Peter Pan

Jenn Colella as Peter Pan and Maria Briggs as Jane take to the skies
as Jennifer Hope Wills as Old Wendy watches in “Peter Pan,”
produced by Music Circus at the Wells Fargo Pavilion
through Sunday. Charr Crail/Courtesy photo

With a little magic, a lot of fairy dust and some really strong overhead wires, “Peter Pan” bursts through the nursery window of the Wells Fargo Pavilion to thrill children and adults in this week’s first-rate Music Circus production of the J.M. Barrie classic.

The Tony Award-winning 1998 version, which also was made into an A&E TV special, is directed by Glenn Casale, with delightful choreography by Patti Colombo and additional flying-sequence choreography by Paul Rubin.

Three of the actors in this Music Circus production also were part of the A&E production — Paul Schoeffler (Mr. Darling/Captain Hook), Michael Nostrand (Smee) and Kim Arnett, a member of the ensemble.

Jenn Colella, recently co-starring with Idina Menzel on Broadway in “If/Then,” is an energetic Peter Pan — brash, physical, petulant, endearing. She has the swagger of a young boy, and flies through the air with the greatest of ease, sprinkling fairy dust in her wake.

The Darling children, who fly with Peter to Neverland, are Aidan Winn as John, Joshua Davis as Michael and Lori Eve Marinacci as Wendy. Winn is adorable, clutching his teddy bear in his footed jammies. Davis has a Harry Potter-ish appearance with his big glasses. Marinacci is a warm and caring Wendy, ready to be mother to the lost boys of Neverland, until she realizes that she really needs her own mother.

Jennifer Hope Wills is Mrs. Darling, who sings the children a beautiful lullaby (“Tender Shepherd”). Her husband is played by Paul Schoeffler, who also plays Captain Hook.

Schoeffler, who is returning to Music Circus after a long hiatus, has a long performing history with the group. He is simply marvelous, particularly as Hook, roaring orders at everyone, but reduced to a quivering mass of fear when faced with his nemesis, the crocodile, who has already bitten off one hand and wants to come back for the other.

The crocodile (Jake DuPree) is very realistic (and terrifying). DuPree is also the guy inside the Nana the Dog costume back in the nursery and is as believable as a dog as he is as a crocodile.

Michael Nostrand plays Hook’s right-hand man, Smee, the perfect sycophant ready to serve Hook at the drop of a hat.

Colombo’s choreography is outstanding, particularly the dances for the Indians, led by the Indian Princess Tiger Lily (Desiree Davar). Each of the Indian dances was a show-stopper, particularly the somewhat less-than-politically correct “Ugg-a-Wugg.” (Many believe the song employs outdated stereotypes about the American Indian language and culture, both musically and lyrically, and the lyrics were changed for the recent TV special).

Politically correct or not, this drum-infused dance number brought down the house on opening night.
The plot of the frenetic life on Neverland seems to be that the Indians hate the lost boys, as do the pirates, who also hate the Indians. It seems that everyone is chasing everyone at one time or another, though “Ugg-a-Wugg” celebrates a new liaison between Indians and Boys after Peter Pan rescues Tiger Lily from a rock where she was left by the pirates to die.

Suffice to say there is a lot of running and chasing and yelling and the kids in the audience loved it. I personally would have liked the volume of the sound, which can be ear-splitting, be turned down a smidge, but this is a show for the kids, not for grumpy adults.

Special kudos must be given to the ever-efficient Music Circus tech crew, who did yeomen’s duty hauling big set pieces on and off the stage in the dark. Scenic designers Scott Klier and Jamie Kumpf have done a great job particularly in creating the nursery with its overhead shelves lined with toys.

It’s hard to do a bad production of this popular story, and this version by the Music Circus is definitely popular with everyone in the audience, which had a high number of children.

Next to Normal

Andrea Thorpe's character Diana shows her extreme highs and lows in "Next to Normal,"
presented through Aug. 16 by Runaway Stage Productions.
Courtesy photo

 A rock musical that brings mental illness out of the closet is now being presented by Runaway Stage Productions at the West Sacramento Community black-box theater.

For those of us who grew up with musicals by Rodgers and Hammerstein or Meredith Willson, there is a certain formulaic expectation in our musicals, which basically were love stories with a bit of conflict thrown in, which was usually resolved by the finale.

Jonathan Larson shattered that illusion when his “Rent” premiered on Broadway; it was a raw rock opera about AIDS and drugs and lots of not very pretty things. It took Broadway by storm. Then came “Spring Awakening” about puberty and suicide, another blockbuster. They opened the door to other musicals that don’t end happily ever after.

Now, along comes “Next to Normal,” a rock musical by Tom Kitt (music) and Brian Yorkey (book and lyrics), under the direction of Bob Baxter, about bipolar disorder.

The piece began in 1998 as a short sketch about a woman undergoing electroshock therapy and originally was titled “Feeling Electric.” Over the next 10 years it grew and developed and finally opened off-Broadway as “Next to Normal” in 2008 and won the Outer Critics’ Circle award for Outstanding Score and Drama Desk award nominations for Outstanding Actress and Outstanding Score.

After a run in Washington, D.C., it reopened on Broadway in 2009 and was nominated for 11 Tony awards and won three (Best Original Score, Best Orchestration and Best Performance by a Leading Actress). It also became the eighth musical in the history of the Pulitzer Prizes to win a prize for drama.

Mental illness is not pretty and it affects not only the person suffering, but the family as well. Andrea Thorpe (whom Davis Comic Opera Company patrons may remember from her portrayal of Fantine in last year’s “Les Miserables”) plays Diane Goodman, who has suffered from bipolar depression since the death of her son many years ago. This is a tricky role in which the character runs the gamut from confusion to pain to rage, but still must be sympathetic so the audience cares about her. Thorpe carries it off beautifully.

She has a very supportive husband in Dan (Darryl Strohl-DeHerrera), who is willing to help her try many treatments, and try every new medicine that comes along. The emotional toll of Diana’s illness on Dan gradually becomes apparent, as her mood swings begin to wear him down.

Kristina Dizon is perhaps the saddest character, Natalie, the child born after the death of her brother, who has been ignored all of her life and we see how this has affected her. Even her new boyfriend Henry (Tylen Einweck), who doesn’t realize what he is getting into and is very naive in his introduction to mental illness, can’t quite bring happiness to her life.

Outstanding is Michael Roivas as hallucination of the now grown-up dead child, Gabe. His song “I’m Alive” taunts Diane to believe that he is real again.

I am more than memory, I am what might be / 
I am mystery / 
You know me / 
So show me
When I appear it’s not so clear 
if I’m a simple spirit or I’m flesh and blood

Taylor Presnall plays two different therapists with two different approaches to Diane’s problem, neither of whom really seems to understand her problem.

The black-box theater is tiny, making the audience really a part of the family (at one point I considered leaning over and turning off the table lamp that was shining in my eyes!), and with everyone squished in so tightly, moving large set pieces down the narrow aisles is an experience, especially for those sitting on the aisle. But the intimacy adds another dimension to the appreciation of what is happening on stage.

The seven-piece orchestra, under the coordination of keyboardist Deann Golz, is distributed across the two levels of the stage and mostly performs well, except for a couple of spectacular glitches that made the audience jump.

At the conclusion of the play, we have examined everything from electroshock therapy to faulty medication and see the frustration not only for the patient but also for the family. There is a possibility of a happily ever after, but it would take a sequel to know exactly how it all comes out.

Grounded

The lights in B Street’s small B3 Season theater go up to reveal Alicia Hunt, The Pilot, in the current production of “Grounded.” She stands tall and proud with eyes shining, because she has just completed a bombing run.

She dares you to take your eyes off of her as she strides around the stage. She exudes confidence and pride that she, a woman, is a Top Gun in the male-dominated Air Force. She is accepted as one of the guys. They go up in their planes, hit their targets and then go to the local bar to drink together, the camaraderie of soldiers in a war.

She revels in her love of “the blue.” She is proud of the “blood and sweat and brains” she has expended in earning her uniform, and she speaks with excitement as she talks of delivering her deadly payloads, “pounding minarets into dust.”

She is a loner, she explains, because men are usually intimidated by her job, but then one night she meets Eric, who is not intimidated. They start seeing more of each other and the inevitable happens: She’s pregnant.

She can’t fly pregnant, and the Air Force grounds her and assigns her to what she calls the “Chair Force,” doing office work. After she marries Eric and gives birth to daughter Samantha, she stays at home to be with the baby for three years.

Eventually, the job of a housewife and stay-at-home mom is no longer enough and she starts yearning for the blue again.

With Eric’s blessing, she returns to her unit, expecting to be reunited with her beloved F-16 fighter plane. But she discovers things have changed. She will no longer be flying a jet over the desert, she will be sitting in an air-conditioned trailer in the Nevada desert piloting a drone flying somewhere in the Middle East, while looking down on her targets and getting orders from a disembodied voice in her ear.

She no longer lives in the blue, but in the “gray” of the drone room. She gets up in the morning, feeds Samantha and takes her to school, then drives an hour to the trailer, works her 12-hour shift blowing up “bad guys” in the desert, then is home in time for dinner and to put Samantha to bed.

There is no more camaraderie and she can’t even share her work with her husband because it’s all top-secret. She no longer feels the power that she felt when flying a plane and under constant threat of death.

The longer she does this job, the more surreal it seems, especially when she discovers that she now sees her targets much too clearly, watching body parts fly into the air as the bombs explode. This brings up a very real question for those of us watching about modern warfare, where kids are just playing video games … but with real lives. It definitely has an effect on our Pilot.

This is a masterful, emotionally charged performance by Hunt, an Equity actress working in Los Angeles and New York, who is a Davis native. She grew up in the Acme Theatre Company, Barnyard Stage, Davis Musical Theatre Company and at other local performing venues.

Director Lyndsay Burch keeps things focused with no lag time in the crisp dialog of The Pilot.

If there is a negative to this production it is the scenic design by Samantha Reno. There is a large cartoon-like sand dune sweeping across the back of the stage, looking somewhat like Donald Trump’s hair, which might have worked well except that video projections are an important part of this story, and they tend to get lost in the busy-ness of the backdrop.

It was a shame to lose so much of that part of the show.

Bye Bye Birdie

Larry Raben as Albert Peterson, left, Amanda Jane Cooper as Kim MacAfee, Nathaniel Hackmann as Conrad Birdie, Sainty Nelsen as Ursula Merkle, Kathryn Mowat Murphy (Mayor’s wife) and Steve Geary (Mayor) perform with the company in “Bye Bye Birdie,” produced by Music Circus at the Wells Fargo Pavilion through Sunday, July 12. Kevin Graft/Courtesy photo

 In 1957, rock-and-roll idol Elvis Presley was drafted into the Army, sparking a media circus that probably was tame by today’s standards. Millions of teenage girls went into mourning that their idol was going away to serve his country for 18 whole months.

Writers Michael Stewart (book), Charles Strouse (music) and Lee Adams (lyrics), who had been trying to work out the plot for a new musical, took Presley’s induction and ran with it. The musical “Bye Bye Birdie,” now at the Music Circus, was nominated for eight Tony Awards that year, and won four, including the award for Best Musical.

The Music Circus has presented this delightful show four times before, but not since 1999, so it was fun to see it back on stage.

The rock-and-roll hunk, Conrad Birdie in this production, is Nathaniel Hackmann, who bumps and grinds with the best of them, and sings in that Elvis way that knocks girls (and some married women) off their feet. Hackmann is a little more subdued than some Birdies I’ve seen, but he gets his point across.

Conrad is a little short in the smarts department and relies on his agent, Albert Peterson (Larry Raben), to manage his career. This is the role that made Dick Van Dyke a superstar, and while Raben doesn’t have the pizzazz of Van Dyke, his smooth performance and his nimble toes make this a very likable Albert indeed. His “Put on a Happy Face” with Sad Girls Ashley Anderson and Sarah Marie Jenkins was very sweet.

Peterson’s right-hand woman is Rosie Alvarez. Janine DiVita gives a stellar performance. She takes command of the stage from the moment she steps on it and the stage lights up every time she returns. She is simply outstanding.

Rosie has come up with a great plan to make Conrad’s entry into the Army a highlight of his career and suggests that Albert write a song called “One Last Kiss,” which Conrad will sing to one of his millions of teenage fans, picked at random.

Kim MacAfee of Sweet Apple, Ohio, is the lucky girl. Amanda Jane Cooper is amazing. To watch her on stage, you’d think she was a bright-eyed, fresh-faced teenager, totally convincing as one of Conrad’s worshippers. In fact, according to her bio, Cooper is a theater veteran who has a lengthy performing résumé, including playing Glinda in the first touring production of “Wicked.”

Rebecca Baxter is Kim’s mother, a solid performance that would do credit to Beaver Cleaver’s mother. She’s the perfect 1950s housewife, complete with heels and crinoline under her skirt.

I don’t know if he was trying to channel Paul Lynde or not, but Stuart Marland’s performance as Mr. MacAfee was definitely a credit to Lynde, the original Mr. MacAfee. He’s blustery and in awe of his hero, Ed Sullivan, when he learns the family is to be on Sullivan’s show.

Albert’s mother, Mae Peterson, is played by Mary-Pat Green, who is deliciously overbearing and the master of the guilt trip.

Garett Hawe is Kim’s boyfriend, Hugo. The two have just been pinned and Hugo does not take kindly to the idea of Kim being kissed by Conrad. He’s the perfect gawky teen, but he grows up before our eyes as he gradually gets the courage to let everyone know how he feels.

There is an ensemble of teens and townspeople making for fun numbers like “The Telephone Hour” and “One Last Kiss.”

“Bye Bye Birdie” is a show that lends itself easily to adding extras from time to time. A story of a rock idol who needs screaming fans is a great place to use members of the Music Circus junior company, who fill the aisles of the Wells Fargo Pavilion, joining with the chorus, waving Birdie banners, and screaming appropriately. It gave the production the feel of a much bigger show.

This is definitely a high-energy, fun show that evokes a time when life seemed much simpler, though some of the dated references (e.g., the confusion between Mussolini and Rossallini) did not seem to connect with the younger crowd.

Robert Lautz (feature story)

Playwright Robert Lautz is living with prostate cancer.

“I’m terrible,” he laughed when I asked him how he was doing. “It’s terminal, but at least this is a slow-growing cancer.”

Lautz is a longtime Davis resident who moved his family to Minnesota a month ago, where his wife’s family lives, but he was back in town briefly to watch the opening of his new play, “Third Date” at the Wilkerson Theater in Sacramento.

Lautz’s first play, “The Meaning of it All” ran at the Wilkerson in 2012.

“You did a review where you didn’t trash it,” he reminded me. “You encouraged me to keep writing, so that’s why I wrote a second play. It was as a great learning experience as my first play.

“I’ve written a comedy about cancer,” he said “ ‘Fun with mutant cells’ is the alternate title.”

Some may think it’s odd to be writing a comedy about cancer, but Lautz explained that initially, it was a series of notes to keep track of all of his medical records, but so many bizarre things happened during his treatment that he thought it might make a funny play.

And it is.

The show opened two weeks ago, and Lautz was there for the opening.

“I was thrilled,” he said. They had full houses on opening weekend and “the performance just got better and better.” He was most pleased that the audience “got it.” The point had been made.

Lautz stresses that “cancer has some clout. Doctors and nurses make a point of being very courteous and very gracious. You even get valet parking.”

But the play does hit home with doctors.

“My GP who has been my doctor for 20 years came to see it,” the playwright said. “Afterwards he said that ‘Generally we’re in the habit of creating a distance between ourselves and the patients. This reminded me not to do so.’ ”

Director Maggie Adair Upton added that a lot of cancer survivor groups have been attending.

“They either like it or they hate it,” she said, adding that one of her friends saw a preview and had to leave. There had been enough cancer in her life and she had just had enough.

“It’s a tricky show to do, but I think it’s important and I’m glad we are doing it,” Upton said.
“One woman at a talk-back after the show said parts of the play made her squirm,” said Lautz, laughing. He told her his alternate title would have been “Caution: Sections of this play may make you squirm.”

Many of those who were uncomfortable were Lautz’s friends and co-workers from the California Arts Council, where he worked for many years, who felt it was difficult to watch, knowing that these were his own experiences.

“It happened to me. Everything,” he said.

“I’m a musician,” he told me, adding that he played the vibraphone and drums and graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1976, with a degree in composition. In fact, the incidental music before and after the show was composed and performed by Lautz.

He grew up in California, but moved back East with his family for high school and college. Then he decided to return to California.

“I borrowed my father’s car and drove to Santa Cruz,” he said, adding that his father never got the car back.

He became a street musician, playing on the streets and in malls and performing gigs up and down the California coast, whenever he could find work, supporting himself for some 20 years. During that time, he met his wife in a jazz club.

It was after his wife became pregnant that he decided that “this jazz musician thing may not work out financially.”

In 1995, he ended up on the California Arts Council, a move that would bring him to Davis. By this time he had two daughters, ages 4 and 2, and real estate agents took him all over Sacramento looking for a house.

“Then I drove out to Davis, first getting lost on Olive Drive. But we fell in love with the town. It was a great place to raise our daughters,” he said.

Friends in Sacramento warned him that Davis was where the liberals were, “but we came from Santa Cruz!” he added, laughing.

He worked for the Arts Council for eight years “and then the budget went way south” so he worked for another state agency for a while and then returned to the Arts Council, where he continued to work after his 2007 cancer diagnosis until his family’s move to Minnesota.

Lautz said his character, Richard Montauk, is kind of a sexist pig who has a teenaged daughter with whom he has little relationship and a wife from whom he is divorced. Through the course of the play he is very subtly transformed by his experiences.

“A friend said he really didn’t like Montauk, but toward the end he did.”

So Lautz achieved his ultimate goal, and can a playwright ask for more than that?

The show runs 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays through July 4 in the Dennis Wilkerson Theater at California Stage’s R25 Arts Complex. Visit www.calstage.org for information.

Big River

It was a surreal experience attending Music Circus’s “Big River” in a week where we are still reeling from the slaughter in Charleston, S.C., which has ignited an active debate over the display of the Confederate flag and the use of the N-word.

“Big River,” with book by William Hauptman and music and lyrics by Roger Miller (who won The Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his work), is a retelling of Mark Twain’s “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the story of two runaways — Huck Finn, fleeing his cruel father, and Jim, a runaway slave, who travel together and become good friends. The story is set sometime prior to the Civil War. (Twain, who published it in 1884, was vague about the exact date.)

Needless to say, slavery plays a big part in this play and the slave scenes feel emotionally raw, particularly this week. The language, true to the period, is offensive to our ears today. The reaction of the audience, with spontaneous applause when Jim’s chains are removed and he wins his freedom, was, I felt, an indication that the whole audience was feeling the same raw emotion.

This is an outstanding production, with a superb cast. Ben Fankhauser is a bit old to be playing the 13-year-old Huck Finn, but he is a real pro who commands the stage, with a great voice that does particularly well in the ballads and in his duets with Jim (Phillip Boykin).

Boykin is definitely old for the role of Huck’s companion, though the age difference melts away with Jim’s back story of having been separated from his wife and children, and with the paternal role he takes in Huck’s life.

And what a voice! I’m sure the roof must have been vibrating with the power of his delivery in “Muddy Water” and “Free at Last.” Boykin gives Jim a quiet dignity that is at the heart of this show.

Though none of the tunes are familiar, Miller’s music (such a far cry from “King of the Road” and “Dang Me”) in this, his only Broadway musical, runs the gamut from ballad to country to hillbilly to gospel, with the spectacular Jennifer Leigh Warren as the slave Alice raising the roof in the gospel song, “How Blest We Are” to audience cheers.

James Michael Lambert played Tom Sawyer with all the boyish charm and energy that a young boy should have, though his role in this particular Twain story is a small one.

Rich Hebert is Pap Finn, Huck’s deadbeat dad who turns up unexpectedly to take Huck to live with him. Pap is a drunk and his “Guv’ment” railing against the current government is very funny, though he himself is one scary dude, and Huck finds a way to fake his own murder so that he can escape his father’s clutches.

Two delightful characters are the King (William Parry) and the Duke (Jeff Skowron), two shysters who hitch a ride of the raft with Huck and Jim and proceed to slowly re-enslave Jim before selling him back into slavery.

They are such fun to watch and their “The Real Nonesuch” is a delight. Skowron’s Shakespearean monologue (a mash-up of every famous line you remember) is very funny.

A character that seems to exist only to toss in a small role for someone disconnected from the plot of the story is that of the Young Fool, played by Dennis O’Bannion. His “Arkansas” was another high point of this show already full of high points.

While this is primarily a male-driven story, women come in for their share of stage time, with Mary Jo Mecca as the Widow Douglas and Angelina Sark as Miss Watson, the two women determined to tame the wild Huck and give him some manners.

It was so nice to see that Music Circus remembered that it has a turntable, which was used to very good effect, particularly in propelling the raft downstream in a cloud of fog.

This is a real winner for Music Circus and highly recommended.

Uncanny Valley

“The Jetsons” had Rosie, “Star Wars” had C3PO, “Star Trek” had Mr. Data, “Jeopardy” had Watson and Sacramento’s Capital Stage has Julian.

“Uncanny Valley,” by Thomas Gibbons, directed by Jonathan Williams, is part of the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere, in which three or more theaters premiere the same new play within 12 months. “Uncanny Valley” premieres have already been held in Shepherdstown, W.Va.; Philadelphia; and San Diego.

Human beings have long toyed with the possibility of robots who can be our helpmates, our servants and maybe even our friends. The play deals with, but doesn’t quite answer the question of, what it means to be human and explores the futuristic world of non-biological humans who look, move, talk and think like human beings.

On a beautiful set designed by Stephen C. Jones that is both modern and futuristic at the same time, neuroscientist Claire (Jessica Powell) sits with the head and torso of Julian (Michael Patrick Wiles) who, over a series of short clips, learns how to move his head in a human-like way, speak in a less robotic cadence, raise his eyebrows, smile, etc.

In each clip he is a bit more complete. He gets an arm, then another arm, and finally legs, all while he becomes more “human” and acquires more of a personality, a curiosity about the world, an awareness of self — and a bond with Claire.

Ultimately, Claire lets Julian know that he has been created for a specific purpose. A wealthy, dying man has paid more than $200 million to develop a being into which can be uploaded all his memories, his characteristics, his DNA, so that he can live on after his physical death.

He has requested a body that resembles himself at age 34, the age at which he felt he was at his physical best. Problems arrive, following the original Julian’s death, with his biological son, age 44, who can’t accept the new Julian as his father.

The plot was inspired by an experiment in Russia where a multi-millionaire, Dimitry Itskov, is having a cyborg created that is basically identical to him, with the hopes that he will live hundreds of years after his death.

The term “uncanny valley” describes “the emotional responses humans have toward robots,” writes literary manager Stephanie Tucker. “… As robots become more human-like, humans feel increasingly empathetic toward them — up to a point. When robots become too lifelike, they seem ‘uncanny,’ and most humans grow increasingly anxious and repelled by them.”

While this is a thoroughly enjoyable play, there are certain parts of it that are “off.” With all of our experience with robots in movies and on television, it is easy to believe that such a being could be created and that it could be used to duplicate a living person so that he could live a longer life.

What is not believable is Claire’s relationship with Julian. We learn that he is not her first such creation and so it makes unbelievable her growing parental attraction to him, and her obvious pain at the thought of releasing him to have the download completed, knowing she will not see him again.

It is a flaw in the writing that seems strange as she begins to treat Julian as a real person, then uncharacteristically reveals much of her unhappy personal life to him, without such incidents ever having any sort of resolution (or even explanation) for the audience, though they are of huge importance to Claire.

Later, when Julian interferes with her life, it is ironic that she becomes angry: “What gives you the right to interfere in anyone’s life …” She later goes on to remind him that he’s “not a person at all.”

And there it is — she has worked long and hard to make him as lifelike as possible, to make him ready to take on the life of her rich employer, and now that she has succeeded so beautifully, she questions whether it was a good idea and whether she has, instead, created some sort of benign monster.

Wiles gives a wonderful performance as Julian, his slow advancement to humanoid believable and his completed self, returning to visit Claire, with just a hint of malice that the original Julian may have left out of the information gathered to pass along to his robot counterpart.

Watching him walk around the stage as the blended Julian, the actor makes it clear that there is a part of the old Julian slowly blending with the new Julian.

As for Powell, she starts as the ultimate professional and by the end of the play she is hardly recognizable as the person she was at the beginning, having been overcome by the problems in her personal life and her relationship with Julian.

But the ending is unsatisfactory. Perhaps the playwright designed it that way so that we would all go home discussing the play. There certainly was a lot of discussion among the audience on the way out of the theater.

Evita

 

Local girl makes good / Weds famous man / I was slap in the right place / At the perfect time / Filled a gap — I was lucky / But one thing I say for me / No one else can fill it / Like I can

That, in a nutshell is the plot of the Tim Rice-Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, “Evita,” now at the Davis Musical Theatre Company, the final production of DMTC’s 30th season.

Last performed by DMTC in 2005, the current production is directed and choreographed by Jan Isaacson, with musical direction by Jonathan Rothman and Steve Isaacson.

The principal characters in this show are Eva Peron, wife of Argentine dictator Juan Peron, once known as “the most powerful woman in the world,” and Che Guevara (whom she never met in real life), who acts as narrator and observer of her life.

Che’s narration keeps this musical from becoming a celebration of Evita and instead focuses on how she slept her way to the top, embezzled from the government, and pulled the wool over just about everyone’s eyes, all while presenting a public persona that many people in Argentina adored.

Kate Murphy makes a fine Eva Duarte Peron, wannabe celebrity who uses her body to get what she wants, all the way up the class ladder to creating the image for politician Juan Peron. That image allows him to be so beloved by the “descamisados,” the working-class people, that it propels him into the presidency.

She is always haughty, and knows what she wants and how to get it. Her “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina,” the show’s signature song, was lovely.

Coury Murdock was powerful as Che, giving the role the right sardonic tone, and allowing himself to become angry with so much about Evita’s life.

The role of Juan Peron often takes a back seat to that of Evita and Che, as he doesn’t have that much to do, but F. James Raasch has such a powerful voice and presence that no one would ever give him a back seat in anything.

Likewise is the voice of Magaldi (Tony Ruiz), the Argentina club singer, the first in a series of lovers Evita chooses to help her achieve fame and fortune. Ruiz is a suitably sleazy character as he woos the young girl … and then gets snared in her trap.

Dancers George Morales and Kaylin Scott did a beautiful tango, choreographed by Ron Cisneros, in the background of a nightclub scene.

Nicolette Ellis appears in the small role of Peron’s Mistress, whom Evita tosses out when she takes over. The song “Another Suitcase in Another Hall” is the loveliest song in this show, and Ellis sings with such sweet sadness that she makes a big impression.

There is a large chorus of aristocrats, army soldiers, dressers and two groups listed as “adult ensemble” and “children’s ensemble.” They may not dance with the precision of Rockettes, but Isaacson has created some very good numbers, which they execute quite well.

I wanted to particularly point out Ryan Everitt, whose dancing was more professional than the rest, and 6-year-old Gillian Cubbins (last seen as a munchkin in “The Wizard of Oz”), who is again irresistible. She’s the smallest one on stage (by a big margin), but she sings the words to every single song (some in Spanish). This girl will be one to watch as she grows up.

DMTC is trying out its new sound system with this show. There are now body mics and the stage itself is wired. This made a big difference in the balance between cast and orchestra, and this was the very best I’ve ever heard the DMTC orchestra as a result.

Jean Henderson’s costumes are, as always, gorgeous, especially Evita’s gown for the “Don’t Cry for Me” number.

The stage is a bit bare. Producers had planned to use projections of photos of Eva Peron’s life on the back wall, as they did in 2005, but somehow that did not work and so the large, blank white wall kind of intruded on everything. Except for one glitch, the movable set pieces designed by Steve Isaacson worked well.

The show will be presented at 8:15 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and 2:15 p.m. Sundays through July 12 at the Jean Henderson Performing Arts Center, 607 Peña Drive in Davis.

Evita (Feature Article)

Eva Peron, C 1949

“She was rancorous, revengeful, foul mouthed, low class, not in the sense of money, but in spirit.  She was really a resentful person.  If she didn’t like someone, she was very mean to them.”

Marta Induni, whose granddaughter Jackie is part of the cast of Davis Musical Theater Company’s “Evita” pulled no punches in expressing her feelings about Eva Peron.  Induni is a native of Argentina and came from a very “politically aware” family.  She was 15 when Juan Peron’s wife died so has many memories of her years as the first lady or Argentina.

“It was a very bad time,” she remembers.  “It was the triumph of the mob.  Sometimes they did some things for some people that helped them so there were lots of fanatics who really loved them and admired her.”  She recalls that though Eva had been an actress, appearing in bad movies prior to her meeting with Peron,  the movies were all confiscated after she became the first lady of Argentina.

“She had absolutely no taste but they got very good people to make her look presentable.  All her clothes were from Dior.  She had good features but she was not a beauty.  She was the lady of hope, like she was the virgin Mary or something like that.  But she was a whore.”
                                               
Induni is one of a handful of people from Davis’ Latin America community who are involved with the upcoming DMTC musical (Coury Murdock from Nicaragua is playing Che Guevara and George Morales of Honduras, a member of the ensemble, are two others.  Daniel Silva, the concertina player, is learning the bandoneón, a particular type of concertina popular in Argentina, by Skype from a woman in Argentina).  Induni feels the musical may glorify the Perons, but she thinks it has beautiful music and she was surprised at how accurately Buenos Aires, and the class distinctions of that time were portrayed in the movie.

Patricia Maccari, another member of the ensemble, grew up in Argentina and moved to Davis with her husband in 1999. She understands the Peron era from both sides because her mother’s family were among the poor who got the worst of the Peronistas and her father’s family lived in an industrial area which benefitted from the policies of Juan Peron.

“My dad’s side worked with iron and metal.  They had their own workshop at the back of the house.  My aunt remembers Peron and Evita’s visit to Mendosa, the area where they lived, which is a very productive industrial province.  (The wine industry is big there.)  Peron would build complete neighborhoods and would give the workers all these benefits.  So that side of the family supported him.  My grandfather was one of the workers who enjoyed the benefits of the government.”

In the musical, Che Guevara (whom Eva never met) is the one to point out all of the duplicity of the administration.

“He’s a metaphor for the far left people,” said Induni.  “Peron sometimes did things that weren’t so bad, so it was hard for a very left wing person to oppose them, but at the same time he was a Nazi.  It was a very strange combination of things.”

Jan Isaacson has done extensive research on how the Tim Rice-Andrew Lloyd Webber musical came to written.  “It was really more Tim Rice,” she explained, saying that at the time Lloyd-Webber was busy with a musical version of Jeeves and Wooster with Alan Ayckbourn and came late to the Evita project.  She explained that he initially planned to tell the story from the viewpoint of Evita’s hairdresser, until he thought Che Guevara would be more interesting than some unknown hairdresser.

Elaine Paige, the original Evita, said that the role changed her life.  “Eva was a wonderful actress: strong, forceful, but with a vulnerable side.”

The vulnerable side was particularly apparent in her last days, Induni remembered.  “Peron exploited her to the end.  She was practically dying and he was on one occasion in a convertible and she was standing there with a fur coat and looked like a ghost.  He was passing her around when she was dying.”

She remembers seeing reports about Eva’s death.  “I was in high school when she died.  They announced her death and they embalmed her body and put the glass-topped coffin in the lobby of the Labor Department building.  All state employees had to go, like it or not.  There were long queues of people. People sincerely wanted to see her.  Each time somebody came to kiss the glass that covered the coffin, there was a nurse with some cotton and alcohol cleaning for the next kiss.”

When I asked Induni whether her family went to see her, she scoffed and said certainly not.

Love her or hate her, there is no denying that Eva Peron, at one time called the most powerful woman in the world, was a force to be reckoned with and, thanks to Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd-Webber, it appears that her legend may live forever.

Third Date

THE THIRD DATE actor Gary Weinberg

When you hear that there is going to be a whole show about prostate cancer, it may give you pause. Surely not the way you want to spend an hour and a half of your life.

However, “The Third Date” by Robert Lautz is not a depressing show about a disturbing subject. Along with the inevitable poignant moments and a lot of information about prostate cancer there are also a lot of laughs because, let’s face it, cancer can be funny. Really! It’s what gets us through the really rough times. This is a witty, revealing and enjoyable play. Trust me.

This one-man show, directed by Maggie Adair Upton, is part of two new plays being presented at the Wilkerson Theater as part of California Stage Theater Company’s “Sac Solo Series 4.” (The other is “Sleeping in the Middle of the Bed,” written and starring Richard Winters.)

This the second play by playwright Lautz, a former Davis resident whose “The Meaning of it All” premiered at the Wilkerson Theater three years ago. At that time I said that it was a promising start and that I hoped it would not be another five years before we see more from Lautz.

Lautz took that as encouragement. Using his own experiences as a cancer patient, and working with dramaturge Lauren Sullivan, he has improved upon his freshman entry and is solidly in his sophomore year as a playwright.

Gary Weinberg plays Richard Montauk, a successful advertising man whose life is thrown into turmoil when he is diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer. He’s kind of an unlikable male chauvinist pig whose wife has divorced him, but who, at the start of the play, is at the beginning of a possible new relationship and is uncomfortable, not quite knowing what could happen.

He then takes us back through his diagnosis, his endless treatments, his medications, his fights with the insurance company, the frustration with doctors. It’s a no-holds-barred journey which includes the dreaded digital prostate exam, the colonoscopy and endless humiliating procedures (as a woman who has gone through several pregnancies, I took fiendish glee seeing a man put in those compromising positions that we know all too well!)

There is no pussy footing around with terminology either. He calls a penis a penis. Many times. In fact, at one point he reads a whole bunch of colloquial euphemisms for that appendage, similar to the list for “vagina” in “The Vagina Monologues.”

There is helpful information to be had too, like the fact that chemotherapy kills testosterone and that if a man ever hopes to function sexually again, he must take Viagra every night, not for sexual performance, but to ensure that he will continue to have nocturnal erections which will keep his musculature in shape.

Women will also identify with his reactions to hot flashes, another side effect of the chemotherapy.
At the end of his treatment, he is broken, physically and emotionally and ready to re-examine his life and decide how to reshape it in order to become a better person.

Weinberg gives a marvelous performance in a 90-plus-minute piece that is loaded not only with the day-to-day thoughts of a cancer patient, but also a lot of technical information and jargon. Director Upton has cleverly used the device of Montauk referring to his journal to read the audience bits that he has written during his journey … it is obvious that it gives actor Weinberg a chance to remember where in his delivery he is, but it works and is a forgivable crutch, given the amount of material he is dealing with.

Weinberg was also dealing with a sweltering theater at the premier performance. Though the air conditioning worked at the start of the play, by the end of it, everyone in the audience was fanning themselves and Weinberg had sweat pouring off his face.

I sometimes think that the California Stage organization and its three theaters are some of the best theater in Sacramento that nobody has heard of. The small Wilkerson Theater had fewer than 25 people in the audience for its opening performance, which is a shame, as this is a good play with an important message and should have a wider audience.

One additional note: The play is dedicated to Cathy Manzano, a “Birch Lane Mom” who lost her battle with breast cancer in 2009.

“The Third Date” runs Saturdays only (matinee and evening performances) through July 4.

The Explorers Club

(from L to R) David Silberman, Greg Alexander, Dave Pierini, John Lamb,
Jason Kuykendall, Stephanie Altholz

An outrageously funny comedy has them rolling in the aisles at the B Street Theater in Sacramento.

“The Explorers Club” by Nell Benjamin is tautly directed by Buck Busfield assisted greatly by Technical Director Steven Schmidt and Scenic Designer Meg McGuigan.  There isn’t a noticeable false movement or shaky piece of equipment in the play, which is key to its enjoyment.

Jason Kuykendall is Lucius Fretway, the acting president of the Explorers Club, a good old boys’ club of 1879 London.  Lucius wants to propose Phyllida Spotte-Hume (Stephanie Altholz) for membership as she has recently discovered the lost city of Pahatlabong and is set to present to Queen Victoria a member of the NaKong tribe (looking for all the world like an escapee from Blue Man Group–or a Smurf).  Lucius feels this qualifies her for admission to the Club, which has never had a female member. 

(The Royal Society, which debuted in 1660 did not admit a woman until 1945, Canada’s Royal Society barred women until 1938 and France’s Academy of Sciences would not elect a woman to full membership until 1979, even blackballing Marie Curie).

Lucius’ proposal rocks the membership - Professor Sloane (David Silberman), a biblical archaeologist who has proof that ancient Jews migrated to Ireland and that all Irishmen are really Jews; Professor Cope (Allen McKelvey), a herpetologist with a beloved snake named Rosie; and Professor Walling (Greg Alexander), obsessed with his pet guinea pig.

Phyllida’s wild tribesman has a name too long to pronounce, so she has called him Luigi (after a former boyfriend) and rewards him for proper behavior with treats, much like one would a dog.  John Lamb’s performance steals the show and would be worth the price of admission alone, were it not that the rest of the cast is so perfect as well.

It is clear that Lucius is in love with Phyllida.  He has, after all, named a plant after her, but any hopes for a romance are dashed by the return of the club’s rightful president Harry Percy (David Pierini), a larger than life explorer who claims to have just discovered the “east pole,” and who takes an instant shine to the woman and, unlike Lucius, is not shy about letting her know his feelings.

The action in this farce is rapid fire and unrelenting.  Delivery of drinks from the bar, by Luigi, who fills in for the missing bartender after his disastrous introduction to Queen Victoria sparks an international incident, is hilarious.

Winston Koone is Bernard Humphries, secretary to the queen, come to the Explorer’s club to capture the offending Luigi and Eason Donner is Beebe, an explorer whom Percy abandoned and left to the natives, returning to exact revenge.

Outside there are angry crowds representing several different groups who have bones to pick with someone inside...or with each other.

Don’t attempt to make sense of any of this, just relax and enjoy the laughs which are non-stop.

Meg McGuigan’s set is gorgeous, giving a real feel of one of those wood-paneled men’s clubs, with overstuffed furniture, Persian rugs, and trophies on the wall, where stuffy old men go to share brandy and cigars without the intrusion of the fairer sex.

Paulette Sand-Gilbert adds authenticity with her beautiful costumes, particularly the Navy costume for Harry Percy (which he admits he had worn in a production of “H.M.S. Pinafore.”)

This show takes you prisoner from the first line and does not let go until you are weak from laughter two acts later.

My Fair Lady

From left, William Parry as Colonel Pickering, Glory Crampton as Eliza Doolittle and Paul Schoeffler as Henry Higgins perform in “My Fair Lady,” produced by Music Circus at the Wells Fargo Pavilion through June 14.
Charr Crail/Courtesy photo

Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe’s “My Fair Lady” is the lead-off to another fun Music Circus season. (It will be followed by “Big River,” “Bye Bye Birdie,” “Peter Pan,” “West Side Story” and “Hair.”)

This production is directed by Glenn Casale, who also directed “My Fair Lady” at Music Circus in 2001.

Based on George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion,” this popular classic tells the story of Henry Higgins, a self-centered, overbearing linguist who claims to be able to take a flower girl from Covent Garden, give her lessons in grammar, elocution and etiquette, and in six months pass her off as a lady of refinement at an embassy ball (or make her qualified to be a lady in a flower shop, which is even more difficult).

Paul Schoeffler (reprising his role from 2001) is a strong and powerful Higgins, the Music Circus sound system sometimes at such a level that it was almost painful. Nonetheless, he turns in a masterful performance and is at his best, perhaps, in his final song, “I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.” He first expresses his anger that Eliza has left him, and then realizes how much he has come to care for her and how much he will miss her.

Making her Music Circus debut, Glory Crampton, who played Eliza under Casale’s direction in Pittsburgh, has a gorgeous voice and is believable both as the raggedy flower girl and the elegant lady. Her “I Could Have Danced All Night” was a particular delight as she revels in the joy of finally having “got it” and celebrating with Higgins and his pal, Colonel Pickering.

Under Casale’s direction, Eliza’s first correct pronunciation of “The rain … in Spain … falls mainly … on the plain” is halting and unsure; she gains confidence the more she repeats the phrase correctly. Casale’s Eliza did this in 2001 as well and it reads more accurate than the smooth versions we see in other productions.

William Parry is Colonel Pickering, a fellow linguist who joins together with Higgins to pay for Eliza’s lessons and insist that she be treated with respect. It is because of Pickering, ever the gentleman, that Eliza learns how a lady should be treated, not just how she should behave.

Eliza’s father, the irrepressible Alfred P. Doolittle, is played deliciously by Stephen Berger. Doolittle, who attempts to sell his daughter to Higgins, later believes Higgins has ruined his life by mentioning him as one of the most noted spokesmen on middle-class morality of this country to an American billionaire, who leaves the dustman a sizable inheritance.

Doolittle has two outstanding numbers in the show, “With a Little Bit of Luck” and “Get Me to the Church on Time.” Both showcase choreographer Bob Richard’s work at its best.

The character of Freddy Eynsford Hill, played by Jason Forbach, has got to be one of the sappiest characters in musical theater history. All he has to do is hang around Higgins’ house and moon over Eliza, with whom he fell instantly in love when he met her at Ascot.

He sings “On the Street Where You Live” many times, fully and in segments. Fortunately, Forbach has a magnificent voice, but I’ve always felt kind of sorry for poor Freddy.

Shannon Stoeke plays Professor Zoltan Karpathy, a former student of Higgins who now uses his learned talents “more to blackmail and swindle than teach.” Higgins’ triumph is Karpathy’s report on this mysterious Miss Doolittle’s real background.

Toni Sawyer plays Mrs. Higgins, Henry’s mother, who takes a liking to Eliza and cheers her on when she finally has the gumption to stand up for herself.

Mary Jo Mecca is a steadfast and loyal housekeeper, Mrs. Pearce.

Marcy Froehlich is credited with costume design and the costumes are magnificent, particularly Eliza’s ball gown. But the real standout of the costumes are for the Ascot Races scene, perhaps the most famous scene in the play. The dresses are wonderful, the hats amazing.

But it is sad that the audience gets to really see only half of them, since the characters kind of mill around the stage while singing. How much better it would have been to make use of the Music Circus’s mechanical turntable — they have it, why not use it? — so that the costumes pass by all sections of the house, allowing all in the audience to fully appreciate each of them.

I also take issue with the fact that the characters freeze when watching the race, but nobody moves, no heads turn as the sound of hoofbeats pass by. You would think that each character is interested only in the split second that the horses pass where he or she is standing and not in the actual outcome of the race.

The finale of the show is very slightly different from the original, and a wonderful change in staging, which shows how much self-confidence Eliza has gained in the past six months. Bravo on a very slight but significant improvement.

The Heart of Robin Hood

Maid Marian and her clown Pierre run away to the forest and attempt to join Robin Hood's gang of Merry Men in Acme Theatre's “The Heart of Robin Hood.” From left are Much Miller (Camila Ortiz), Robin Hood (Benton Locke-Harshaw), Maid Marian (Callie Miller), Pierre the clown (Wil Forkin), Wil Scathlock (Tina Simpson) and Little John (Aaron Hirst). Courtesy photo

Was there ever a more perfect play for a bunch of exuberant adolescents than “The Heart of Robin Hood”? Written by David Farr and directed by Emily Henderson, the production is this year’s gift to Davis by members of Acme Theatre Company, with free performances set on the Davis Arts Center stage through Monday.

Everyone knows the story of Robin Hood, right? Lovable rogue running through Sherwood Forest with his band of Merry Men, robbing from the rich to give to the poor. Wikipedia lists 68 movies either about Robin Hood or featuring Robin Hood, dating back to 1908. (They say the best of all the movies was the 1938 version featuring Errol Flynn.)

There are movies made in England, Italy, Germany, Russia, India and Japan. There are animated films, including one featuring Tom and Jerry, and another one starring vegetables.

In his “The Heart of Robin Hood,” Farr puts his own spin on the story, borrowing from Shakespeare now and then, and making it a rollicking good time. The cast members were always in motion, making use of the whole area, including the trees and the grassy hill (no need to build a prop tree when there is a real tree growing out of the stage that can be climbed!).

There were umpteen sword and/or stick fights (kudos to fight director Dan Renkin), and everybody, on and off stage, looked like they were having a marvelous time.

This is more of a feminist version, where Robin Hood (Benton Harshaw) really is an outlaw, who robs from the rich … and then keeps what he gets. But it is Marian (Callie Miller), the bored princess who is looking for adventure, who goes into the forest with her friend Pierre/Peter (William Forkin) disguised as a man (Martin of Sherwood) who helps Robin find that he really gets more satisfaction from helping the poor. (He also learns that girls aren’t so bad after all.)

Forkin has a big role, as play announcer, castle jester and Marian’s best friend. He is flamboyant as Pierre, and brave as his alter-ego, Peter.

Miller has an awful lot of on-stage time and she just gets stronger as the play progresses. She also does surprisingly quick costume changes. (It always amazes me how you can put on a hat and suddenly nobody recognizes you!)

Likewise, Harshaw is more like a big kid playing with his friends (Aaron Hirst, Tina Simpson and Camila Ortiz), but as things get more serious, he becomes more adult and responsible and, of course, his reward for that is the hand of the princess, once she takes off her hat and he can recognize her.

The man you love to hate is Colin French as the sleazy Prince John, determined to wed Marian before her father (Noah Papagni) can get home to stop the marriage. He’s deliciously evil at every turn.

Eliza Buchanan plays Alice, Marion’s social climbing sister who wants to marry well, and the more titled the better. Buchanan’s performance sneaks up on you and you suddenly realize what a very good actress she is.

Trevor Rinzler and Sky Falyn play siblings Jethro Summers and Sarah Summers. I’m not sure if Rinzler is old enough to be in Acme yet. Falyn definitely is not, but both of them were extremely good as the children of a man ultimately hanged for non-payment of taxes. Their dog Plug (Sarah Zaragoza-Smith) gave the perfect salute on the death of Prince John’s hitman, Guy of Gisbourne (Ricky Houck).

“The Heart of Robin Hood” is fast, fantastic, fabulous fun, presented by a group of young actors who know just what they’re doing. They give the audience a simply splendid time.

Temperatures were cold on opening night, so dress warmly, but Acme also has blankets to lend if you need them. There is a pre-show barbecue, and at intermission there are cookies and hot chocolate for those who want them.

Dan Renkin (Feature Article)

Benton Locke-Harshaw as Robin Hood, crouching; Dan Renkin, fight choreographer;
and Callie Miller as Maid Marian rehearse for the Acme Theatre Company
production of "The Heart of Robin Hood," set for Memorial Day weekend. Renkin,
a Davis High School graduate now working in New York theater,
flies home every year to teach young Acme actors
realistic-looking sword-fighting skills.
Courtesy photo

When Robin Hood’s merry men engage with the Sheriff of Nottingham’s posse in Sherwood Forest this weekend, you can be sure that their swordplay will be a) realistic and b) safe.

This is due to fight coordinator Dan Renkin, a Davis High School graduate now working in theater in New York, who has returned to his hometown every year for the past six years to work with the young actors of the Acme Theatre Company to teach them the fine arts of stage fighting and handling those unwieldy swords.

Acme will present “The Heart of Robin Hood” Friday through Monday at the Davis Arts Center. The free production is its annual gift to the community as thanks for local business and community support of the company for high school-aged thespians.

Renkin never imagined he would have a career in theater, much less in New York. In fact, his whole career was really a series of fortunate accidents.

He remembers that as a young kid he enjoyed the productions of the Sunshine Children’s Theater, but didn’t get involved himself until some friends were doing a summer show with Acme at the Pence Gallery.

He came into the production late, but “they said ‘you can be one of the people we’ve never seen before for the funeral scene at the end.’ And so I got to stand around thinking ‘I’m not sure what I’ve gotten myself into, but this is really fun!’ ”

He graduated from Davis and headed off to UC Irvine to get a liberal arts degree “because that’s what we do in my family,” but in his second year, he realized he really missed doing theater.

“I wonder if they do that here,” he thought.

Renkin found an active theater program and began getting involved. He was also taking film classes on the side.

“Then there was a moment when I realized I had screwed up and had accidentally taken the first two quarters of the theory class that was required for the film major, but not for the minor,” he said. “There was no reason not to go ahead and get a second B.A. in film. I had no idea what was coming next.”

What came next was the recommendation of a friend who was working at the New York Conservatory.

“She spent a year on the phone with me saying ‘not only is this a really good program, but this would be a really good place for you.’ ” And so he went to New York.

He enrolled in the Circle on the Square Acting School and felt right at home immediately when the first person he met when he entered the building was Paul Shapiro, a fellow graduate of Davis High School. (Renkin later would collaborate with another DHS graduate, Ari Kreith, who runs Theater 167 at Manhattan’s West End Theater.)

“One of the teachers was B.H. Barry, the first fight director ever to win a Tony and the man credited with the birth of fight directing in America,” Renkin recalled. “He taught stage combat, which I had a little smattering of in undergraduate (days), just enough to convince me that it was not meant for me. I’m not athletic.

“But his teacher had been Errol Flynn’s stunt double, so he had certain standards for how you perform. All his drinking buddies and peers were people like Harold Pinter, writing very earthy, kitchen-sink stuff, not like Noel Coward, and he wanted to figure out how to make the fights natural like that.”

Barry found that he would treat fight scenes the same way he would treat them as an actor. It was easier to stage and the actors could remember it better; they also performed it more convincingly because they owned it.

“It became kind of an existential thing. And that made sense to me,” Renkin said. “That’s when the thing that was most terrifying to me became fun. When someone is quite literally the most skilled in the world at this thing that they do and they invite you to come learn more about it, you go!

“So I started going to his class. I assisted him on my first Broadway show, hoping that there would eventually be a second.”

Renkin also began filling in when Barry was unable to teach a class and eventually he began doing his own fight choreography (“I find mall atrias, for some reason, are a great inspiration for choreography ideas — I could slide down this railing, and jump over that table …”)

Then, six years ago, he was contacted by Acme Artistic Director Emily Henderson about helping with a show. She explained that Libby Renkin, Dan’s mother, had come to an Acme show and mentioned that her son did fight choreography and might be able to help out on their next production.

“So I cold-called this total stranger and said ‘I’m doing this play and it has 17 different fights and do you think you could come for a week?’ He said sure,” Henderson said. “It was really wonderful. He knew our style and everything worked perfectly.”

Added Renkin, “We had to explain to the kids who I was, and that I had been in Acme and graduated from Davis High and was now working in New York. When I told one of the students the year I graduated he said, ‘That’s when I was born.’ I responded with something completely unprintable, and we got along famously after that.”

It has been a win-win situation for everyone. Acme actors have learned professional fighting from a master, Renkin gets to come home on a regular basis to visit his parents, and Davis reaps the benefits of one of Acme founder Dave Burmester’s success stories.

How many other young-adult theater groups have an official fight choreographer who learned from the guy who learned from the guy who was stunt double to Errol Flynn and who introduced fight choreography to this country? Pretty cool.

Cinderella

Kecia Lewis and Paige Faure perform in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s "Cinderella,"
presented by Broadway Sacramento at the Sacramento Community Center Theater
through Sunday. Carol Rosegg/Courtesy photo

It was like going to a royal wedding at the Sacramento Community Center for the opening of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Cinderella.”

There was a royal white Cinderella coach drawn by white horses on which you could have your picture taken, which pulled up in front of the theater. The red carpet featured a parade of pint-sized princesses with tiaras and sparkly shoes. (Left your tiara at home? No problem. You can buy one in the lobby.) In the lobby you could also pose in front of the stairway to the palace.

In the theater itself, the stage was dominated by a magnificent forest of trees which, over the course of the evening, would move in all sorts of wonderful ways to make different configurations.

In the orchestra pit there was a real live orchestra with a real live conductor (Jay Alger). So many musicals these days use synthetic music that the sound of a full orchestra of more than a dozen musicians and 20 real instruments was as refreshing as six months at the seaside.

Then there was the production, which features the most spectacular magical costume change I have ever seen — the sort that makes you want to hit “rewind” so you can see it again because you can’t believe what you just saw (kudos to William Ivey Long, costume designer). And if that wasn’t spectacular enough, or in case you missed it the first time, they’ll do a variation of it in the second act — just as spectacular.

There’s even a real fire-breathing dragon to start things off. No expense has been spared on this production!

This is not Disney’s Cinderella. Many of the traditional elements are there, but this version was written in 1957 as a TV vehicle for Julie Andrews. Then there was a 1965 version with Lesley Ann Warren and a 1997 version with Whitney Houston and Brandy.

The current book by Douglas Carter Beane, is a more politically correct version of the familiar story. Cinderella’s (Audrey Cardwell) main goal in going to the ball is to warn Prince Topher (Andy Huntington Jones) of the terrible things going on in his country.

While he has been out slaying dragons and fighting giants, he has left the running of the country to his power-mad Lord Chancellor, Sebastian (Branch Woodman), who has brought the citizenry to starvation and eviction from their homes.

Stepsister Gabrielle (Kaitlyn Davidson) is not evil at all, and really wants nothing to do with becoming queen because she is secretly in love with Jean-Michel (David Andino), the social activist who is trying to get his message to the prince. Gabrielle, in fact, helps Cinderella get to the ball so she herself can sneak off to work in a soup kitchen with Jean-Michel.

The Fairy Godmother, Marie (Kecia Lewis), is not the cuddly little grandmother from the Disney film, but an over-the-top vision in purple and sequins (her own transformation is pretty spectacular, too), there to push Ella to take charge, make her own decisions, and fight for her own destiny.

There is still an evil stepmother (Paige Williams), who does make Ella do all the dirty work, but she’s not as mean as we have come to expect.

Stepsister Charlotte, an audience favorite, who tries desperately to fit her foot into the glass slipper, is the comic figure in the show and her “Stepsisters’ Lament” tickles the funny bone.

Anna Louizos’ scenery is sumptuous and the costumes are show-stoppers, especially in the waltz scene where the lighting design of Kenneth Posner made it magical.

It was nice to hear the sound of an old-fashioned musical. Though none of the songs were familiar, they were unmistakably Rodgers and Hammerstein. In fact, one song (“Now is the Time”) sounded like it could have been lifted from “South Pacific,” and I was surprised to read later that it had, in fact, been cut from that show.

This is a production that will entertain all generations in the family, from grandma down to the toddlers.

Spoiler alert: The prince ends up with Cinderella.

There is a Happiness that Morning Is

As a critic, you are sometimes sent to review shows that sound like they are going to be pretty dull, but you go anyway. KOLT Run Creations’ “There is a Happiness That Morning Is,” at the Wilkerson Theater in Sacramento, was one of those shows. Based on the poems of the Romantic poet, William Blake, how exciting could it be?

It’s one of the perks of being a critic — the opportunity to discover gems like this that you otherwise would never think of seeing. Written by Mickle Maher, the premise for this one-act play is that two professors at a private college were observed having sex in the quad in full view of their students and the dean of the college. They have been ordered by the dean to apologize to their classes or lose their jobs.

Professor Bernard Barrow (Greg Hanson), who teaches a morning class in the poetry and prose of William Blake, goes first. Obviously still in the throes of after-glow, barefoot, dirt-covered, with leaves in his hair, he waxes poetic (literally, speaking in rhyme), rhapsodizing on the love-making and his 20-year relationship with Ellen Parker (Kelley Ogden) and railing against the administration and parents who were appalled by this very natural expression of the lovers’ passion for one another.

He chooses the poem “Infant Joy” (“I happy am, Joy is my name, Sweet joy befall thee!”) as he explains why he cannot be apologetic about the incident. Maher’s brilliant script, combined with Hanson’s delivery, make this a hilarious monologue.

In less skillful hands the device of using the rhymes of Blake and adding rhyming dialogue to fit the situation at hand might fall flat, but in the expert hands of both Hanson and Ogden it becomes a wholly accessible conversation for the audience.

I thought at one point that this must have been what it was like to see Shakespeare’s plays when he wrote them, when there was no such thing as “Shakespearean English” because it was just the language everyone spoke.

The afternoon class, led by Professor Parker, is quite different. As opposed to Barrow’s casual dress and demeanor, she is prim and proper, in a demure suit, with every hair in place. Though she leads off her class with an apology, it is, again, not for the incident itself, but, using Blake’s “The Sick Rose,” she apologizes for her years of conformity to the system (“O Rose, thou art sick! The invisible worm”).

As she warms to her subject, the obscenities flying out of her mouth are in sharp contrast to her appearance and again, the end result is a hilarious monologue.

However, Bernard decides to sit in on her class and this leads to as public an argument as their earlier love-making.

Rhymes and decorum go out the window when the dean (identified as “Man” in the program, and played by Greg Parker) interrupts. To say more about his role in this production would be to spoil the fun for the audience, so let’s just say that his character brings an unexpected intensity to the plot.

This show is so much fun that my only fear for it is that, given the remote location of the Wilkerson Theater and the perhaps unknown reputation of KOLT Run Creations, it might not be seen by as many people as should see it. Do yourself a big favor and buy a ticket. You will not be sorry.

Snow White

 

Several years ago, I wrote a feature article about the opportunities for children to participate in theater in this area — groups like the Woodland Opera Company’s Rising Star Workshop and Youth Summer Theater Camp, and the Davis Musical Theatre Company’s Young People’s Theater program. They’re active programs that have only grown since my original article. So I decided to check the finished product for both Woodland and Davis.

A few weeks ago, I reviewed Woodland’s “A Year with Frog and Toad,” and this weekend I went to see DMTC’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.” I was pleased to see that both shows were an excellent example of the kind of theater experience young people are being given.

“Snow White” — with books, lyric and music by Carol Weiss, who writes musicals for children — is not Disney’s “Snow White.” For starters, there are dwarfs Keeper, Grinder, Cutter, Woeful, Muse, Picker and Poker. Also, the mirror plays a major role throughout the story.

The DMTC cast has 30 or so young people, ages 7 to 18, and is directed by Kendra Smith, who has done an excellent job showcasing a disciplined, talented cast.

Choreography by Jessica Arena and Jan Isaacson is impressive and the kids perform beautifully. The Act 2 starter, “Every Deed You Do” was outstanding and could easily stand on equal footing with any community theater stage, adult or young people, in the area.

Director Smith had told me that this production was to be done in steampunk style and I admit I had to research it. Huffington Post tells me, “It’s all about mixing old and new: fusing the usability of modern technology with the design aesthetic and philosophy of the Victorian age.”

The look abounds everywhere, in the costumes (particularly the hats) and in the set (designed by Stephen Giannetti).

Becca Paskowitz is a commanding Queen, her performance impressive in one so young (15). She also has a beautiful voice and, though this is a huge part, she carries herself like a pro throughout.
Her sister, Witch Wicked, is played by 15-year-old Cassidy Smith, who is every bit as impressive as Paskowitz. The two make an evil pair to be reckoned with and are more central characters than Snow White herself.

Snow is played by Isabelle Giannetti, a lovely, innocent girl whose only fault is being too beautiful. Giannetti handles the role beautifully.

Tylar Traum is the Mirror, a character dressed in silver standing inside a big frame, who communicates with everyone only in rhyme, and occasionally steps out of the frame to have a more personal confrontation. Traum was a delight to watch.

Jonthan Kalinen didn’t have much to do as the Prince, but in his brief appearances he comported himself well and sang a beautiful “Love Song” with Snow White.

Sir Pompous is the Queen’s cousin and Anthony Swaminathan shows a real comic flair in portraying this bumbling royal.

Jack Driggers is Keeper, the head dwarf, and does a good job with this small role, while Nate Fechner as the dwarf Woeful seems quite subdued until near the end when he shines wonderfully.

The other dwarfs are Sophia Nachmanoff, Devin Mitchell-Silbaugh, Stella Silver, Christian Duran and Elysia Martinez.

There are many other members of the YPT as ladies and gentlemen of the court, and the younger members play birds, bears, foxes, hedgehogs, as well as a rabbit, a fawn and a skunk. The ensemble works well together and it is wonderful to see how much they have learned in the Young People’s Theater.

“Snow White” continues through May 24. I saw it on the second weekend and the house was nearly three-quarters full, so it is obviously quite popular. Children especially will have a great time and might get bit by the performing bug themselves when they see how much fun everyone is having on stage.

The Homecoming

Julian Lopez-Morillas, Brian Harrower, Melinda Parrett and Ryan Snyder
perform in "The Homecoming," running through May 31 at Capital Stage. Courtesy photo

Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming,” now considered by many to be his masterpiece, is celebrating its 50th birthday this year. It cemented the playwright’s reputation as “Britain’s foremost living dramatist.”

Though the play is seldom performed these days, Capital Stage is presenting a polished production directed by Janis Stevens, in which strong performances are given by a wonderful ensemble of six performers, four of whom are new to Capital Stage.

Is this a dark comedy with dramatic elements, or a dark drama with comedic elements? Yes. There is heavy drama in this story of a dysfunctional blue-collar family living in a working-class area of North London, but there are also lots of funny moments among the five men of the family and the newly introduced sister-in-law.

The family dysfunction is established early with the attempted conversation of the grizzled family patriarch, Max (Julian López-Morillas), with his suave, immaculately dressed son Lenny (Ryan Snyder), who steadfastly ignores him.

In turn, we meet the other men in the family — Sam (Joe Higgins), Max’s brother, a somewhat disheveled limousine driver, and Joey (Brian Harrower), a demolition man by day and would-be boxer at night. He’s the butt of his father’s cruel jabs, who tells him that he’d be a pro if he ever learned “how to defend and how to attack.”

We learn that Max’s wife died several years before, so the house has been without a female presence for a long time. It has become a man cave where each man lives in his own world and barely speaks to the others, though Max seems to do the cooking, to lots of criticism (“Why don’t you buy a dog? You’re a dog cook.”).

These four actors inhabit their vastly diverse characters flawlessly. López-Morillas is riveting as the bellicose Max, who can be sentimental when the mood strikes him, but who mostly spends his time yelling at his sons or complaining about his life.

Higgins gives Sam a somewhat androgynous persona, very proud of his popularity as a limousine driver, but rumpled in appearance and very definitely subservient to Max.

As for Lenny, Snyder is perfection. He is such a cool customer, but with such an underlying hint of something sleazy behind that polished veneer that we aren’t surprised to discover, in Act 2, that he is a pimp.

Harrower’s Joey is as different from brother Lenny as you can get. His body language conveys his insecurity, how he knows he’s the runt of the litter and only hopes that his dreams of becoming a champion prize fighter will change his life.

Into this mix come Teddy (Christopher Vettel) and his wife Ruth (Melinda Parrett), who have been living in the United States for the past six years and have dropped by, unannounced, en route home from Venice so that Teddy can introduce Ruth to his family.

Teddy is a professor of philosophy at a university and smugly considers himself quite a cut above his low-class family. Based on the awkwardness of their interactions, one wonders why he bothered coming home at all.

There is something “off” with Teddy and Ruth from the beginning. Their relationship seems strained. There are also doubts about the truth of their life in the United States. Presumably, they have had three children over the past six years and later Teddy talks about how he wishes he was home because the kids would be playing in the pool by now. Given what would have to be their ages if they had been born within the last six years, that seems hardly plausible. It adds another layer to the question of the relationship between Teddy and Ruth, alluded to later.

Vettel looks like he just walked out of a classroom, so accurate is his portrayal of the effete college professor.

Nobody does cold, aloof women as well as Parrett, and in Ruth, she has a gold mine to work with. Though she and Lenny see each other from across the room, it is obviously lust at first sight, and their banter throughout the play give us some of the funniest lines.

In short order, the life the men have been living is disrupted by the sexual tension created by the presence of a woman in the house and each of them lusts after her in different ways and for different reasons. Ruth is objectified, but turns that around and takes power from the feelings the men have for her, which also gives her the power to stand up to Teddy, when he insists that they return to the States immediately. Parrett is masterful when she first begins to bark orders at the men.

Ultimately, the men invite her to remain with them, while Teddy goes home, so she can be Max’s wife substitute, a mother-substitute for the sons, and perhaps earn her living working as a prostitute for Lenny.

As Teddy picks up his suitcase while Ruth settles into Max’s overstuffed chair with a contented sigh, it seems that the “homecoming,” after all, is Ruth’s.

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.