Tom Burmester (feature)

“This ‘Gospel’ is chapter and verse one of the finest war plays in recent memory.”

That’s what the Los Angeles Times wrote about Tom Burmester’s “Gospel According to First Squad,” currently on stage at UC Davis.

It’s high praise for Burmester, who grew up in Davis, and is now making a name for himself in theater in Los Angeles and other places where his works are presented.

“Gospel” is the third in what ultimately will be a four-play “War Cycle.” Burmester is working on the script for the fourth play, while considering the current show still a “work in progress.”

I asked how a kid raised in a nuclear-free town, a city of all things right and relevant, developed such an interest in writing about war. While he would not pinpoint his interest on his upbringing, he explained that “a lot of it came from my dad,” Dave Burmester, now retired and a beloved former English teacher at Davis High School.

“I took as many of his classes as I could when I was in high school and I remember a fascinating unit on war literature,” Tom Burmester said. “Some of that probably rubbed off on me.”

The Gulf War was being waged when Tom was a senior in high school and he saved every article he could find from the San Francisco Chronicle “just because I had a sense that there was something significant happening and I was going to want to look back on that time and remember.”

In 2004, after graduating from UCLA, he and other out-of-work professional and non-professional actors founded the Los Angeles Theatre Ensemble, which formed partly with funds raised during a Ghostlight Theatre Festival here in Davis.

The Ensemble ultimately became “The Powerhouse” after the group took over an old Southern California Edison building in Santa Monica. They performed there for several years until the lease expired and the landlord hiked the rent so high that even with box-office income and grants from Santa Monica, the young company couldn’t make it.

The first thing the Ensemble did was a production of Burmester’s thesis project from UCLA, but it was a two-person play and, realizing that it’s hard to build a group around two people, they decided to “create something.” A socially conscious group, they wanted something relevant and decided to focus on the war in Iraq.

He explained, “We were at war, but none of us felt like we were at war.” He was working for a group called Rock the Vote, and doing research for a paper on the issue of bringing back the military draft.
“When you have a universal draft, you can’t ignore the war,” he said.

The bill didn’t pass, but the members of the ensemble took this issue on, and decided to have a season that examined the overlooked.

“The news was into this idea of the counter of how many had been killed. It was ticking up to 2,000,” Burmester said. “That’s not really overlooked, but what is overlooked is the wounded. When you are wounded it not only changes your life, but the lives of everyone around you.”

They started doing research into that, but since no members of the group had been to war and none of them had been wounded, they knew they had to go to the source. Burmester tried to connect with people in the Army. He wanted to go to Walter Reed Hospital, but was not able to get past the bureaucratic barriers.

Then help came from an unlikely source. Through Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” cartoon, Burmester learned of a nonprofit organization, Fisher House, that serves the military. It maintains homes on military campuses that are specifically for severely wounded veterans and their families. The philosophy is that healing takes place more holistically and faster when the patient is surrounded by loved ones.

“I flew out there and spent a couple of days and they were happy to have me there,” he said. “Once Fisher House had me as a guest, I was able to get into Walter Reed.”

Burmester then talked with a lot of veterans, but concentrated on three — a combat medic named Joda whose eyes had been blown out in an explosion, Bill Pepper (on whom a Doonesbury character is based), and Tammy Duckworth, who lost both of her legs, and is currently the congresswoman from Illinois’ 8th District.

“They were generous with their stories,” Burmester said. “For me it was definitely a transformative experience. I interviewed them and they gave their permission to use their stories.”

He explained that this would be a fictional story, but their stories would lend verisimilitude to the project.

“We felt accountable to these people whose stories we were borrowing. The script is grounded in reality so that there is an honoring of their stories. We’re not trivializing anything.”

The first play was “Wounded,” which had one performance in Los Angeles and then was performed here in Davis.

” ’Wounded’ cuts much deeper than I expected,” wrote Don Shirley of LA City Beat. “It’s not a pity-the-poor-cripples, curse-the-Bushie-bureaucrats play. It looks unsparingly at the choices that face the soldiers in Iraq, the wounded who return, their families and friends — and, by extension, the American public and their elected representatives.

“Conceived by the ensemble, it has been shaped by writer-director Tom Burmester into a gripping edge-of-the-seat experience.”

“Wounded” was performed in Los Angeles and it did so well that the group staged it again the next year. The 2007 production also was successful but they thought “We can’t keep doing it over and over again.” Yet they still felt the responsibility to tell stories about the war, to hold themselves responsible and culpable for the lack of awareness.

The second in the cycle, “Nation of Two,” which opened in 2010, focused attention on the grief of a family preparing to scatter the ashes of their son, killed in Iraq, one year after his death. The idea came from a Christopher Hitchins article in Vanity Fair about a man named Mark, who had joined the ROTC while a student at UCLA, became a lieutenant and was deployed to Iraq, where he was killed.
“I was particularly interested in the widow,” Burmester said. “She looked nothing like my idea of a war widow. She was in her early 20s, young and hip. We developed a relationship with her and the rest of Mark’s family.

“As they shared their stories, I learned that each deals with grief in a different way. There was a difference in the way they wanted to remember Mark. It’s the story of the family, but the central character is missing.”

Actor/director Danika Sudik, who later became Burmester’s wife, came onto the scene at this point. As a war widow herself, she had a special interest in this story, especially the conflicts that can erupt among the survivors.

“I understand things a lot better than I did in 2008,” Sudik said. “Working on the development of this play was a lovely way to look at things in a way that I probably never would have otherwise.”

The group started looking again for what to do and realized they had yet to deal with actual combat. There was a photo spread in Rolling Stone by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger that featured portraits of soldiers in the Korangal Valley in Afghanistan, and Burmester was struck by the images.

“There was so much storytelling in the photos themselves that it became a launching point,” he said. “We managed to connect with a few folks who had served in combat in Afghanistan. It was important that they had been in combat, so they could explain that experience to us.”

Added Sudik, “The thing I remember most about them was how reticent they were to actually say the words. They were holding back and skirting around the topic, but it seemed like they really did want to talk about it all.

“Finally we told them they could say anything and we were not going to be offended or judgmental. They were relieved and the things that came out that are in the play — things that they were embarrassed to talk about, like sexual dysfunction and psychological issues that happened to them while they were there, and after they returned home — that really stuck with me, as a woman.
“They’re in this place where there are no women and how much that affected the way they were talking and acting with each other.”

“That’s a lot of what ‘Gospel’ is,” Burmester explained. “The guys are deployed in a very remote location. One of the things they talked about that stuck with me was that the farther away you are from the generals and the colonels, the more out in the field you are, there’s more of a sense of omnipotence. A gun gives you power. There’s more of a sense of not needing to adhere to rules, but being the ones that make the rules.

“We were also fortunate that one of the cast members in our original cast had served in Afghanistan in combat, so he was able to check us. When we were in our original run in L.A., occasionally a veteran would pull me aside and say, ‘You might want to look at this. … There’s a little detail here that’s not quite right.’ ”

One difference in this production is that since Sudik is pursuing a master of fine arts in directing, “Gospel” has an all-female production team.

““It has been awesome to get all these different perspectives and they’re so young, too, so they are going through their own interactions and everything is super-hypercharged,” Sudik said. “The things that they are noticing and are drawing out in the story are strengthening it so much.”

Burmester added, “It’s about this culture that we’re creating and that we are condoning. This is our American face as seen by part of the world. What does that mean? What are we creating for these men to come home to?

“So much of this play is about ideals and what we say is important to us. And then what actually happens to a person when the rubber hits the road? And how that changes, and how you justify your choices,” he continued.

“One thing I’m proud of — ‘Gospel’ is not glorifying the war. The media that we consume is about the hero story. We latch onto that and we have the American hero in our corner. But the issues are so much more complex than sound bites. We’re defining ourselves by our tweets. What does that mean?”

But that is a subject for another play.

“Gospel” is a reunion of old Acme Theatre Company alumni. In addition to Tom Burmester, Steven Schmidt, the tech director for the B Street Theatre in Sacramento, is doing tech direction for this show, and Chad Fisk, another Acme alum who went on to become an actor in the Bay Area, is doing fight preparation.

“This show has a lot of brutal hand-to-hand combat,” Fisk said. “There is one huge melee where there are six people fighting simultaneously — which involved lots of note-taking. Many in the cast are new to acting and new to fights, so I’m teaching them how to do it safely. When fights look too polished, I made them look more raw and ugly.

“It’s a great show with an amazing script,” Fisk promises.

Nearly 20 years ago, Tom Burmester realized he wanted to put a face to “the overlooked” — and with this war cycle, he certainly has done that.

Speed the Plow

I waited patiently throughout David Mamet’s 80-minute one-act “Speed-the-Plow” now at the B Street Theatre in Sacramento, certain that the show itself would give me a clue as to what the title meant. But it didn’t.

After the show, a circle of critics also each admitted that they did not know what it meant either. Aren’t we lucky to be living in the age of Google?

“God speed the plough” comes from a 15th-century work song and was a prayer for prosperity and productivity.

Mamet himself explained that he saw a saying on an old plate — “ ‘Industry produces wealth, God speed the plow.’ This, I knew, was a play about work and about the end of the world, so ‘Speed-the-Plow’ was perfect because not only did it mean work, it meant having to plow under and start over again.”

Mamet took his interpretation to the world of corporate Hollywood, specifically Bobby Gould (Dave Pierini), who has just been made head of production for a major movie studio and a down-on-his-luck colleague Charlie Fox (Kurt Johnson). This satire about the movie business gives the audience a glimpse of how things really work in the art of the Hollywood deal.

Charlie has just had the offer of a lifetime. A big Hollywood star has read one of his scripts and wants to star in the movie. Charlie is there to get Bobby to green-light the project. The two men are positively orgasmic at the bright future they see before them, with this big-name star and this violent prison/action movie. It will be the surefire blockbuster of the season and Bobby’s slump will be over.
There’s just one hitch: The paperwork needs to be finalized by 10 a.m the next day and the head of the studio will be out of town until then. Not to worry, Bobby assures his friend. The deal is as good as done.

Into the meeting comes Bobby’s temporary secretary, Karen (Stephanie Altholz), tall (in those 4-inch spike heels) and impossibly thin, but well proportioned. The men make all sorts of sexist comments about her after she leaves. Charlie bets Bobby $500 that he cannot seduce Karen.

To set the stage, Charlie engages Karen in discussion about plays he is considering and especially one very thick book called “The Bridge or, Radiation and the Half-Life of Society,” which he has been asked to read as a “courtesy,” though the studio has no intention of making it.

In the next scene, Karen comes to Bobby’s house with the thick book liberally marked with dozens of Post-It notes and she raves about the book and how it changed her life. She tries to convince Bobby that Charlie’s play is garbage and that he should produce this play. During the course of the discussion, she becomes the seductress.

In the final scene, a subdued Bobby admits to Charlie that he has changed his mind about which play he is going to green-light. Charles’ reaction and surprising revelations about Karen round out the action and bring the play to its surprising conclusion.

Mamet is known for wordy plays, and for a three-person play that is dialog-driven to work, the actors must be top-notch and the dialog needs to snap, crackle and pop. In this superb production directed by Jerry Montoya, it does just that.

Pierini and Johnson are excellent as the good-old-boy Hollywood mogul types. Pierini is particularly notable for the change from Scene 2 to 3, where his demeanor becomes slow and steady, in opposition to his high spirits of the first two scenes.

Altholz is just great as the not-so-dumb office temp who shows she is capable of doing more than just pouring coffee for the men. Her subtle shift from naive, submissive temp to take-charge seductress is masterful.

This is a first-rate production for the B Street Theatre.

Death of a Salesman

Ed Claudio

Fredric March, Brian Dennehy, Philip Seymour Hoffman, George C. Scott, Dustin Hoffman and Lee J. Cobb are some of the A-list actors who have played the iconic Willy Loman, the protagonist of Arthur Miller’s classic “Death of a Salesman,” now being presented by the Actors Workshop of Sacramento at the California Stage complex, under the direction of Eason Donner.

Now Sacramento’s grand old man of theater, Ed Claudio, has taken on the role of Willy Loman, a role that has been on his bucket list since he first played it for only two weeks 15 years ago. “It’s my favorite role. My favorite play,” says Claudio, who believes now is his time, before he gets “too old to do it.”

How fortunate we are that he made this decision. From the moment Willy shuffles through the front door, bent over with the weight of his grips, and wearily makes his way to the bedroom, Claudio is Willy Loman.

(No program credit is given for set design, but the cozy, if tired, two-story house of 1940s Brooklyn is perfect.)

This is not a happy play. It is the story of a man nearing the end of his life, beaten down by a profession that used to hold him in high regard, a son who failed to fulfill the promise his father had for him, and a life that just hasn’t turned out the way he expected it to.

Willy has been a salesman all of his life, and in his younger days was well respected by the buyers around the country, and was good friends with the owner of the company for which he worked.

But the world is changing.

New people don’t know him and don’t order from him, the boss’ son now runs the company and has kept Willy on because he has been there so long, but, at 65 he doesn’t have the physical stamina that he did years before. And so when Willy comes, asking to be assigned to the home office and taken off the road, he is fired.

Willy has a hair trigger and, as downtrodden and defeated as he can be, he can also explode in anger at a moment’s notice, and often does.

Claudio does well, bouncing back and forth between Willy’s present and his fantasy life with a brother he admired (now long dead), and son Biff’s (Matt Fairall) glory days as the high school football hero.

Willy’s brother Ben (Chris Amick) is the epitome of the American dream, having struck it rich in the diamond mines. “Why, boys, when I was 17 I walked into the jungle, and when I was 21 I walked out. And by God, I was rich.”

Lighting designer Alicia Thayer kind of dropped the ball here. In other productions I have seen, there is a definite change in light between the present and the dream world, but on the small California State stage, that change somehow got lost and it was not always immediately apparent in which world Willy was living.

Claudio is surrounded by a solid cast of characters from his theater workshop. Fairall gives a very strong performance as Biff, the kid on whose shoulders his father pinned all his hopes for success. But like too many high school athletic stars, Biff just doesn’t have the smarts for college or the drive to succeed. He handles the scenes where he is the virile young stud whose world was his oyster as well as the befuddled adult he has become, more interested in drink than in pursuing a career.

(Willy refuses to acknowledge that Biff’s discovery of his father’s affair on the road had a profound effect on the rest of his life.)

Younger son Hap (Kevin Frame) is a people pleaser, always trying to win his father’s approval, but lost in Willy’s obsession with Biff. Frame is not often the center of a scene, but he has a wonderful way of always being in the scene and never losing focus. Hap is a philanderer, going from one woman to the next with no desire to establish a permanent relationship.

Willy’s wife Linda is often seen as a world-weary woman, as beaten down by life as her husband, but Laura Luke is a life force, a fiercely loyal wife, protective of her husband, and ready to do battle with anyone not in his corner.

Darryl DeHart is Charley, the next-door neighbor, who likes Willy enough to lend him money to keep him afloat, though Willy never seems able to repay his loan. Bernard (Zach Coles) is Charley’s son. Though he will not admit it, Willy is jealous of the good father-son relationship they have and the success they have achieved in life.

The play moves toward its inevitable tragic conclusion and when the small group of four stand at Willy’s grave, one remembers his delight in imagining how people would come from all over his territory and there would be a huge crowd at his funeral.

For a “feel good” night of theater, this is not your cup of tea, but for an impeccable script and outstanding performances, this is one production that is well worth seeing.

Beauty and the Beast

It was the lifelong ambition of Rachael Sherman-Shockley to play Belle in “Beauty and the Beast.” In this Davis Musical Theatre Company’s current production, she proves her ambition was a good one.

She is beautiful, warm, generous and loving, yet high-spirited and plucky. She sacrifices herself for her father and in the end falls in love with a hideous beast, for which she is rewarded with a handsome prince. She is a perfect Belle.

She sings well, too.

Celebrating its 32nd year of musicals, the DMTC production — directed and choreographed by Jan Isaacson — is a fun, colorful, occasionally opulent one, with good talent, beautiful costumes by the remarkable Jean Henderson and a great-sounding orchestra, under the baton of Steve Isaacson (also credited with set design).

It should be noted that, with the addition of a new stage floor, which changes the opening for the under-stage orchestra DMTC, seems to finally have gotten the audio right and the orchestra has never sounded better — or sounded more a part of what is going on on stage.

Joining Sherman-Shockley is a strong cast, which help make this a very good production. Coury Murdock handles the Beast role beautifully, remote and querulous, brooding in his lonely castle, with only the companionship of his staff, who are, themselves, in the process of turning into inanimate objects, as part of the curse.

The most endearing scenes are those in which the staff attempts to instruct the Beast in how to woo a woman.

Murdock delivers wonderful songs, but none so moving as “If I Can’t Love Her,” the Act 1 finale.

Mike Mechanick heads the staff as Lumiere, the maitre d’, who is becoming a candelabra. He is assisted by Cogsworth (Hugo Figueroa), the butler who is turning into a clock, and the housekeeper Mrs. Potts (Marguerite Morris) with her son Chip (Sophia Farwell) as a tea set. All three are delightful.

Morgan Bartoe gets high marks for her flirty “Babette,” the maid becoming a feather duster.

As for Madame de la Grande Bouche (Cyndi Wall), becoming a wardrobe, I have to wonder — with that huge skirt and high wig and jewelry, exactly what part of the house staff she was, but she is a delight, and her “Carmen” aria was great.

And then there is the town bully, Gaston, a L’il Abner-looking buffoon who is so in love with his muscles that he likes to kiss them. Travis Nagler is marvelously over the top, singing such humble songs as “Me” while he attempts to get Belle to agree to marry him.

Gaston’s second in command is the weasely LeFou. Tomas Eredia gives one of the better performances in the show, just so sleazy that you almost like him because he’s so darn cute.

Steve Isaacson is also credited with set design and the sets are attractive, with the town background a huge piece that moves to bring in the castle. While not exactly opulent, they work well.

The trio of Silly Girls (Deia Farley, Kathleen Hornbacker and Lucinda Otto) are all vying for the love of Gaston and add a lot of fun to the town scenes.

Tracy Traum is credited as props designer. If that includes the famous “rose” whose petals fall slowly as the Beast comes closer to losing the chance to become human again, kudos. It’s perfect.

While the music of Alan Menken is less tuneful than others of his Disney repertoire, there are a few songs that you do remember.

This is a show that should appeal to both children and adults, though perhaps it’s more complicated for the very young kids.

How to Use a Knife

Playwright Will Snider spent three years working in agricultural development in East Africa. He also was influenced by the book “We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with our Families,” about the Rwanda conflict of 1994.

Out of his experiences in Africa, and his time working in a busy restaurant in New York, has come a powerful — and surprisingly very funny — one-act play called “How to Use a Knife,” now playing at Capital Stage, directed by Michael Stevenson, as part of the National New Play Network Rolling World Premiere.

The set by Brian Harrower looks like the set of any Food Network show, with a very real-looking stove, prep area and a sink with running water.

Heading the excellent seven-member cast is Harry Harris as the larger-than-life George, a former top chef, who has fallen on hard times and is given the job of kitchen manager by his former student Michael (Kirk Blackinton).

Harris is a marvel — big and bold and brash. He’s a take-no-prisoners disciplinarian who is determined to whip his staff into shape and maybe make it back into his old life again. He strides the kitchen like a colossus, his colorful language peppering the orders he gives.

Blackinton’s character has risen above the dirty world of kitchen work. He just wants someone to take over for him so he is free to sniff his wines, smooth the lapels of his designer suits, and see which beautiful woman he can seduce. He feels both grateful to and respectful of George, sorry for the bad times on which his old mentor has fallen.

Comic relief is provided by the two Latino cooks, Carlos (Willem Long), who speaks English, and Miguel (Eduardo A. Esqueda) who doesn’t. They are quick to point out that they are not Mexican, but from Guatemala, a fact of which Michael is totally unaware and couldn’t care less. He also doesn’t have a clue about the name of his dishwasher Steve (Adrian Roberts) and thinks perhaps he is not able to speak, since he has never heard him talk.

Rounding out the kitchen crew is Jack, the busboy (Cole Winslow). Jack is a white boy who George assumes comes from privilege, because of his attitude. He is caught pouring leftover wine into a cup so he can drink it during the day and has a very laissez-faire attitude toward his job. Winslow is a member of Capital Stage’s 2016-17 apprentice program and comports himself well in this, his professional acting debut.

Long’s Carlos is just wonderful as the wise-cracking cook who is amazed to learn, after all this time, that Steve actually speaks.

As for Esqueda, he is making his professional theater debut and is a great foil for Carlos, always making comments in Spanish about what is going on so the two of them can have their own private jokes. He understands more than he lets on.

Dishwasher Steve is a tall, articulate, dignified man who is above the commotion of the kitchen. It is only when he and George are alone in the kitchen after work that he confesses his desire to learn how to be a chef. The two men each are harboring deeply painful memories and as their friendship deepens, Steve shares his experiences in Rwanda during the conflict of 1994.

Roberts gives much a dignity and depth to his character. George, moved by his friend’s confession, reveals the reason for his own descent into alcohol and drugs and his fall from grace. Steve confesses that George is the first friend he has had in a long time.

It is when Kim (Kelly Ogden), from INS comes around, asking questions about East African workers, that George’s eyes were opened about exactly what his friend’s life was like in Rwanda and the guilt he carries around with him. Ogden is crisp and businesslike with a heart as hard as steel.

As with Snider’s previous play, “Death of a Driver,” “How to Use a Knife” explores “the limits of understanding another person, and what happens when personal and political obligations collide.”
It is one of those plays that may inspire the audience to learn more about the Rwandan conflict and ask themselves what they would do in George’s shoes.

This play is not recommended for those sensitive to the F-word, though they would be missing an otherwise excellent and meaningful play.

Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Music Circus has saved the best for the last, closing its 66th season with the magnificent “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.” Music Circus is one of only three companies in the country that the Disney corporation has licensed to perform this work this season, and this production fulfills the faith Disney has in the Music Circus.

This musical, the only collaboration between Alan Menken (“The Little Mermaid” and “Beauty and the Beast”) and Stephen Schwartz (“Wicked” and “Pippin”), is a darker look at the Victor Hugo classic.

The book by Peter Parnell follows the story, set in 15th-century Paris, more closely than did the lighter Disney cartoon (and thus it may not be suitable for younger children). Some songs in this production are from the film, though others are from a 1999 German incarnation, and a few are new.
It’s difficult to know where to begin. Perhaps with the sumptuous set by Stephen Gifford, who created a magnificent bell tower, and an interior of Notre Dame Cathedral, complete with elegant rose windows, difficult to accomplish in a theater in the round, but the scene is breathtaking. (Some of the special effects throughout the show were amazing.)

Maybe the ingenuity of the costumes of Marcy Froehlich, who turns actors into gargoyles and back into actors, when necessary.

Certainly a huge part of the magic of this production is due to the chorus, under the direction of Omari Tau, which fills the theater with marvelous Gregorian chants and other background music throughout the show. (Look closely and you may find Gia Battista, of the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble, in the group.)

The outstanding part of this excellent cast has got to be John McGinty in the role of Quasimodo, the misshapen hunchback, who has lived his entire life in the bell tower of Notre Dame Cathedral.
McGinty is a deaf actor, with extensive experience in deaf theater. He does speak, but he doesn’t sing, so Jim Hogan, a soloist with symphonic orchestras all over the world, blends in as one of the cathedral gargoyles, and, when needed, unobtrusively steps out to become Quasimodo’s voice for singing, and also for longer speaking sections while McGinty signs the words.

The two work together so seamlessly that they really perform as one person. Their first solo, “Heaven’s Light,” nearly brought down the house with wild applause.

As for McGinty, you will very quickly forget his deafness, so beautiful is his portrayal of the tortured Quasimodo. His final scene will tear your heart out.

But the plaudits don’t stop with McGinty and Hogan. The cast includes several top Broadway actors, led by Mark Jacoby (also a Music Circus favorite). Jacoby plays Dom Claude Frollo, who reluctantly takes in his brother’s deformed child on the brother’s death, but raises him in the bell tower, where he can’t be seen by others. Frollo is a grim disciplinarian and moralist who has his own weaknesses, as we discover when he finds himself attracted to the sensuous gypsy Esmeralda.

Lesli Margherita was last seen on the Music Circus as Aldonza in “Man of La Mancha.” Her Esmeralda oozes sexuality, but with a sharp edge to her. Yet she displays a tender side both in her love of Captain Phoebus (Eric Kunze) and her friendship with Quasimodo. She is able to see past his deformity and into his soul.

Kunze gives the Captain the typical bluster of a Disney oaf (think Gaston in “Beauty and the Beast”) but his character is softened by his attraction to and eventual love of Esmeralda (he’s a fast worker — he’s known her less than a day).

There is a scene at the top of the second act where Quasimodo, along with the gargoyles of Notre Dame, sing “Flight into Egypt” with the ghost of the decapitated St. Aphrodisius, who supposedly accompanied Mary and Joseph and the baby into Egypt to escape Pharaoh’s wrath (“For I kept safe and free, the holy family”). It is one of Quasimodo’s favorite stories, and the ghost is trying to encourage him to save Esmeralda, but the scene seems out of place.

“The Hunchback of Notre Dame” caps a successful season, which started with the frothy “Legally Blonde” — about as far from “Hunchback” as you can get. This shows the versatility the Music Circus, and its dedication to bringing both new and old musicals to the Sacramento area.

Whatever you do, do not miss this production. You’ll regret it if you do!

Footloose

Ryan Everitt and Jordan Hayakaya
in Woodland Opera House's
Footloose

 

There is no denying that “Footloose,” by Dean Pitchford and Walter Bobbie, with music by Pitchford is a silly show.

Basically, it’s a plot about a town where all music has been banned because of a tragic accident six years ago that killed four teens. Then a new kid comes to town and turns everything else around and all join in the singing, dancing finale.

Hardly the stuff of great theater, not even musical theater, which is often known for its silliness.

However, under the direction of Crissi Cairns with choreographer Kevin Gruwell, the Woodland Opera House has created a first-rate show. Though this is not a young people’s show, the quality of Woodland’s many youth programs is evident in the number of excellent young people in the cast.

Leading the pack is Ryan Everitt as Ren McCormack, whose father has walked out on his wife, leaving the two with no ability to remain in Chicago. They move to Bomont (the state is never revealed) to live with her sister (Jennifer Goldman) where they discover that the local minister, the Rev. Shaw Moore (Michael Maples) seems to run the town.

After an accident killed four teenagers returning from a dance, he got the city council to rule that there is to be no dancing in the own of Bomont.

Everitt is a great actor, completely comfortable on stage. He has a wonderful voice and dances well.
As for Maples, when he opens his mouth at the first religious service, you sit up and go “whoa!” His presence is captivating and even when you hate the bible-thumping reverend for his rigidity, you can’t help but admire the talents of the actor.

Poor Ren can’t get a break. He’s cited for driving too fast, fired from his first job, bullied at school because he’s the new guy and picked on by the coach (Steve Cairns). What’s a guy to do? A devotee of clubs in Chicago, Ren has a need to just dance the frustration away.

He makes friends with the laconic Willard (Marcus Lucia), the reverend’s daughter Ariel (Jordan Hayakawa) and spitfire Rusty (Emily Jo Seminoff).

Lucia’s Willard is an “aww shucks, ma’am” kinda guy, quiet and shy, but a loyal friend whose life is changed by mutual attraction to Rusty. His “Mama Says” was a real audience favorite.

Seminoff is great at these spitfire roles, and this one is no different. She’s always fun to watch on stage.

Hayakawa is wonderfully stubborn in her fights with her father over his rigid-handed parenting. Though she is dating the town bad boy (Jonathan Kalinen), he is abusive and she is soon attracted to Ren. Her solo, “Holding Out for a Hero” is wonderful.

Others in the cast include Erica Levich as Ren’s mother, Erin Kelly as Principal Clark, and Steven O’Shea as Cowboy Bob.

The actor who received the biggest applause and the most laughter was Mary Dahlberg in the tiny role of Betty Blast, owner of a diner. Since her time on stage is slightly more than five minutes, the audience reaction must be something which Woodland people are aware of, not outsiders.

Music director Lori Jarvey leads an orchestra of six, and also plays the piano. When Woodland did this show in 2003, there was difficulty getting the voices of the singers over the music of the orchestra. Fortunately, there is no problem like this in this production. Everyone is easily heard and understood.

This may be the fullest I have ever seen the opera house and the response of the audience was tumultuous. There was no question about whether this show is a hit with the audience.

Every Brilliant Thing

Dave Peirini

 The words that strike fear and terror into this critic’s heart are “audience participation.” So I was terrified on entering the B Street Theatre for the one-man show, “Every Brilliant Thing.”

Members of the audience were handed numbered cards and asked to read out what was written on the card when their number was called. I was relieved that I didn’t get a card. (Some people also said no, but most participated.)

But I need not have worried. Actor Dave Peirini is such a likable and friendly guy that this unusual, very funny and poignant play was like sitting in his living room and having a visit.

British playwright Duncan Macmillan, has created a play — which isn’t really a play — that you will recommend to your friends (as I recommend it to you!).

Peirini’s unnamed character tells how he coped with his mother’s depression and many suicide attempts, the first of which occurred when he was 7.

While his mother was in the hospital, he started “The List” on which he attempted to list every thing in this life that made him happy — things as diverse as “ice cream,” “things with stripes” and “thinking about dressing up as a Mexican wrestler.” He felt that by sharing The List with his mother, he could make her happy.

It never did, but he continued keeping The List and leaving bits of paper around the house for her to find. Ultimately he continued the list and wrote a million brilliant things. The project sustained him throughout the most difficult (and joyous) periods of his life.

In addition to reading words when cued, Peirini invited people from the audience to play scenes with him. The show we attended had wonderfully cooperative people. The gentleman playing Peirini’s father, who was then to play Peirini himself while Peirini took the father role, was just to ask “why?” after every comment. He was marvelous, giving a different meaning to the word “why” each time. The conversation took place on the way to the hospital after the first suicide attempt and he gave depth to the confusion of a 7-year-old.

There was also a school counselor, a veterinarian, a teacher and the girl with whom he fell in love. All played their parts well, but the love interest particularly well. She had the longest role.

The narrator is also a great lover of music and fond of playing bits of old vinyl records that I remember from my childhood. I enjoyed hearing the Ink Spots again!

My innate terrors aside, there is nothing uncomfortable about this piece. Everything Peirini does is designed to put the audience, and especially his unsuspecting volunteers at ease.

This is a comedy, but it has its poignant moments too, as when the young boy first learns about death and loss, when his beloved dog had to be put to sleep. The dog is a prop he borrows from someone in the audience.

Anyone who has ever lost someone (or something) loved, or anybody who was ever a lonely kid or felt like an outsider as an adult will find something familiar in this work, directed by Greg Alexander.

And because the script is so cleverly written, we are taken in by Peirini’s pain at his losses, though he puts on a good front. We’re willing to enter into whatever he would like to have us do because we want to be a part of helping him feel better.

“Every Brilliant Thing” is, well, a brilliant thing. You’ll leave the theater thinking that you just spent 90 minutes visiting an old friend.

Nice Work if you can Get it

What better way to spend a nice summer evening than at Music Circus enjoying a fun, frothy musical like “Nice Work If You Can Get It”? This 2012 Tony Award-winning musical, directed by Charles Repole, is making its Music Circus debut this week and is an instant hit.
But then how can you go wrong with music and lyrics by George and Ira Gershwin, and book by Joe DiPietro?

It’s an old-fashioned Jazz Age musical, short on plot and long on song and dance. There are lots of chorus girls in sparkles, bootleggers and cops (usually the same actors) slinking around, trying to either avoid arrest — or make an arrest. There are young lovers, mismatched pairs and a finale that wraps things up nicely, all to the familiar Gershwin tunes like “‘S Wonderful,” “Fascinating Rhythm,” “I’ve Got a Crush on You,” and the title song.

When the show opened in New York, the lead, the multi-married ne’er-do-well Jimmy Winter was played by Matthew Broderick, whom Matt Loehr in this production very much resembles. He has the same innocence about him, even while drunkenly womanizing with the chorines. He’s the guy any woman would fall for. Loehr’s dancing skills are first-rate, especially in his tap numbers (I do like a good tap number, and there are many of them to like in this show).

Jimmy, in attempt to win the approval of his wealthy mother, is finally going to marry someone of quality, after three failed marriages to chorus girls. But Eileen Evergreen (Paige Faure) is “the finest interpreter of modern dance in the world,” as she frequently points out. Faure is very funny and her exaggerated body movements and wonderful solo (“Delishious”) show her off well.

But Jimmy doesn’t really love Eileen, and, in fact, doesn’t really even know what love is until he meets Billie Bendix (Kristie Kerwin), a bootlegger who has no interest in Jimmy — until she winds up in his arms. Like Loehr, Kerwin is ultimately likable. There’s just something “magic” about her.
Her two partners in selling bootleg whiskey are Cookie McGee (Michael Kostroff) and Duke Mahoney (Mark Bradley Miller), each of whom is wonderful in his own way. The threesome, needing somewhere to stash a lot of unsold booze, break into Jimmy’s beach house, which he assures her he almost never visits.

When Jimmy shows up with his soon-to-be wife for a honeymoon, Cookie unwillingly becomes the butler, while Duke becomes a handyman. Kostroff was definitely an audience favorite, and may have received the biggest applause of the night. He’s the classic musical comedy “hood” and plays it to the hilt.

Others in the cast include Music Circus favorite Ron Wisniski (last seen as Herr Schultz in “Cabaret” earlier this month) as Eileen’s politician father. Rich Hebert is Chief Berry, on the trail of Billie and determined to arrest her. Holly Ann Butler plays Jeanie Muldoon, a somewhat dim-witted chorus girl in love with Duke, because she is convinced that he is British royalty and her one ambition is to be queen of England.

Jamie Jones, a favorite of B Street audiences, makes her Music Circus debut as Millicent Winter, Jimmy’s mother, a role she was born to play. It is Millicent who straightens out all the crazy knots the others have tied by revealing a couple of surprises herself. Her role is small, but pivotal, and of course Jones nails it.

Though this musical was written in 2012, some of the lines are perfect for today’s political climate and brought the longest laughs of the night.

There is nothing to fault in this show. It aspires to no great message, it just wants to sing and dance and entertain the audience, and in that it succeeds perfectly.

Music Circus warns that the last show in this season’s series, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame” is much darker than the Disney film and is probably not suitable for younger children.

The "New" Mikado

Gilbert and Sullivan wrote The Mikado in 1885.  It was, as are all of their 13 operettas, a satire on the British, but to make it different they decided to set it in Japan.  During the rehearsal period, there was a Japanese exhibition in London and they invited people from Japan to help the cast learn the mannerisms of the Japanese, so they would look as authentic as possible.

The show was a big hit and in no time was being performed all over the world, including Japan (in 1888 there were at least 150 companies, world wide, producing it)

For more than 100 years, it has been one of the favorites of the Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, but in this politically correct environment, there began to be some unrest among the Asian community that Caucasians would play “yellowface.”

In 2014, a Seattle production was attacked by a local newspaper, a scheduled production in New York was canceled due to threats, and companies across the United States were having to examine doing the show or face pickets, scathing newspaper publicity and other disruptive consequences.

San Francisco’s Lamplighters, who have performed The Mikado 21 times in its 64 year history, was confronted by two Asian-American theater groups who threatened to picket every performance, which resulted in the possible loss of the Yerba Buena Center, their San Francisco home, which did not want to be picketed every weekend.

They first extended an invitation to the Asian theater community to audition for the show, but few showed up (and the cast can be as large as 40 people).  Then they came up with what they hoped was a workable solution.  They decided to re-set the location of the work to Renaissance Italy (specifically Milan, which sounds enough like “Japan”), a period with opulent costuming opportunities, which would make for a beautiful tableaux.

The company rewrote the sections of the original which referred to Japan (it turns out it was less than 2% of the original script), and changed character names to make them sound Italian rather than Japanese.  The Mikado became Il Ducato.  Koko, the executioner, is now the Italianized Coco, and YumYum, his love, is now Aniam.  And so on.

Outrage from ticket buyers was instant.  The faithful weren’t going to have their Mikado messed with.  I admit to being one of the faithful upset at having my Mikado changed.  But I am – or at least was -- an official Lamplighters historian and I felt I should see it just to find out how bad it was.  I went in with an open mind and came out impressed that thy had left the integrity of Gilbert and Sullivan pretty much intact and without the backdrop of Japan it became blatantly obvious how very little “Japan” there actually is in the original, so that the political barbs and quips about British society stood out much more clearly.

It helps to have a first rate cast. Charles Martin makes an imposing, even coquettish Mikado with enough blood thirstiness in his bones to make him terrifying. 

His son NankiPoo (now called Niccolu), is played by Mason Gates, who has a magnificent voice, perhaps one of the strongest I have heard in a lifetime of Mikados.  His was the only Italian name that I did not like, actually.

His love Amiam (YumYum) was the delicious Patricia Westley, flanked by her two friends Pizzi (Michele Schroeder) and Pippa (Autumn Allee).  Schroeder was a particular delight to watch.  She had a sparkle that lit up the stage whenever she was on it.

The imposing William H. Neil was Pooba, Lord High Everything else.  Neil has played the role of PoohBah for, it seems, centuries and has perfected it.  He really was born sneering.

William Neely was Piccia Tuccia, a noble lord.  This is a thankless character, because he has little to do after the opening number, still Neely strides around the stage nobly and fills in on ensemble numbers beautifully.

Sonia Gariaeff was Catiscia (Katisha), the matronly gorgon who has set her cap for Niccolu and would rather see him executed than in love with another.  Gariaeff is a marvel.  Her voice filled the rafters of the Lesher Center and yet she was able to display her softer side in contemplating the suicide of a love-lorn little bird.

And then there was Coco, the Lord High Executioner of Tirmisu.  Of all Gilbert & Sullivan characters, this one is my favorite and I have seen good ones, bad ones, and so-so ones.  To my delight, F. Lawrence Ewing is one of the better ones. Over the past 25 years, Lawrence has made patter roles his own and his Coco is simply wonderful.  His wooing of Catiscia is one of the best scenes in the show,  His “shrink not from me, Catiscia” as she growls and lunges at him brings gales of laughter.  

His list song, part of which is rewritten to be currently topical–a practice which predates this “new’ Mikado--written mostly by the marvelous Barbara Heroux is not to be missed.

Coco on the right with Pooba

Yes, the Japanese influence has been replaced by the broader Renaissance swirls, the more open gestures.  Student fans have been replaced by school books and everywhere there are little differences, but the important thing is that the integrity of the original Gilbert & Sullivan remains, and if the G&S Faithful can look at this show in that way, they will find a thoroughly enjoyable “new” show with most of the things they loved so much about the original.

Nevermore

If Edward Gorey and Tim Burton were to collaborate on a show, it would “Nevermore,” by the Green Valley Theatre Company in its West Coast premiere, running through Aug. 28.

The full title is “Nevermore — The Imaginary Life and Mysterious Death of Edgar Allen Poe,” with book, lyric and music by Jonathan Christenson and directed by Christopher Cook. The author freely admits that he has “blurred the lines between fact and fiction” in creating the life of this iconic American writer.

This is an original, exciting, and yes, weird musical, which has an operatic feel in that there is minimal to no dialog and everything is either sung or given in recitative, somewhat like Poe’s writings itself. It is quite dark, but yet strangely entertaining.

Start with the beautiful set, designed by Cook. Green Valley has a small, intimate venue with a small stage, part of which is shared with the seven-piece orchestra. Yet Cook has managed to create a lush-looking interior room with a beautiful stairway to nowhere. It becomes several different venues with the addition of a couple of roll-on set pieces.

Add the wonderful Victorian-esque costumes of assistant director (and bass player) Meg Masterson and the choreography of Jacob Montoya.

Finally, add Cook’s creative puppets — “regular” puppets, imaginative shadow puppets and an unbelievable raven — and you have yet another layer of this remarkable musical.

A familiar name in the Sacramento theater community is Ryan Blanning, cast as Edgar Allen Poe. Blanning is surrounded by 13 other talented actors, each of whom plays many different roles, so nobody is identified by role.

However, a couple of names deserve identification, foremost among them Mark Ettensohn, who acts as a narrator throughout much of the play, and Sara Logan, who plays Elizabeth Poe, Edgar’s actress mother who actually died when Poe was a baby. She plays a big part in this fictionalized version of the writer’s life and establishes early on the running theme throughout the play, is that art as an immortalizing force.

Elizabeth’s death also sets up a number of losses in his life of women he loved dearly. It explains his morose “Annabel Lee,” for example — Elmira (Sidney Raey-Gonzales) in this version of the story. Indeed, we realize that had Poe had a happy childhood, we might never have heard of him.

The score is dark and spooky and relentless, with sudden breaks for truly wonderful songs like Poe’s song of “The Raven.”

Poe died at age 40 of unknown causes and all medical records of his death have mysteriously disappeared, including his death certificate, so it is anybody’s guess what brought his life to such an early end. But it seems that even in death, he left us with a mystery.

Sadly, the body mics of the Green Valley theater often muddle the sound, so while there is no problem hearing any of the performers, understanding them, especially when singing as a chorus, is too often difficult.

In all honesty, this is a show that would not be my cup of tea, yet I felt this production was surprisingly enjoyable — and can there be a better recommendation than that?

Al and Homer: The Drone Play

Jerry Fishman, whose play “Al and Homer, The Drone Play,” opened at California Stage last week, is basically a librarian and a poet. But his growing anger and frustration with America’s drone program caused him to direct that anger into writing a play that explores the effect of drone warfare on the drone pilots and their families, and the lack of interest or outrage by most of the country.

It has taken 10 years to bring his passion to the stage, sponsored by Ovation Stage and directed by Penny Kline.

There are several good things about this play. First and foremost is the incomparable Janet Motenko as the clown who becomes the heart of the piece. She is mostly silent (unless she is singing or playing the kazoo), and she is in just about every scene. Her costume, make-up and catalogue of marvelous facial expressions make her the one to watch.

It was also a brilliant idea to add “Fred and Ginger” (Elias Martinez and Rayana Wedge) who, choreographed by Sunny Smith, dance to familiar tunes of the 1940s and ’50s to fill in the time between dramatic scenes. Moving scenery on or off stage is frequently choreographed into their dance.

“The Drone Play” is the story of two drone pilots, Al (Terry Randolph) and Homer (Brent Dirksen), sitting in a bunker in the Las Vegas desert, looking at a TV monitor all day as they zero in on their targets halfway around the world. Over the course of the play you see how the pressure of the job and their completely opposite personalities gradually take things to the limit.

This is the first problem with the play; at least I hope it’s just the play, and not reality. A man like Al, with as much revulsion at the notion of collateral damage, should really be in another job. But by the same token a volatile, hate-filled person like Homer, who revels in “killing all the ragheads,” also should not be in control of a program that could wipe out innocent men, women and children.

Homer is married to Amanda (Lynnette Blaney) and Al is dating Nicole (Aviv Hannan) and we watch what both the actual jobs and the animosity between the two men do to their loved ones.

David Kamminga plays Yamir Ribbons, a newscaster for Al Jazeera TV who reads several breaking news announcements about tensions between Pakistan and India. It is a shame that even holding what was supposed to be a bulletin in his hands, he still stumbled over his lines every time.

The main problem with the play, however, is that the dramatic scenes seem to get progressively shorter, and toward the end it almost seemed as if the dramatic scenes were the filler for the dance sequences. The stilted dialogue often gave the characters a somewhat wooden feel, despite their otherwise fine performances.

The ending also was predictable shortly into the second act, so the big shocker at the end wasn’t.
Fishman has taken an important subject and created an important play that could be better, but that nonetheless should be seen by a larger audience, especially those who have no idea about our drone program and need to be shaken out of their apathy.

This gets an R rating for very rough adult language.

Madwoman of Chaillot

From the moment you enter the Brunelle Performance Hall for Acme Theatre Company’s production of “The Madwoman of Chaillot,” you feel as if you are in Paris. The set design by Benton Harshaw is full of bright colors, with the tables and chairs of the outdoor café painted in multi colors, accented by beautiful awnings and bright lighting (by Ari Wilk and Andre De Loera-Brust).

Immediately you begin to be introduced to the colorful, quirky villagers, The flower girl (Sylvie), who pushes her wheelbarrow across the stage; the street juggler (Garnet Phinney); the accordion-playing street singer (Maya Tripathi); the shoelace peddler (Patrick Foraker); an American in pastel plaid seersucker (Ryan Wiegt); and those wonderful whimsical bikes by Peter Wm. Wagner being pedaled back and forth across the stage.

This 1940 comedy by Jean Giraudoux was written during the Nazi occupation of France and is, in the words of director Emily Henderson, “part light-hearted fluff, party heavy-handed fable, part dense philosophy, part political protest, and part Dr. Seuss.”

It also, like some other revived stage shows, seems to have relevance to life today.

Early in the show, we are introduced to the bad guys, “The Machine” — Ari Wilk as the President, Chaitrika Budamagunta as the Baron, Mikaela Manzanzo as the Broker, and Michelle Monheir as the Prospector.

(It should be noted that this show is short on male actors, but the women playing men’s roles do an excellent job.)

They have discovered that there is oil under the streets of Paris and they plan to drill in the center of the city and make themselves rich.

A young man, Pierre (Giancarlo Gilbet-Igesrud), is sent to plant a bomb to start the plot working, but he has an attack of morals and throws the bomb, and himself into the river. The first thing he sees when revived is the waitress Irma (McKella van Boxtel) and it is love at first sight, though they are both too shy to do anything about it.

Aurelia, the eccentric heroine of the piece, who lives in the Chaillot district of Paris, learns of the nefarious plot and sets out to foil the plan and, with the assistance of her friends, real and imaginary, save the city.

Julia Smart-Truco, is a stand-out in her colorful costume and green hair (costume designers Eleanor Richter and Cassaundra Wages). It’s difficult to know if she’s fey or smarter than everyone … or a bit of both.

She enlists the help of her fellow “madwomen” — Constance (Cassidy Smith), Gabrielle (Garnet Phinney) and Josephine (Eleanor Richter) — to hatch a plot. It involves luring The Machine into her basement on the promise that the water is rich with petroleum. (Sarah Zaragoza-Smith gives another outstanding performance in the small role of Sewer Man.)

All of the villagers meet at Aurora’s home and conduct a mock trial, convicting the group without their presence. The Ragpicker (Chris Monheit) gives testimony in the person of the collective rich guys, with a wonderful long monologue in which he brags that “money adores me. It simply won’t leave me alone.” And then to prove he’s really a good guy, interested in the welfare of the poor, “It is a matter of fact faithfully reported in all of the newspapers I own that I spend all of my waking hours trying to get rid of my money.”

Despite the eloquence of his defense, the men are convicted and while the group leaves, Aurelia sets out to put her plot into motion.

When she has succeeded, she sums it all nicely by saying, “Nothing is ever so wrong in this world that a sensible woman can’t set it right in the course of an afternoon.”

Perhaps that will be prophetic.

Cabaret

If your only familiarity with Kander & Ebb’s musical, “Cabaret,” is the 1972 movie with Liza Minnelli and Joel Grey, you may find the stage show, now at Music Circus, confusing. While, of course, it pre-dates the movie, the movie lightened it up a bit, added some songs, deleted some songs, added some characters and subplots, and the whole thing didn’t seem as dark as the original stage show.

This is not to take away from the appeal of the stage show which, in its current version, is quite glitzy, energetic and entertaining, but also shocking and disturbing.

The Emcee (Robin de Jesus, in his Music Circus debut) is not only in charge of the seedy Kit Kat Klub but also seems to be overseeing most of the activity that goes on in the private lives of the rest of the cast. De Jesus had the demonic glee in the situations he was addressing, but lacked the “brass” and “hardness” of other Emcees.

A part of this may have been due to either poor makeup or poor lighting because we are accustomed to the bizarre make-up of the character and it was not until he appeared in a bluish light that I realized he was wearing any clownish make-up at all.

The plot is supposed to tell the story of Sally Bowles (Kaleigh Cronin), a singer trying to make a name for herself, and her relationship with Clifford Bradshaw (Hunter Ryan Herdlicka) and yes, that does take up a lot of the story.

But I felt that the real story was of Fraulein Schneider (Mary Gordon Murray), who runs the boarding house where they all meet. Schneider has had a hard life and is resigned to making the best of things (“So What”). She has never married but has a warm, comfortable friendship with Herr Schultz (Ron Wisniski), who brings her fresh fruit for a treat. They have some lovely moments together, particularly the beautiful duet “Married.”

Murray, a Tony Award nominee, is simply outstanding. It is the poignancy of her story to which we are drawn, more than to the less fully developed Sally or Cliff, whose scenes seem to lack the kind of “finish” that we see in the movie.

Wisniski is a regular at Music Circus and it is clear why — he can play any role and has made a local career in excelling in “second banana” roles. You can’t help falling in love with this Herr Schultz, who mixes dignity with deep sorrow, and feel his pain when the growing Nazi movement affects both his engagement to Fraulein Schneider and his thriving business as well.

Cronin is an excellent singer, perhaps too good for the seedy Kit Kat Klub, where she is supposed to be a not-very-good chanteuse. And, unlike Minnelli, she really has only one outstanding number, the title song, which she nails wonderfully, packing it with all the emotion one would expect.

While Herdlicka, as Cliff, has a couple of duets, his real strength is in his dramatic scenes, which he handles beautifully. We never really get a full background on him, and we never really see exactly what his relationship with Sally is. Is he gay? Is he straight? Is he bisexual? Are they lovers? Is he sexual at all? The ambiguity leads to a lack of chemistry between the two.

In more minor roles, Heather Lee is Fraulein Kost, one of Schneider’s boarders who has a lot of gentlemen callers, Alexa De Barr and Sarah Marie Jenkins are the “two ladies” who make up a threesome in the funny trio “Two Ladies” with the Emcee, and Matthew J. Kilgore manages to get remarkable emotions out of a gorilla costume in “If You Could See Her.”

Though this show is set in 1931 and is designed to show the start of the Nazi rise to power, you would not know there were Nazis outside the Klub until the end of Act 1, when it hits you with such a jolt that, having just come from watching the Democratic convention proceedings, comparisons are unavoidable.

It was, of course, impossible for Music Circus to have had any clue whatsoever about the 2016 political climate when it signed the contract for this production more than a year ago, but seeing it sandwiched between the Republican and Democratic conventions was very emotional.

At one point Sally says, “It’s only politics. It doesn’t affect us.”

With hindsight may we all realize how very, very wrong that comment is and be encouraged to get involved in the current election activities, realizing that this particular election may be one of the most important in our lives.

But in the meantime, by all means go and see this excellent production at Music Circus first!

An Almanac for Farmers and Lovers in Mexico

Kate Tarker’s “An Almanac for Farmers and Lovers in Mexico” — a magically lyrical and comical look at love, youth and true commitment — was a last-minute choice for Barnyard Theatre’s annual play. It is directed by Eden Tomich, with important lighting design by Andrew Buderi.

“We were looking for scripts and nothing really materialized that we were excited about,” said co-producer Steven Schmidt. We were just about at the point where we thought we won’t do anything this year when one of our young members brought in a script and decided to do it.”

They didn’t start rehearsing until four weeks ago, which is a very short time, when you consider that the historic Schmeiser Barn must be transformed from a working barn (with livestock inside) into a working theater, all the while rehearsing a show.

Judging by opening night, this does not look like a hastily slapped-together show. The acting is quite good, and the set, designed by Tomich, while simple, works well. The big round stage is just gorgeous, as are the multitude of paper lanterns that hang over the stage, lending a nicely diffused light to the action.

Flora (Rachel Pinto), an American anthologist working in Mexico, is getting ready to celebrate her wedding in two days, and this should be a joyous time for her were it not for one fact: Her fiancé Pele (Antonio de Loera-Brust) has been turned into a hummingbird and now lives in a cage, which Flora caries everywhere with her, trying to find a way to get him back in time for the wedding.

Pinto brings depth to her character, as she anguishes over the loss of Pele and the frustration of dealing with both the impersonal governmental regulations and the fates that seem stacked against her.

Kane Chai gives a stand-out performance as the sardonic San Cristobal (St. Christopher), the invisible guide for all the action that happens in the play. He has a twinkle in his eye and a smirk on this face as he watches Flora’s attempts to find a way to restore Pele to human form.

Brian Oglesby gives a wonderful performance as the impersonal judge who so manipulates his visiting hours to avoid Flora that she resorts to catching him at his home as he gets out of the shower.
Flora’s friends are Molly (Renn Andrews), Zoe (Sarah Green) and Henry (Matt Fyhrie, who provides comic relief). Along the way, everyone goes through a voyage of personal discovery, especially Flora and Pele (who does eventually appear in human form).

This is a one-act play without intermission.

(Please note: The play contains some strong language and two comedic scenes referencing sexual situations that may not be appropriate for all children.)

Barnyard Theatre is one of Davis’ lesser-known gems, and it’s well worth investigating. They even provide the mosquito repellent. And be sure to catch the Burma Shave-like signs that line the dirt road to the barn itself.

Seussical

 

“Oh the things you can think
“When you think about Seuss.”

The audience at the Music Circus were all thinking about Dr. Seuss when “Seussical” burst upon the stage of the Wells Fargo Pavilion, like being shot from a circus canon. With costumes by Kate Bergh and the wonderful puppets of Richard Bay, all of your favorite Dr. Seuss characters came to life in a cacophony of color and music.

“Seussical,” by Tony award nominees Lynn Ahrens, Stephen Flaherty, and Eric Idle centers on three of Theodor Seuss Geisel’s best loved stories, “Horton Hears a Who,” “Horton Hatches the Egg” and “Gertrude McFuzz,” but pulls in characters from many of Seuss’ other stories as well.

It is all orchestrated by the irrepressible Jason Graae, the Cat in the Hat, who acts as a sort of ringmaster for the scenes that are to follow. With a delightful twinkle in his eye, Graae is mischievous and fun to watch.

The heart of “Seussical” is Horton, the elephant, played by John Treacy Egan in a marvelous baggy pants suit with a long tie as his trunk. You can’t help but fall in love with Horton, filled with gentleness and a genuine heart, who cares for everyone and always keeps his word, no matter how uncomfortable it makes him.

Early in the show, he discovers Whoville, the teeny tiny world of the Whos, who live on a big puffy dandelion. Though nobody else believes in their existence, Horton vows to help them save their world, in his own version of “Whos lives matter.”

Eleven-year-old Josh Davis, last seen at Music Circus as Michael Darling in “Peter Pan,” plays the young boy who meets the Cat in the Hat, and then morphs into JoJo, the son of the Mayor of Whoville (Jamie Torcellini) and his wife (Eydie Alyson). They don’t know what to do with a boy who thinks, so they send him off to military school run by General Genghis Khan Schmitz (Stuart Marland)

JoJo is a misfit in the military and has a beautiful duet with Horton, “Alone in the Universe,” as the two of them share their feelings of loneliness because they are “different,” and realize that they aren’t really alone.

You called my name and you set me free
One small voice in the universe
One true friend in the universe
Who believes in me

The ever-helpful Horton agrees to egg-sit for selfish Mayzie LaBird (Ginifer King), while she shops for an hour. But she disappears and leaves him literally holding the egg for over year, protecting it from rain and despite the derision of everyone around him. He is going to keep his promise, no matter what, even though he is captured and put on display in a zoo. (“I said what I said and I meant what I meant. An elephant’s faithful 100 percent”)

Horton’s best friend, Gertrude McFuzz (Bets Malone) is a bird with only one feather in her tail, who is really in love with Horton. She gets her wish for a bigger tail, which causes problems she never envisioned and she learns how one has to be careful with wishes.

Sharon Wilkins makes an impact with her Sour Kangaroo, who doesn’t add much to the plot of the show, but certainly knows how to belt out a song.

Other beloved characters who appear are the Grinch (Seth Danner) and Yertle the Turtle (Eric Anthony Johnson).

Don’t look for a real plot in this show, but sit back and enjoy the color, the costumes, the puppets, and the music, which, while not particularly memorable, is fun in the moment.

Bring the kids; they’ll love it.

Constellations

“Constellations,” by Nick Payne, now at the B Street Theatre, talks about the unlikely play topics of relativity, quantum mechanics and string theory. It’s like “The Big Bang Theory” without the laughs.

The show examines the possibility of parallel universes — or not so much universes but paths: what might have happened if you had not gone to that party, or said that thing, or stayed with that person, or turned left instead of right at the intersection.

It’s difficult to explain in this quite odd, quite different, yet surprisingly engaging show.

“Constellations” examines what might have happened in these and other instances by following the relationship of Marianne (Dana Brooke) and Roland (Tom Patterson), who enter this “multiverse” and travel through it.

The backdrop on the stage is a star field showing various constellations, which light up each time the couple changes paths.

Marianne, a scientist at Sussex University in the field of quantum cosmology, first meets Roland, a bee keeper, at a barbecue where she breaks the ice by telling him why it’s impossible for human beings to lick their elbows. Roland blows her off. Suddenly we hear a ding, a different constellation lights up and the same conversation takes place, with a different reaction on Roland’s part. Another ding and the same scene is played a little differently again.

This is the “multiverse,” which, over some drinks at a bar, Marianne explains is the hypothetical collection of infinite alternate universes existing alongside the one we perceive as reality. It’s all part of general relativity, quantum mechanics, and the various string theories that connect them.

“Let’s say that ours really is the only universe that exists,” Marianne explains to Roland. “There’s only one unique me and one unique you. If that were true, then there could only ever really be one choice. But if every possible future exists, then the decisions we do and don’t make will determine which of these futures we actually end up experiencing.”

Lost yet?

Well, don’t worry, somehow it works to create a complicated yet beautiful relationship between these two likable people playing out the various possibilities in their lives. They go for a drink, or maybe they don’t. They fall in love and live together, but break up, or not. They have a chance meeting and feelings are still there, but Marianne is engaged, or maybe Roland is married. Maybe their time together will be tragically short.

The juggling of time periods and emotions requires excellent actors who can change the whole mood of a scene from flirtation to courtship to infidelity, to joy, illness and heartbreak, just by a slight shift in posture or a look in the eye. It’s really quite remarkable.

This show will not appeal to everyone, but it’s really a fascinating piece of theater, performed by two talented actors, and just think — if you happen to meet another B Street patron at a barbecue, “Did you see ‘Constellations’?” is a lot better conversation starter than “Do you know why it’s impossible for human beings to lick their elbows?”

Bells are Ringing

Gia Battista as Ella.

Gia Battista and Ian Hopps just may be the quintessential musical comedy couple. They play Ella and Jeff in “Bells are Ringing,” the second half of the Davis Shakespeare Ensemble’s summer festival, now at the Veterans Memorial Theater through July 31.

“Bells are Ringing,” by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, with music by Jule Styne, is directed by Dennis Beasley (his directorial debut with DSE). Written in 1956, it was a vehicle for Judy Holliday and while it may be thin on plot (as are most musicals of that era), it is long on heart, music and dance.

Battista’s Ella is a spunky heroine, who makes every appearance on stage a delight. She works at “Susanswerphone” and can’t help getting involved in the lives of those for whom she takes messages.

She has her favorites, particularly Blake Barton (Kevin Gish), an out-of-work Method actor; Dr. Kitchell (Tim Gaffaney), a dentist who hates dentistry and just wants to write music; and playwright Jeff Moss (Hopps), who is suffering from writer’s block. He calls her “mom” because she uses an old lady voice and he thinks of her as a mother who pushes him to do better.

Ella considers the relationships with these clients “perfect” because she can’t see them and they can’t see her (“It’s a Perfect Relationship”).

When Jeff leaves his phone unplugged and thus she cannot call to wake him for an important meeting, she sneaks into his apartment to wake him up. Their relationship begins, though Jeff doesn’t have a clue who she really is.

Hopps is a dream of a leading man, a younger, thinner Matt Damon-type with the dancing grace of Neil Patrick Harris. He and Battista have great chemistry and though they endure the expected bumps in the road over their two days together, you know that eventually it will all come out just fine.

A minor plot concerns Sandor (Kyle Stoner), a bookmaker, who decides that “Susanswerphone” is the perfect cover for his book-making activities. Sue (Sydney Schwindt) is blissfully unaware of his real business and he keeps her off base by pretending to court her while she thinks she is helping his “Titanic Records.”

Stoner is just wonderfully sleazy. He leads perhaps the most fun song of the show, explaining how his system works.

It’s a simple little system any child can understand
The composers’ names, we list them with the racetracks of the land…
…What is Beethoven? (Belmont Park)
Where’s Puccini? (Pimlico)
Who is Humperdinck? (Hollywood)

(The system might have worked if only Beethoven had written a 10th symphony.)

At the same time for some unknown reason (but important to the finale), Inspector Barnes (J.R. Yancher) is convinced “Susanswerphone” is a cover-up for a call-girl operation and sets out, along with his assistant Francis (Johnny Quesada), to follow Ella and see if he can catch her cavorting with the customers.

The base set from the previous night’s “Cyrano” works well as the setting for “Bells are Ringing” and nicely camouflages the seven-piece orchestra, directed by Peter Kagstrom, in the middle of everything.

The only thing missing from the opening-night performance was a larger audience. It would be a shame if more people didn’t see this excellent production.

For a housekeeping note, the high school parking lot is closed for the summer, but parking is available either on the street, in the St. James Catholic Church parking lot or in the parking lot at the Stephens Branch Library. The city also has created a new white zone directly in front of the Veterans Memorial Center for easy drop-offs.

Cyrano de Bergerac

Matt Edwards, William Oberholtzer, Jessica Woehler, Johnny Quesada, Philomena Block, Harvey Jordan, J.R. Yancher, Lisa Halko and Sydney Schwindt perform in the Davis Shakespeare Festival's production of Edmond Rostand’s “Cyrano de Bergerac,” running through July 31. Gabby Battista/Courtesy photo

 

 

The Davis Shakespeare Ensemble opened its 2016 festival this week, with an impressive production of “Cyrano de Bergerac,” directed by Rob Salas. “Cyrano” will run in repertory with “Bells are Ringing” through the end of July.

Edmond Rostand’s story (adapted by Anthony Burgess) may be one of the saddest love stories written. Cyrano is a man with great moral values, noble to the core. He is a dashing swashbuckler, able to take on 100 men single-swordedly.

He is glib of tongue and has a wonderful sense of self-deprecation, knowing his shortcomings … or is that long-comings, referring to his prominent proboscis. He deflects insults about his nose with jokes of is own making — “ ‘Is this a conch? … are you a Triton?,’ “That’s a dwarf pumpkin, or a giant turnip!” “When it bleeds it’s the Red Sea!”

Matt Edwards is a marvelous Cyrano, full of cape-swirling panache. He is in love with the beautiful Roxane (Kristi Webb), but knows his suit is hopeless as she is in love with the handsome but inarticulate Christian de Neuvillette (Pablo Lopez). Christian is also in love with her and asks for Cyrano’s help in wooing the lady of his dreams.

Cyrano writes the words that help Christian ply his suit, unaware that they are Cyrano’s own feelings for the girl. When Christian is sent off to battle, Cyrano goes along to protect him, and to write letters home to Roxane for him, to keep the love alive.

When Christian is killed, Cyrano has too much respect for Roxane’s feelings for her husband to let her know the truth about him. He remains her friend, and silent lover, for the rest of his life, leading to a beautifully touching death scene.

But Cyrano is far more than a story of unrequited love. There is plenty of sword play (Sydney Schwindt is fight director, though Edwards is himself a fight choreographer) and lots of bad guys to go around.

There’s Comte de Guiche (Tim Gaffaney), a powerful, married nobleman himself in love with Roxane and not fond of Cyrano. He attempts several times unsuccessfully to have Cyrano killed,
Ragueneau (Harvey Jordan) is Cyrano’s friend, a baker and a poet, who becomes Roxane’s porter after his business fails.

William Oberholtzer is Le Bret, Cyrano’s BFF, who tries to steer his friend in the least dangerous path, but his advice is usually ignored by Cyrano.

Kyle Stoner is Vicomte de Valvert, the nobleman chosen by deGuiche as Roxane’s husband. He is tricked by Cyrano to remain outside the house while Roxane is secretly wed to Christian, and then is defeated in a duel after the wedding, when he objects.

The multi-level set is designed by Niko Rabbitt and, together with the costumes by Caitlin Cisek, works well to create the look of a 1600s city.

“Cyrano de Bergerac” is a play that has it all, from verbal duels and actual swordplay, to a beautiful love story, to honor and friendship and a hero who stands head and shoulders above many heroes.
The Davis Shakespeare Ensemble does justice to this classic tale and it sets the stage for a promising summer festival.

For a housekeeping note, the high school parking lot is closed for the summer, but parking is available either on the street, in the St. James Church parking lot or in the Stephens Branch Library parking lot. The city also has created a new white zone directly in front of the Veterans Memorial Center for easy drop-offs.

Hello, Dolly

Everybody’s favorite matchmaker, Dolly Gallagher Levi, is at the Music Circus this week, and it’s nice to see her back where she belongs.

Jerry Herman’s award-winning “Hello, Dolly” burst onto the stage of the Wells Fargo Pavilion, and, despite it being the hottest night of the year (so far), the show was energetic and dazzling, and the action was non-stop (thank goodness the Music Circus tent was replaced years ago).

With direction by Glenn Casale, choreography by Randy Slovacek and costumes by Marcy Froehlich, this production is just stunning.

In the title role is Lynne Wintersteller, who seems a younger Dolly than we are accustomed to, but she is a take-charge, no-nonsense woman whose life is devoted to “arranging things” (like furniture and daffodils — and lives).

A widow of many years, Dolly has decided it’s time to get back into life and sets her beautifully feathered cap for curmudgeon Horace Vandergelder (Stuart Marland). Each of Dolly’s musical numbers is a show-stopper, perhaps most of all “Before the Parade Passes By,” an amazingly choreographed number that ends Act 1.

Marland, who played Mr. MacAfee in last season’s “Bye Bye Birdie,” is delightfully grumpy until he finally realizes that for all of his apparent dissatisfaction with Dolly’s work on his behalf, she’s really the only woman he actually wants to marry.

Vandergelder’s two store clerks, Cornelius Hackl and Barnaby Tucker, offer great comic relief and the story of their adventure in New York almost surpasses that of their boss and Dolly. John Scherer, as Hackl, in his 14th Music Circus show, has this wonderfully open face of a 43-year-old innocent who has never left Yonkers, and whose main hope on this adventure is to actually kiss a girl.
Jordan Grubb, as Barnaby, is the perfect bumbling sidekick, who follows Cornelius’ lead, but who is nervous about consequences Cornelius never even considers.

The two young men stumble into the hat shop of Irene Molloy (Jacquelyn Piro Donovan), and meeting her and her assistant Minnie Fay (Sarah Marie Jenkins) will change the lives of all four young people in a way they never imagined.

Donovan has a lovely voice that dominates in the poignant “It Only Takes a Moment” as she describes how her day with Cornelius has affected her.

Sainty Nelsen has the job of crying. All the time. Vandergelder’s niece Ermengarde wants only to marry her beau Ambrose (Justin Schuman), against her uncle’s orders, until Dolly steps in. Nelsen and Schuman are fun to watch in the dance competition at Harmonia Gardens restaurant, where everybody eventually ends up.

Of course, the Harmonia Gardens is almost a character itself, with its famous waiters, headed by Rudolph (John B. Williford). The dancing of the six waiters in the Waiters’ Gallop is stunning and when Dolly makes her entrance to the title song, well … you know you are seeing classic theater.
Put on your Sunday clothes and get yourself over to Sacramento and catch this delightful production while you have the opportunity. “Dolly’ll never go away again,” but “Hello Dolly” will be leaving at the end of the week.