrot costume for Dena Martinez, giving her not only a very colorful costume, but gloves that resembled claws, so that when clutching a branch, she looked for all the world like a parrot on her perch.

The stories began with “Pepito the Mouse” (author credit to Montoya), which explains how the tradition of the tooth fairy came to be. Rivera took the lead as Pepito, a mouse who causes his father (Campos) to lose a tooth. His ingenious solution to help his father continue to eat food started the practice of taking teeth from under the pillows of sleeping children and replacing them with something else of value.

“The Legend of Popocatépetl and Itzaccihuatl” (written by Pierini) is a mouthful and even after hearing “Popocatépetl” many times throughout the play, I’m still not sure I can pronounce it as fluently as the cast.

This play explains something that many mountainous locations take for granted, that a beloved mountain peak (like Mount Tamalpais) is really the sleeping body of a princess or a prince. Popocatépetl (Ledbetter) is in love with Itzaccihuatl (Martinez), but goes off to war against the Aztecs, hoping to return victorious, to ask her father (Campos) for her hand in marriage.

But a jealous young man (Rivera) carries the message that Popocatépetl has been killed in battle, thinking that if he professes his own love to Itzaccihuatl she will marry him instead. His plan backfires and in a Romeo and Juliet-like finale, not only is Itzaccihuatl lost, but Popocatépetl as well.

Rivera becomes a B’rer Rabbit-like bunny in “Rabbit and Coyote” (by Busfield), a zany crowd-pleaser filled with slapstick comedy and chase scenes as the clever rabbit outwits both the wily coyote (Kelly) and the hunter (Campos) looking to have hassenpfeffer for dinner. It explains why coyotes howl at the moon.

The show closes with “The Parrot and the Firewood,” with Martinez as a wonderful parrot, owned by a mean old woman (Kelly) and her very sweet, hen-pecked husband (Campos). How the parrot makes life better for the husband offers an unexpected twist, that will have children cheering and  adults laughing.

These shows are designed for children 5 and older, and judging by my little 5-year-old friend in the front row and the two retired women sitting next to me, it is certain to delight all ages.

A Flea in Her Ear

There’s a whole lot of laughing going on at the Woodland Opera House by an audience enjoying George Feydeau’s farce, “A Flea in Her Ear,” directed by Rodger McDonald.

This frenzied and hilarious comedy relies on the razor-sharp characterizations of a top-rate cast and the crisp direction of MacDonald (who also plays the libidinous doctor, Finache).
The play was written in 1907, at the height of La Belle Epoque, a period that ended with World War I, in which life was peaceful and the arts flourished. The current production was translated from the French by Barnett Shaw.

The story, told in three acts, is set in Paris at the turn of the 20th century, when Raymonde, wife of Victor Emmanuel (Analise Langford Clark) begins to suspect her husband may be getting a little romance on the side, since their previously active and apparently quite satisfying love life has suddenly come to a screeching halt. (This suspicion is the “flea in her ear.”)

(As an aside, I will mention that the printed program for this production is extremely frustrating. Actors aren’t listed in order of appearance, or alphabetically or, it seems, even in order of importance. Most characters are not called by name by the other characters, and when you have a character named “Raymonde” who turns out to be a girl, and a character named “Camille,” who is a boy, your head can go spinning. (They say you can’t tell the players without a program, but in this production, I had difficulty telling the players even with a program!)

But I digress. Back to the show. Raymonde confides in her best friend, Lucienne (Kirsten Myers), who suggests that her friend play a little trick on her husband to see if her fears are confirmed. She suggests that Raymonde send him an anonymous letter from a secret admirer, offering to meet him at the local seedy hotel, Le Coq D’or (“door,” not “di-or,” as some in the cast insist on calling it) for a little rendezvous.

Raymonde likes the idea, but knows that her husband will recognize her handwriting, so Lucienne writes the letter for her. As Lucienne is married to a hot-tempered and passionate Spaniard, Don Carlos Homenides de Histingua (Gabe Avila), we can see what is coming when all of the mixups occur in Act 2.

Standouts in this production include Steve McKay as Victor Emmanuel and, later, his doppelganger, the Coq D’Or bellhop Pochel. His transformations — which involve both quick costume changes and personality changes from the prim and proper Victor to the laconic and confused Poche and back again — are wonderful.

Another outstanding performance is by Brent Randolph as Camille Chandebise, Victor’s nephew who suffers from a speech impediment leaving him unable to pronounce consonants. I don’t know how long it took Randolph to perfect the impediment, but he does it eloquently, broadly and impeccably, giving long speeches that are all but unintelligible until he is given a little instrument to insert in his mouth to correct it. When he loses it later, in mid-harangue, and immediately switches back to his old impediment, it’s brilliant.

McDonald himself, always wonderful, does not disappoint in this role. The women, Clark and Myers, carry most of the first scene and are prim and proper and somewhat soft-spoken so one had to strain to understand them. There was none of that problem with MacDonald, who confidently strode in the door and took over the stage, and we could all heave a sigh of relief knowing we were in excellent hands.

Gil Sebastian plays Victor’s best friend Romain Tournel, smitten with Raymonde and delighted when she turns up at Le Coq D’or, thinking she is finally going to give in to his amorous advances.

Avila, costumed in the bright red and yellow of a Spanish soldier about to do battle and wielding a long sword, is in stark contrast, both visually and temperamentally, to the rest of the cast. He makes the most of the chance to be outrageous.

Tim Gaffaney is Ferallon, the manager of Le Coq D’or, who spends most of the second act kicking Victor/Poche in the backside.

The meat of the show occurs in Act 2, which is reminiscent of the second act of “Noises Off,” with so many coming and going, so many things going wrong, and so many misunderstandings, so many doors. It will leave the audience breathless with laughter, especially the diversion while the set crew changes back to the first-act set in the brief stay-in-your-seat second intermission.

So when all the world is a hopeless jumble and the raindrops tumble all around, leave your troubles outside and come to the Woodland Opera House for a good two hours of fun and laughter.