Forbidden Broadway

Several sacred cows were sacrificed over the weekend at the Cosmopolitan Cabaret in Sacramento, and everyone thoroughly enjoyed the spectacle.

“Forbidden Broadway,” Broadway’s longest-running musical revue, closed in New York in 2009; now, the show is on the road. Created and written by Gerard Alessandrini, “Forbidden Broadway” first opened in 1982. During its 27-year history, this marvelous revue has spoofed just about every show and star on Broadway. No star is too big, no show too revered, to become a source of delicious parody.

Over the years and many updates, the show delighted audiences with songs such as “Teeny Todd,” “Ladies Who Screech,” “Oh What a Beautiful Moron,” “C’est Misera-blah” and “La Cage Aw-full.”

The Sacramento version of the show, which runs through March 12, stars Marc Ginsburg, Jerry Lee, Jessica Reiner-Harris and Melissa WolfKlain, who sing and dance through some of the better-known “Forbidden Broadway” parodies, with the assistance of Christine Conklin’s hair, wig and makeup, Alvin Colt’s often-ingenious costumes, and the accompaniment of Graham Sobelman.

Costume changes are often so quick that you wonder what it must be like backstage. Likewise, getting out of Carol Channing makeup and into normal makeup must be remarkable to watch.

But what makes this show work so well are the performances, the impressions and the body language of these four talented actors who complete the picture. A particular favorite of mine is “Can You Feel the Pain Tonight?,” which focuses on the various injuries that come with performing in “The Lion King” that necessitate the need for a traveling chiropractor.

The costumes — which suggest Julie Taymore’s famous “Lion King” costumes — are just great, particularly that of Rafiki as he sings about “The Circle of Mice,” in homage to all the Disney shows on Broadway.

Another is the salute to “Wicked,” with a clever way of turning the skin of Elphaba (the Wicked Witch) green and still enable the actress to continue as another character a few minutes later. (Unfortunately, the use of various wigs and headpieces, along with changing makeup, as well as the quick pace of the show, often made it difficult to differentiate between Reiner-Harris and WolfKlain.)

Lee does a wonderful impression of Robert Goulet in his later years, remembering his past glories, with the sharpness of memory of Gov. Rick Perry.

Ginsburg stood out in his parodies of both “Man of La Mancha” and “Les Miserables,” and his salute to Mandy Patinkin is not to be missed.

This show has been a particular favorite of mine since we saw it in New York several years ago. I have always recommended it to anyone who is going to visit the Big Apple.

I am sad to learn that it has finally closed in New York, but glad that productions such as this one at Cosmopolitan Cabaret are allowing people across the country to see it.

If I have any complaint about this show is that with the wealth of material from which to choose, it is sad that the second act is a bit too short. But even though it leaves the audience wanting more, what it gives is a couple of hours of hearty laughter, and that’s the best thing of all.

West Side Story

From the moment a handful of members of the Jets gang step on stage and begin to dance, it is clear that the touring Broadway production of “West Side Story,” now at the Sacramento Community Center, is going to be an exceptional experience. The energy from everyone was electric and practically crackled off the stage.

This classic American musical almost never made it to the stage. In its first version, the tensions were supposed to be between Jews and Catholics on New York’s Lower East Side during the Passover and Easter holidays, but somehow that never worked.

It wasn’t until six years later that Arthur Laurents suggested changing the conflict in this modern-day “Romeo and Juliet” from religion to race and setting it in the fire escapes and back alleys of Hell’s Kitchen, and the “West Side Story” we know today was born.

Originally directed and choreographed by Jerome Robbins, with music by Leonard Bernstein and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, “West Side Story” opened on Broadway in 1957 and today is credited with changing the entire course of the American musical theater.

The show has been revived on Broadway several times, this latest revival opening in 2009 and became the longest-running production of “West Side Story” in Broadway history.

This is a grittier “West Side Story,” according to Laurents, who directed this revival on Broadway not long before he died. Laurents wanted to be more realistic to the city of New York itself. He felt the gangs in the original production had been too “sweet.” These gangs are more sullen. “The truth is, they’re all killers,” he was quoted as saying, adding “What I thought 50 years ago, I certainly don’t think today.”

Also, the Puerto Ricans occasionally lapse into Spanish for dialog or song (translation by Lin-Manual Miranda), which gives those characters a bit more authenticity, and reflecting more accurately the actual sound of New York.

Ross Lekites and Evy Ortiz play the star-crossed lovers, Tony and Maria. There is more sensuality in this version of the show and the two actors are beautifully suited to each other.

Lekites has an amazing voice; he can belt out lyrics at full power, and yet in his quieter moments, he gently lets the notes float out over the audience and linger for a moment before fading away.

Ortiz is a beautiful, innocent young girl who looks like she may be dressed up to celebrate her quinceañera (celebration of her 15th birthday). She has a fresh face that is open to all the wonders of her new country and eager to experience all that life has to offer. She has a voice that could be equally at home playing “Madame Butterfly.”

Michelle Aravena has the role of Anita, created in the original production by Chita Rivera. There is much of Rivera about her, in her manner and her carriage. She is a firecracker ready to explode, and explode she does, especially in “America,” that comparison of this country to Puerto Rico, and in “A Boy Like That,” as she angrily confronts Maria for her relationship with the boy who killed her brother.

German Santiago is Bernardo, the leader of the Sharks. He is a smoldering cauldron of rage directed toward any of the Jets who cross his path, while Drew Foster is Riff, Bernardo’s mirror image in the Jets, ready to fight any of the Sharks who cross his path.

Special mention goes to Alexandra Frohlinger as Anybodys, that female gang wannabe.

This is a “big” feeling show, with massive set pieces, including the underside of a bridge that moves in over a playground, and the angular silhouettes of the fire escapes. Even the numbers that are performed on a bare stage are augmented by complicated light patterns.

“West Side Story,” like “Romeo and Juliet,” always seems a bit contrived just for the fact that everything happens in only two days, from the immediate passionate love affair between the two lovers to the tragic ultimate conclusion. Still, the raw emotion of the piece can’t help but leave you moved.

Even if you’ve seen “West Side Story” a number of times, this production is one not to be missed. It’s like seeing the show for the first time.

Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure

Sherlock Holmes is dead. Or so Dr. Watson announces at the beginning of “Sherlock Holmes: The Final Adventure,” now playing at the Woodland Opera House in a production directed by Bob Cooner.

The play written by William Gillette and Arthur Conan Doyle, adapted by Steven Dietz, combines two of Doyle’s short stories, “A Scandal in Bohemia” and “The Adventure of the Final Problem,” tosses in a few elements that tie the two stories together, and gets rid of the famous detective in the end.

Maybe.

Cooner has an all-star cast for this Holmes mash-up, starting with Simon Hunt in the title role. Hunt reminded me throughout of NCIS’ “Ducky” (David McCallum), in both appearance and mannerisms, as he rattled off volumes of relevant and irrelevant bits of trivia, or drawing conclusions about a person from the smallest detail (“A Frenchman or Russian could not have written that. It is the German who is so uncourteous to his verbs.”)

The actor had some opening-night stumbles over words and some problems with quick costume changes, but he gave us a believable Holmes, intent on his pursuit of his nemesis Moriarty (Rodger McDonald), a pursuit in which he is determined to engage, even if it leads to his own death.

As for McDonald, was there ever a more deliciously malevolent villain? A single look is enough to chill the blood and the sneer just added to the effect. McDonald looks like he is enjoying every single moment.

Scott Martin was an outstanding Dr. Watson, Holmes’ faithful sidekick who follows his friend’s instructions to the letter, no matter how strange they may be. Watson kept the action rolling, with his narration that filled in bits of Holmes’ life that had taken place offstage.

Irene Adler (Alexandra Ralph Evans) is an opera singer who has caught Holmes’ eye, though he is loath to reveal his feelings for her when he discovers she is the ex-girlfriend of the King of Bohemia (Jason Hammond). Adler is intent on blackmailing the King with a compromising photo on the eve of his wedding to another woman and the King has come to Holmes to retrieve the incriminating evidence.

Director Cooner makes an unfortunate decision in the opening scene, where Holmes is listening to a recording of Adler. The volume is much too loud and distracts terribly from the dialog of that scene.

Evans is a beautiful diva and adds a spark to all of her scenes with Holmes. Hammond brings humor to the show as the dim-witted King

Rounding out the cast are Dana Sattel as James Larrabee, who marries Adler, Patricia Glass as his sister Madge (both in cahoots with Moriarty) and Steve MacKay as “Sid Prince (and others).”

Set and lighting design are by John Bowles, who has created a beautiful library for Holmes, which takes up half of the stage, with other pieces brought in for other scenes, while the library stays in place for most scenes.

The final scene, of the waterfall that supposedly is the site of the demise of Holmes and Moriarty, is a bit of a disappointment. While the rocks leading to the waterfall are fine, the falls itself are merely represented by a dim shaft of light and no real sense of a waterfall.

Denise Miles’ costumes seem to be accurate to the period and Adler’s opera gown is beautiful.

This is not really a whodunnit nor is it exactly a comedy, though it has elements of both. What it is is a polished, intelligent, fast-paced production that will delight any theatergoer.

Ruthless, the Musical

Fasten your seatbelts … it’s going to be a funny night.

Sacramento Theatre Company is presenting “Ruthless! — The Musical,” with book and lyrics by Joel Paley and (mostly forgettable) music by Marvin Laird, a spoof about all those “bad girl” movies like “The Bad Seed,” and “All About Eve” with a lot of Mama Rose from “Gypsy” thrown in.

As director Michael Laun says, “you don’t need to be familiar with some of the shows this musical spoofs to enjoy its backstage show business plot, … but those in the audience who know these shows will surely find some familiar themes, characters and plot points sprinkled throughout the evening.”

It would be a disservice to the show to give away the plot since part of the fun is watching it all unfold, but suffice to say that STC has assembled a wonderfully talented cast who get into their roles and play them to the hilt.

Andrea St. Clair is Judy Denmark, a housewife and mother, who freely admits she has no talent whatsoever except to be mother to little Tina, a child just like Baby June in “Gypsy,” with her bobbing curls and militantly adorable smile. Tina’s goal is to be a big star and she is willing to do anything to accomplish that goal.

The role of Tina is double-cast, and the night we saw the show it was played by Jillie Kate Randle (her alternate is Lauren Metzinger). Randle was so perfect, I almost expected her to do the splits while saying “Hi, my name is June … what’s yours?” This is an 11-year-old bundle of talent with an already long list of theater credits to her name. It will be fun to watch her as she grows older.

St. Clair, making her STC debut, is no slouch in the talent department either, continuing to display her considerable talents while professing to have no talent whatsoever.

“Talent” is at the heart of this show, as explained by the talent scout Sylvia St. Croix (Michael. RJ Campbell). “Where does it come from? Is it a product of one’s environment — something picked up on the street? Or is talent something you’re born with?…”

I’ve always been a fan of Campbell’s and he is deliciously overbearing in this pivotal role.

In the pre-show talk, director Laun explained that in the original production, the talent scout role was played by a man in drag and in subsequent productions it has been played by men as men, women as women and men as women.

Laun chose to go back to the original vision, and how lucky patrons are for it. Campbell does not disappoint, and his larger-than-life character is just perfect.

Becky Saunders, last seen at STC in “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,” really gets a chance to shine in three different roles. She won my heart as the theater critic Lita Encore singing “I Hate Musicals.” (Though I love musicals, there is something every critic can relate to in that song, especially when she decries “keyboards” and longs for “real clarinets.”) Saunders is a very funny lady.

Rounding out the cast is Netty Carey as “Eve.” Can’t have a ruthless show without an Eve, now, can you? She also appears earlier in the show as the hapless Louise Lerman, a classmate of Tina’s.

Pianist Erik Daniells is offstage, but keeps things rolling along.

Jarrod Bodensteiner is the set designer and he literally does double duty, as there are two completely different sets (not an easy thing to accomplish on the small Pollock stage). There is a longer-than-normal intermission to allow for the changing of the set.

Laun keeps the madcap tale moving at a brisk pace, and sorting out all the plot twists is just part of the fun.

Chicago

Stop what you’re doing right now and call for tickets to the Davis Musical Theatre Company’s amazing new production of Kander & Ebb’s Tony Award-winning “Chicago.”

This is one of the best DMTC productions I’ve seen in a long time. It’s full of murder, greed, corruption, violence, sex, exploitation, adultery and treachery all glitzed up with so much razzle and dazzle that you’ll be cheering at the end of the first number, and consistently throughout the show.

“Chicago” points the finger at this country’s perennial fascination with bad boys (and girls) and our raising them to near cult status, as we salivate over every gory detail, the more salacious the better. Think Bonnie and Clyde, Al Capone, O.J. Simpson, the Kardashians.

This musical is based on actual events during the 1920s, when reporter Maurine Dallas Watkins reported on the trial of a young woman (Beaulah Annan, “the prettiest murderess”) who killed her boyfriend and then called her husband to tell him, as a popular fox trot record played in the background. As Beaulah sat awaiting trial, she announced that she was pregnant, prompting the headline, “Beaulah Annan Awaits Stork, Murder Trial.”

Years later, William Wellman turned the story into a satirical movie called “Roxie Hart,” starring Ginger Rogers, in which the heroine, to kick-start her show business career, confesses to a Chicago murder. Funny man Phil Silvers played her lawyer.

This movie was the inspiration for choreographer Bob Fosse’s collaboration with Kander and Ebb to produce “Chicago, the Musical,” which opened on Broadway in 1975, with Gwen Verdon and Chita Rivera as the two jailbirds competing for publicity for their respective crimes.

The show closed after a two-year run, unable to compete with “A Chorus Line,” but was brought back again in 1996, under the direction of Walter Bobbie with choreography by Ann Reinking (in the style of Bob Fosse). The revival won six Tony Awards, Drama Critics Circle Awards, Astaire Awards, Olivier Awards, Helpman Awards and a Grammy for best cast recording (among many other accolades).

The 2002 movie, starring Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones, won the Academy Award for best picture.

And now we have it right in our own back yard, with a sparkling production directed by John Ewing, choreographed by Pamela Lourentzos, and featuring a stellar cast — each one as good or better as the last one.

Amber Jean Moore is outstanding as Roxie Hart, a housewife with stars in her eyes, who shoots her lover and then tries to use her crime to launch a show-biz career.

Roxie’s crime steals the headlines from Velma Kelly (Jennie Ribadeneira), a once popular singer/dancer, now also languishing in prison for shooting her multi-married lover. Her exciting “All That Jazz” was the show’s opener and set the tone nicely for the rest of the show.

Tony Ruiz is marvelous as the smooth, charming, yet slick lawyer, Billy Flynn, who knows how to work the press and, for a price, make his clients such sympathetic figures that no jury would convict them. Billy’s “All I Care About,” performed with several chorus girls armed with fans that would do credit to Sally Rand, is a knock-out.

A ventriloquist number, “We Both Reached for the Gun” — with Roxie in Billy’s lap as he literally puts words into her mouth — is outstanding.

Andrea Eve Thorpe is by no means the large matron we associate with previous actresses playing the role of Matron “Mama” Morton, but instead of heft, Thorpe achieves her dominance with strength and a cold, forbidding wardrobe and severe hair style. The effect works well for her.

Amos Hart is Roxie’s all-but-forgotten husband, played beautifully by Dan Masden. There is a lot of heart in this Hart and his “Mr. Cellophane” was very moving, as he describes what it’s like to be invisible to the people in his life.

Jacob Montoya deserves applause for his role as the Master of Ceremonies. When Montoya mixed with dancers Michael Cesar, Elio Gutierrez and Randy Noriega, it was a sight to behold.

The sob sister reporter Mary Sunshine was played to the hilt by D.A. Holmes, whose not-quite-so-surprising secret is revealed during the second act.

The DMTC orchestra, under the direction of Steve Isaacson, is on the stage, instead of under it, for this show on a set designed by John Ewing.

Costumes by Jeanne Henderson are, of course, spectacular.

Co-producer Jan Isaacson says tickets are selling fast. The Saturday evening production we attended was a near capacity audience, so get your tickets soon. Once word of mouth begins to spread, they will be in very short supply.

Cyrano de Bergerac

Christian (Nick Mead) woos the fair Roxane (Frances Devanbu) as
Cyrano (Antonio de Loera-Brust) looks on,
heartbroken, in the Acme Theatre Company production of "Cyrano,"
(It is unfortunate that Acme's photos appear to have all
been taken before Cyrano's nose was made!!!)

In her notes to the new Acme production of “Cyrano de Bergerac” by Edmond Rostand, director Emily Henderson writes, “This play has a lot of words.” She said a mouthful.

It is unfortunate, then, that so many of those words were unheard by the audience. A perennial problem with Acme is the inability of actors in lesser roles to speak clearly and to project, which seems such a shame since they have obviously worked so hard at learning lines and creating characters.

This is, fortunately, not a problem for the actors in the principal roles, though it does leave gaps in plot points when you can’t hear the set-up lines.

This adaptation of the Rostand classic, by Barry Kornhauser, written entirely in verse, lends itself to a lot of slapstick comedy, terrible (meaning “wonderful”) puns, and plenty of swashbuckling, all blended with great nobility and a tragic love story.

The play is fictionalized account, based on a real 17th century French writer and playwright notorious for his many duels and escapades as well as a famous nose.

Antonio de Loera-Brust, in the title role, is dashing and funny and romantic and poignant all at once, a man who can take on any man in a fight, a wit as sharp as his sword, but who is too ashamed of his physical appearance to confess his love for Roxanne. It’s a wonderful performance, deserving of the standing ovation he received at the end.

If I have any negative comment at all, it is not for the actor, but for whoever did his make-up. Please, a little more color on the tip of his nose which, in the performance, glowed white in the stage lights and is a distraction from his acting.

While Cyrano hides his love for the beautiful Roxane (Frances Devanbu), she has her sights set on Christian de Neuvilette (Nick Mead), handsome and earnest, but verbally challenged — he cannot find the words to express his feelings. He turns to his friend Cyrano, who provides the words which win Roxane’s heart and thus becomes a principal player in perhaps the most famous love triangle in literary history.

Devanbu is a lovely Roxane, as sincere in her love of Christian as she is later as she realizes the true identity of the man who won her heart so many years ago, with his beautiful words.

Mead is the perfect clueless jock, a hero among his fellow Cadets of Gascony, but unable to understand the heart of a woman. His early demise is fortunate for it certainly would have been a tremendous let-down for Roxane to realize that he never had the words of a poet.

Alex Clubb is effectively menacing as the Comte de Guiche, determined to marry Roxane and duped by the wiley Cyrano until the bride’s marriage to Christian has taken place.

Raphael Gorga is particularly noteworthy as Ragueneau, the baker. He has a knack for physical comedy and puts it to good use in this role.

Miki Benson plays several roles (as do many others in the cast) and I very much appreciated her clarity of tone without appearing forced. No matter what her role, she could always be understood and she did an excellent job in each role.

Mead was the set designer for this production, a rather utilitarian multi-level set that left lots of room for swordplay, and the fighting, choreographed by Dan Renkin, was excellent. One thing about Acme is that its young actors really have mastered swordplay, since so many of the company’s productions use it!

Costumes were designed by Henderson, with hair design by Hannah Nielson.

“Cyrano de Bergerac” is a fun evening of theater, with plenty of action to entertain younger members of the audience, and a solid story to satisfy the adults. If the actors in the minor roles could crank their volume up a bit, this really would be quite an extraordinary production.

Every Christmas Story Ever Told

I have a guilty secret. A critic reviews many Christmas-themed shows at this time of year, but I have to admit that my favorite is “Every Christmas Story Ever Told (and then some),” the holiday offering at Capital Stage again this year.

I first saw this show — written by Michael Carleton, Jim Fitzgerald and Gary Alvarez, and directed this year by Jonathan Williams — in 2004 and thought it hilarious then. The appeal has not diminished over the years.

While this is an intelligent, funny show in its own right, what makes it work is the strong cast of three, who must each sweat off a few pounds during every performance.

Eric Wheeler, as Eric, is determined to present a straight version of “A Christmas Carol” but runs into opposition from his two partners, Peter Mohrmann and Gary Martinez, who are tired of repeating the Dickens story every year and want to pay tribute to all those other BHCs (Beloved Holiday Classics) of screen, TV and print. Eric agrees, just as long as “A Christmas Carol” is included.

And off they go.

The trio elicits suggestions from the audience for favorite movies, television programs, Christmas foods, traditions, commercials, etc. It doesn’t stop at Christmas, but also gives a nod to Hanukkah (“It bears similarities to other Jewish festivals: They tried to kill us. We survived. Let’s eat!”) and Kwanzaa (“The best part of Kwanzaa is that you’ll never see a special called ‘A Very Brady Kwanzaa.’ “)

But the meat of the show is the retelling of all the stories we all know so well.

Wheeler is reluctantly dragged into the project when he is dressed as The Grinch for a very funny send-up of “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” Later, he will shine in such roles as Hermie, the elf who wants to be a dentist from “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer” (hilariously renamed, for copyright reasons) and makes a fabulous Scotsman.

A wonderful impersonator, Wheeler’s Scrooge (so perfect in voice and body language as The Simpsons’ Mr. Smithers), Tim Gunn from “Project Runway,” and Jimmy Stewart from “It’s A Wonderful Life” are spot-on.

Mohrmann as the Ghosts of Past, Present and Future, his wonderful recreation of host Jim Lange on the fruitcake version of “The Dating Game,” his funny Yukon Cornelius from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” and even his attempt at being supermodel Heidi Klum are all great fun (and he is particularly fetching in his Carmen Miranda headpiece in the opening segments).

Mohrmann also shares with the audience Christmas customs from around the world, such as the story of Holland’s “Sinterklaass,” who arrives on a steamer from Spain with his helper, a twisted dark gnome known as “Black Peter” who punishes bad children. Just to put the “joy” in Christmas, you know.

And each year, I try to find a different way to say how much I love Martinez’s characterizations but keep coming back to the fact that he is the heart of this show. Zaniness abounds throughout, but when Martinez steps into the spotlight as Linus and tells us the true meaning of Christmas, or becomes Cindy-Lou Who asking the Grinch why he is taking her Christmas tree, or talks to George Bailey (from “It’s a Wonderful Life”) as Clarence Goodbody, the angel trying to get his wings, there is no denying that he reminds us what Christmas should be about.

The script for this show is usually updated, this year adding a line about pepper spray, which didn’t get quite the big laugh they’d hoped. (“Too soon?” asks Mohrmann.)

The show is so fast-paced as to leave you breathless, whether from the pace, or from laughing. It’s a wonderful way to see all of your own personal favorite BHCs in one place for one price.

Scenic design this year is by Jonathan Williams, and if I am remembering correctly from previous productions, is not as lavish as before, but with the larger area of the new Cap Stage theater, the cast is able to interact with the audience more, and that is more fun.

Do yourself a favor and treat yourself and your family to this show. It is an absolute delight, whose enjoyment does not diminish with multiple viewings. As you leave the Capital Stage theater, you’ll be ready for the Christmas season and may go about greeting everyone with a cheery “Mata-Ki-Te-Rangi” (“Merry Christmas” in Icelandic).

A Christmas Carol

On reviewing Sacramento Theatre Company’s “A Christmas Carol” last year, I made three suggestions for improving the show: turn down the thunder, cut the fog in half and get rid of the reverberation on Marley’s mic.

It’s nice to see how much power I have, since those are the same three suggestions I would give this time. While the thunder may be a tad less loud, there is still entirely too much of it. Some scenes are so filled with fog, it’s impossible to see the actors. They were, for example, well into the opening scene between Scrooge and the Ghost of Christmas yet to come before I even saw the hooded ghost.

But what do I know?

As for Marley’s mic, Jim Lane is too good an actor to be sabotaged by a distorted voice that requires him to overact to make it effective. Nonetheless, Lane offers a suitably chilling performance.

The Dickens classic has been enjoyed in book, on stage, on radio and on screen for decades without all this technological assist and has done just fine. Why mess around with it now?

That said, however, the popular holiday classic is once again captivating audiences on Sacramento Theatre Company’s main stage.

This is STC’s specially commissioned 1987 adaptation of “A Christmas Carol,” by Richard Hellesen. Music was written by STC’s then-resident composer David de Berry. Hellesen uses the device of having the characters tell the story as they move sets and then move in to become the characters about whom they are speaking. DeBerry’s music does indeed sound like old Christmas music that you can’t quite place, but you’re sure you’ve heard somewhere before.

The cast is smaller than in some years (22 as opposed to 30 to 40 actors), and judging by the program bios, all are very happy to be in the show. Eight say they are “thrilled,” five are “excited,” two are “privileged,” one is “ecstatic” and one is “passionate” about the show!

It is such a delight to see Matt K. Miller back grousing about as everyone’s favorite grouch, Ebenezer Scrooge. Miller may be one of my favorite Scrooges, and after four productions of this show, he has had the opportunity to shape the role to fit him like a glove.

He is able to be as grumpy and mean as Dr. Seuss’ Grinch, yet when shown memories of his childhood and taken to watch his nephew and friends celebrating Christmas, he can display the innocent joy of a child. The scene of his almost, but not quite, dancing with his old love Belle (Hannah Zimmerman) was very touching.

Scrooge’s long-suffering clerk, Bob Cratchit, is played by Barry Hubbard and he makes a loving husband to his wife (Jackie Vanderbeck) and a wonderful father to their five children, the youngest of whom is, of course, the adorable crippled moppet Tiny Tim (Zac Ballard), who was as cute as he could be.

As promised by the ghost of Jacob Marley, Scrooge is visited by three spirits, who take him to witness various scenes from his past, the present and the possible future. Sydney Christoffersen (double cast with Bella Bagatelos) is the Ghost of Christmas Past. She is a second-year student with STC’s Young Professional’s Conservatory and obviously is a talented student who shows great promise.

The indomitable Michael RJ Campbell returns for his third time as the Ghost of Christmas Present, a larger-than-life spirit whose entrance is always the high point of the STC production.

Campbell is also seen in several ensemble roles and also as the ebullient Fezziwig, Scrooge’s first employer.

Jerald Bolden is the hooded Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come (when you can see him through the thick fog). The ghost does not speak, but is really good at pointing ominously!

Others worthy of note in the cast include Emily Miller (double-cast with Meghan Greene) as Ebenezer’s sister, Fan. She sings the beautiful “Home at Christmas Time,” a touching ballad. Likewise, Courtney Shannon (double-cast with Marcos Orozco) is very moving as the beggar child.

And I think anybody with a character name like “turkey boy” deserves to get his name in a review. Good job, Dafydd Wynne! (Wynne does triple duty in this production, also playing Ebenezer the Child and Edward Cratchit).

It should also be noted that in addition to being Jacob Marley, Jim Lane also appears as several other characters throughout the evening.

The Ghost of Christmas Present exposes “ignorance” and “want” to Ebenezer to make him face the plight of the poor and destitute outside his own door. With street people shivering in the December cold along the streets of midtown Sacramento, we, like Scrooge, would do well to open our own eyes and do whatever we can to help wherever we can this holiday season.

White Christmas

There is an old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Whoever decided to bring one of the most popular Christmas movies, “White Christmas,” to the stage did not follow that saying.

My criticism is of the musical itself, not of the Woodland Opera House production, which is excellent. The stage show does not allow for character development, and uses unbelievable situations. For example, it is “loathe at first sight” for Betty and Bob and it only takes overhearing a song lyric for Betty to turn around and fall madly in love with him.

The show also introduces songs not in the movie, which add little, don’t advance the plot and make a long show even longer; it clocks in at about three hours.

However, all that said, director Jeff Kean has done a beautiful job with what, according to audience reaction, was a very popular musical.

It is difficult to step into the shoes of such iconic performers as Bing Crosby, Rosemary Clooney, Danny Kaye and Vera Ellen, but Kean has found a quartet that do quite well. Scott Woodard, as Bob Wallace, is a crooner in the classic sense and has a smooth likability. Matt Kohrt, as Bob’s partner Phil Davis, is a talented hoofer with a pleasant demeanor who works well with Woodard.

Catherine Nickerson, as Betty Haynes, is new to the Opera House; she has a lush voice and can belt out a torch song with the best of them. Her sister Judy, as played by Kirsten Myers, is as cute as a button and is a good match in the dancing department for Kohrt.

As she did in the recent “Sound of Music,” Nancy Agee steals the show as Martha Watson, who helps run the inn in Vermont where the four performers find themselves. An old song-and-dance woman with a heart of gold, “Motormouth Martha” lights up the stage whenever she opens her mouth.

Steve Cairns gives a solid performance as Henry Waverly, the general “who stopped being a general” and is trying to make a go of it in this Vermont inn.

Devon Hayakawa plays little Susan Waverly, the general’s granddaughter. She is precocious and talented and does a great rendition of “Let Me Sing and I’m Happy.”

Chris Taloff, as Ezekiel, the slow-moving, slow-talking stage hand, turns what appears to be a genuine broken arm into something that makes his character even funnier.

Allison Ruanto and Kara Sheldon are the oversexed chorus girls, Rita and Rhoda, who spend most of their time giggling.

This is a lushly costumed show, with costumes designed by Denise Miles. The women’s fashions for the “Sisters” number are particularly beautiful, and Agee is a stand-out in her red lamé dress for the finale.

Sets, on the other hand, are just utilitarian. With so many scenes requiring different sets, set designer John Bowles had to sacrifice detail for ease of movement (and gets credit for fairly quick set changes).

Choreographer Staci Arriaga has given us some outstanding production numbers, much more complicated than one is used to seeing in a community theater. Woodland is fortunate, indeed, that its classes for young people include tap dancing, because the tap numbers, particularly the show-stopping “I Love a Piano” are simply outstanding.

The nine members of the ensemble — Eva Sarry, Kimmie Ruanto, Spenser Micetich, Julia Stapp, Crissi Kessler, Jenny Lillge, Erik Catalon, Shane Wright and Eric Alley — work so well throughout the show that they deserve having their names included.

Music director James C. Glica-Hernandez’s orchestra appears to be 12 strong, though only nine are mentioned in the program. The fuller orchestra gives a professional sound to the production.

With the Opera House all spruced up in Christmas finery, draped with greenery and lights and full of holiday cheer, this is a great way to treat the family to a Christmas classic. It hits high marks on so many points that it’s a real keeper.

Fruitcakes

In the 1980s, I saw a musical produced by Buddy Ebsen (of “The Beverly Hillbillies”) called “A Turn to the Right.” It was a show about making peach preserves and, to this day, remains the worst show I have ever seen.

When I saw that the Winters Theatre Company was presenting a show called “Fruitcakes” as its holiday gift to the community, I had great misgivings. If a show about peach preserves, which many people love, could be so awful, could a show about fruitcakes, which most people don’t like, be any better?

I was very happy to see that my misgivings were unfounded. “Fruitcakes” by Julian Wiles, directed by Anita Ahuja, is a delightful little gem of a comedy. It’s also a great community theater play, since it has a cast of thousands (well, about 30), which includes lots of children, all of whom looked like they were having the time of their lives.

The story is set in the tiny town of McCord’s Ferry in Georgia and centers around Mack Morgan (Tom Rost), the guy who owns the whirligig barn. Rost, a veteran of many Winters productions, is as solid as they come and perfect as the man around whom all of the action in McCord’s Ferry seems to revolve.

Into Mack’s life comes Jamie (Alexandra Bazzoni-Curro), a 13-year-old runaway who has stolen a fruitcake from the elderly sisters in town and hides out in Mack’s barn. Bazzoni-Curro is a talented actress who nicely complements any scene in which she appears.

Miss Sarah (Liz Siracusa) and Miss Alice (Ann Rost) are a combination of the Baldwin sisters of “Walton’s Mountain” and the sisters in “Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.” They are constantly feuding and wouldn’t speak to each other at all if they didn’t have to get together each year to make fruitcakes for everyone in town.

When their mother died, she left half of the recipe for her famous fruitcake with one sister and half with the other and they have to work together, each on her own side of their divided house. (Each sister has her own front door, and the kitchen is divided in half by different colored paint for each side.)

The two actresses are fun to watch. Siracusa is grumpy and angry with everybody. Rost — who, with her husband, is also a veteran of many Winters shows — always adds a calm presence to her characters, though I really wish she could project just a bit more. Some of her lines were difficult to catch.

While investigation is under way into the fruitcake caper, the town is getting ready for Christmas. Beebo Dantzler (Jim Hewlett), the town cop, is decorating his house and getting ready for the “Grand Illumination” ceremony, when he will light the lights for the first time. This year he has added Buster, the Christmas hog, a wooden figure that he rescued from a business that was closing.

Hewlett demonstrates an amazing voice as he leads the children in song. I would love to see him do a musical some day.

In the meantime, Beebo’s wife, Betty Jane (Allie Griffey) is the director of the town Christmas pageant and trying to work around a plague of chicken pox that is starting to infect the children. I first noticed Griffey in a small role in last year’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” and commented that she was outstanding in the role. It is nice to see her in a leading role, and she shows that she really knows her stuff (though I do wish that she had a better-fitting bucket hat).

Add to the mix a bunch of other town eccentrics, including Mattie Sue (Dona Akers), a six-time widowed woman with a heart as big as all outdoors, who takes care of most of the townsfolk when they are in need; Skeeter (John Siracusa), a Harvard graduate with a degree in engineering who spends his time fishing, using nothing but poetry for bait (the theory being that the more he bores the fish, the more they will relax and the easier they will be to catch); and a group of hunters who pray to Clyde the hunting angel.

The children are each adorable in his or her own way: EllaRose Eldon, Nicholas McKenna, Pietra Curro, Kennedy Rivera, Sophia Tolley, Corinne McKenna, Victoria White, Angel Tunstall, Sam Petersen, Victoria Olton, Angelica Schiesari and little 5-year-old Mikenzie Lillian, appearing on stage for the first time, who is adorable as she giggles and waves to her family in the audience.

When “chickenpox descends on Bethlehem,” director Betty Jane comes up with a unique solution, while secrets are revealed that affect the feuding sisters, and runaway Jamie changes Mack’s life. It all ends with a violin solo by angel violinist Emilia Orosco.

This is such a fun way to start the holiday season, even if the plates of fruitcake on the audience tables on opening night went untouched!

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead

The UC Davis department of theater and dance, and Michael Barakiva, director, have rectified a mistake that was made back in 1966, when someone rejected a new play by an aspiring playwright named Tom Stoppard.

He submitted a play called “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” to the university’s “New Plays Project,” but the committee decided it was only “mildly interested” in the work and rejected it.

Instead, the play went to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and then on to take London by storm, and UC Davis lost the opportunity to present the world premiere of a play that today is acclaimed as a modern dramatic absurdist masterpiece.

But “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead” is finally making its UCD premiere on the university’s main stage.

Stoppard’s play is “Hamlet” inside out, with the minor Shakespearean characters taking center stage and Hamlet and his weird family becoming bit players, who wander briefly through the scenes.

While it seems as if Rosencrantz (Mitchell Vanlandingham) and Guildenstern (Will Klundt) may be backstage watching the play from the wings, in truth we aren’t really sure where they are … but then they aren’t sure where they are or what they’re doing there either.

In fact, the pair spend most of the show trying to figure out where they are and what is going on, in a world that doesn’t make much sense to them.

The play raises questions about who controls our lives: Do we really exercise free will, or is everything preordained and are we only filling out a script that was written for us, but that we haven’t been able to read yet?

Vanlandingham and Klundt are beautifully matched, so similar to each other visually that it’s difficult to remember which is which. Sometimes it seems that even the two of them aren’t quite sure. But they have a warm, friendly relationship, which at one point caused an inadvertent audience reaction, followed by a self-conscious ripple of laughter that rolled through the house.

The scene shifts to Elsinore Castle, where the pair encounter a group called The Tragedians, led by The Player (an outstanding performance by Bobby August Jr.), who explains that they specialize in sexual performances, which they proceed to demonstrate in graphic, but very funny, detail.

The ever-present specter of death is personified in the number of ways to die, which the Tragedians demonstrate, and which our two principal characters don’t seem to realize is a warning about their ultimate end.

Director Barakiva, scenic designer Kourtney Lampedechio and costume designer Maggie Chan worked well on creating the black, white and gray limbo in which Rosencrantz and Guidenstern exist. This becomes a vibrant display of color at the end of the play, which is also the end of the real play itself.

Sound designer Dan Cato Wilson deserves special mention especially for his sea sounds in Act 3, when the characters find themselves at sea, under attack by pirates.

While this show can be enjoyed on its own merits, if you feel your Hamlet is a little rusty, it wouldn’t hurt to brush up your Shakespeare before coming to the theater so you can more fully enjoy all the bon mots and wordplay.

This is one play that is not so much about the conclusion but what happens along the way.

Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks

At its core, “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks,” currently on the Sacramento Theatre Company’s Pollock Stage, is a story about loneliness, isolation and friendship. This play, by Richard Alfieri and directed by Michele Hillen-Noufer, is both hilariously funny and painfully poignant.

The material is somewhat dated and the plot is repetitious and predictable, yet in the hands of talented actors Becky Saunders and Justin Samuel Cowan — both newcomers to STC — it turns out to be an enjoyable evening of theater.

This is the story of an older woman, Lily, who arranges for private dance lessons in her St. Petersburg Beach, Fla., condo. Enter Michael, a middle-aged ex-Broadway chorus boy with a huge chip on his shoulder. The sparks fly from the beginning. Lily is the wife of a Baptist minister; Michael can’t control his temper and uses foul language.

Each of the seven scenes in the play follows the same format — Michael arrives for the lesson, his boom box and the foot cut-outs he places on the floor to help learn the dance steps in his duffel bag. There are personality clashes resulting from some hidden secret one or the other are trying to protect, Lily threatens to end the lessons, they talk, they argue and they dance.

The scene ends with a phone call from a downstairs neighbor, Ida, who is upset about the sound of dancing feet on her ceiling.

As they work through their differences, secrets are revealed. Lily’s husband isn’t out running errands, he actually died a few years ago. Michael’s wife isn’t sick, he has no wife because he’s gay and mourning his own losses. As they work their way through the swing, the tango, the Viennese waltz and others, a grudging friendship begins to form as more secrets are shared and the loneliness that both people feel begins to dissolve.

Saunders and Cowan make these characters believable and play beautifully off each other. Lily is reserved and her Southern gentility has been forged by years of being a minister’s wife, always smiling, always gracious, keeping all of her real feelings bottled up. She has perhaps never encountered anything as open, brash and vulgar as Michael.

Michael uses anger to protect himself, suspecting homophobia in every person he meets, but he senses Lily’s vulnerability. Over the weeks, he responds to her desperate need for friendship, which early on telescopes the emotional final scene, “Bonus Lessons.”

The set for this show, designed by Mims Mattair, also a newcomer to STC, is perhaps the most memorable I have seen in the Pollock Theater. He uses the entire stage, from door to door for Lily’s condo, complete with kitchenette and a sweeping view of the ocean. It is all painted white and the brightness draws the audience into Lily’s world.

Despite its predictability, and the dated material, “Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks” is an enjoyable production, especially in this age when “Dancing with the Stars” has brought dance into greater prominence.

I wonder what Lily and Michael would have done with the Paso Doble.

Bye Bye Birdie

The Davis Musical Theatre Company’s production of “Bye Bye Birdie,” directed and choreographed by Jan Isaacson, has a large cast (about 40), many crossovers from the Young People’s Theater program. It has a large orchestra (15) and a full house of parents, grandparents, siblings and friends. How could it possibly be less than a hit?

This musical, with book by Michael Stewart, music by Charles Strouse and lyrics by Lee Adams, opened on Broadway in April 1960 and was a sleeper hit, shocking everyone with its success. But based on Elvis Presley’s drafting into the Army and leaving for an 18-month tour of duty in Germany, with its inevitable media circus, how could it fail?

It was Gower Champion who developed the idea of a rock and roll idol going off to the Army, setting off a ripple effect on a group of teenagers in the small town of Sweet Apple, Ohio.

While there are some outstanding scenes in this production (such as the telephone scene in Act 1 and “Kids” in Act 2), it lacked the pizzazz to make it exceptional. The problem may lie with the under-stage orchestra which, despite its large size, seemed muted and thus not always contributing to the big sound that this show requires, resulting in occasional off-key beginnings of songs.

There were also just simple dumb mistakes that a company about to celebrate its 28th season should know better — such as the placement of the black curtains that allowed the audience to see characters entering and leaving the stage and a microphone that was spotty at best.

But this should not detract from the positives of the show. Spencer Johnson is an affable, likable Albert Peterson, a mama’s boy who can’t commit to love. Albert sets off on a campaign to publicize his new song, celebrating his protege’s imminent departure for the Army and giving one last very well-publicized kiss on the “Ed Sullivan Show” to a fan chosen at random.

Johnson sings OK and, while he will never be a dancer, he was able to keep up with the others all right.

Danielle DeBow had a bit of opening-night jitters at the start of the show, as Albert’s long-suffering Latina secretary/girlfriend, Rosie Alvarez. She displayed a wonderful voice that was not always being used to its best advantage.

But as the show progressed and as her confidence grew, it was there in full force and she became a Rosie to be reckoned with, especially when being pursued by a room full of fez-wearing Shriners.

Christine Deamer was born to play Mae Peterson, Albert’s overbearing, manipulative mother. She is simply wonderful as a stereotypical Jewish mother, determined to find a girl to replace Albert’s ethnic girlfriend.

Levi Fuentes as Conrad Birdie was sabotaged by a microphone that faded in and out. His big number “Honestly Sincere,” which needed to boom out to the townspeople and the audience, just didn’t. He is better than that and I hope the mic problems are fixed in subsequent performances.

The McAfee family members are uniformly good. Taylor Hartsfield as Kim, the girl chosen to be the girl to receive Conrad’s “one last kiss,” is quite good. Scott Minor as her father Harry definitely makes a terrific impression in his “Kids,” and Danette Vassar, as Mrs. McAfee, shows once again that good things come in small packages. Watching her grow as an actress over these past years has been a delight.

Kim’s younger brother Randall McAfee (Joshua Aiden Smith) has little to do, but he does it competently.

Outstanding among the teenagers in the show are Tomas Eredia as the nerdy Harvey Johnson, whose changing voice was just perfect, and Lydia Smith as Kim’s best friend Ursula, who can scream for Conrad Birdie better than just about anybody.

Like Spencer Johnson, Noah Papagni was an affable, likable whitebread kind of boyfriend as Hugo Peabody.

Jean Henderson’s costumes were mostly perfect for the time, though I did wonder if Elvis would have worn such well pressed blue jeans with such big cuffs. Rosie’s gowns, especially for Act 2, were gorgeous.

Vasser’s dress, while not necessarily overly special, caught my eye with how perfect it was for the actress; it may have been one of my favorite outfits in the show.

This DMTC production is entertaining and will please most theatergoers.

Superior Donuts

Director and Capital Stage co-founder Stephanie Gularte received a standing ovation before her production of “Superior Donuts,” by Tracy Letts, had even begun. Not only was it opening night for the play, it was the inaugural production for Capital Stage’s brand-new theater in midtown Sacramento.

Leaving the Delta King, their home since 2005, the company has built a charming performing space that is both larger and more intimate than the Delta King, with a bigger stage that will accommodate larger casts (nine in “Superior Donuts”), and with on-street parking easier to find than in Old Sacramento.

The standing ovation was well-deserved, but just the prelude of the special evening to follow.

The Letts play is a perfect first production for Capital Stage. It’s a little bit of everything — a comedy that’s not a comedy, a tragedy that’s not a tragedy, a character study of several disparate people all coming together in a family-owned doughnut shop in Uptown Chicago, which was already on the way down in 1950, when Arthur Przybyszewski’s immigrant parents bought it.

Matt Miller creates yet another memorable character as Arthur, an aging hippie who looks as beaten down as his doughnut shop. Over the course of the evening, we discover that Arthur was an embarrassment to his father, a member of the Polish Army, who spent most of the war in a POW camp. Arthur fled to Canada during the Vietnam war and is still haunted by his father calling him a coward.

As the show opens, Arthur’s shop has been vandalized, an act that seems to bother everyone else in the neighborhood more than it does Arthur, who takes it all in stride. He has withdrawn from life and is existing rather than living.

Young Franco Wicks (Jammy K. Bulaya), bursts through the door, applying for the job Arthur has advertised in the window. Arthur is uninterested in hiring anybody, but Franco is so excited about the possibilities, and wins Arthur over. He is hired and sets about to bring life back into the doughnut shop … and to Arthur.

Bulaya gives an amazing performance. He is ebullient and engaging, excited about life, determined not to let anything get him down. He has plans for his future and he has written the Great American Novel. His face would light up a room and you can’t help but smile when you look at him.

In contrast, his final scene is one of the most emotional and so beautifully played. It was an unforgettable experience.

The rapport between Arthur and Franco carries this story, as the old man is slowly shaken from his numbness by the younger man’s unflagging enthusiasm. The friendship they form is essential as the story progresses and their roles are reversed.

Arthur’s neighbor, Max (Gary Pannullo) is a Russian immigrant who owns the video store next door and who desperately wants to buy Arthur’s doughnut shop so he can expand and find his own American dream. Pannullo is just great, a stereotypical Russian — bombastic, argumentative, but a longtime loyal friend of Arthur’s.

The stellar cast also includes Janis Stevens, almost unrecognizable in her multi-layered costume as “Lady,” an alcoholic street woman who begins each day with a doughnut and a cup of coffee. Stevens gives this old woman an air of regal dignity, and her sharp wit delivers some of the funniest lines. She can’t seem to maintain her sobriety, but she keeps starting anew every day.

Lori Russo is Officer Randy Osteen, who obviously is attracted to Arthur, who doesn’t even know she exists until Franco points out that she has been trying to get the old man’s attention.

Anthony D’Juan plays the beat cop, Officer Bailey, a “Star Trek” fan who cares about the people in his neighborhood.

Barry Hubbard and Shane Edward Turner are Luther Flynn and Kevin Magee, who come to collect on Franco’s gambling debt.

Jeffrey Lloyd Heatherly is Max’s nephew, Kiril Ivakin, who has little to say, but makes his presence known very effectively.

The heart of this play is the unlikely friendship that develops between Arthur and Franco, a friendship that will bring both of them back to life after major setbacks.

The new Capital Stage theater is off to a very good start.

Bingo

“Bingo, the Winning Musical,” by Michael Heitzman and Ilene Reid, currently running at K Street’s Cosmopolitan Cabaret, fills a niche that nobody realized needed filling. It’s a musical about trailer trash women addicted to bingo, and the traumas and passions of their lives.

It’s also about a long-running feud over who interfered with whom in the purchase of what turned out to be a winning bingo card.

I was not able to see the show at its opening performance, when the audience is usually packed with critics and friends of the theater, so the audience I saw was the real deal, and the theater was nearly filled with enthusiastic people delighted to be playing bingo as part of the show itself.

O…K…

Apparently bingo does find a niche with a certain segment of the population. One reviewer said this show had the possibility to be for the middle-aged woman what “Wicked” was for their teenage daughters. I wouldn’t go that far.

This is a show where the plot is so predictable that it really is almost irrelevant to the show itself, and though the second act has seven songs, five are reprises of what was already sung in Act 1.

But somehow, despite what are surely obvious shortcomings, the talented cast makes it so fun that it works. And you even get to play three games of bingo and win cash prizes!

Lisa Raggio (playing Vern) will be a familiar face to many. She has a long nightclub, stage and television résumé and is one of those people you know you’ve seen before, but can’t quite place where. Vern is the alpha of the group and it’s because of her that her two cohorts haven’t talked with Bernice (Bonnie Bailey-Reed), with whom Vern had a dust-up many years ago.

Vern had some great interplay with a table of patrons in the audience who had the fortune or misfortune to win one of the bingo games the audience plays.

Eydie Alyson is Patsy, who has been highly superstitious ever since that night the group turned its back on Bernice. She can’t play without her trolls and the other lucky charms she packs with her to all of her bingo games.

She’s a great comedic actress, in the style of Ann Morgan Guilbert, who played Millie Helper in the old Dick Van Dyke series. And while it doesn’t have any impact on her performance, it’s interesting to note that she is married to “the silently hilarious pianist” on “Glee.”

Nikki D’Amico is Honey, the trailer trash version of Blanche Devereaux (“Golden Girls”). She has her sights set on the bingo caller, Sam (Michael Stevenson), and gets in several great double entendres dripping with sexual innuendo. Their duet, “Gentleman Caller,” is one of the songs reprised in Act 2, only from Sam’s side of the story.

The newcomer, Alison (Jessica Crouch), hides (just barely) the secret that she is the shunned Bernice’s daughter. Her mother is dying and she has come to see if she can’t patch things up with her friends because Mom needs a transfusion of a rare blood type.

In addition to playing the spirit of Bernice, Bonnie Bailey Reed also plays Minnie, who runs the bingo parlor and circulates throughout the audience during the actual games to make sure people are playing correctly and to award prizes to the winners.

Stevenson, in addition to being the Sam of today’s bingo game, is also bingo caller Frank of that infamous game so many years ago.

As with most of the Cabaret sets, this one is utilitarian but fun, with the girls sitting at a table facing the audience, Sam at the table where he is choosing the new ball, an electronic board at the back, and lighted signs in the audience, which show the configuration of the next bingo game. (Who knew there were so many?)

This show is dumb on so many levels that I was surprised when I realized I was chortling over several bits and that the song “Girls Night Out” has become an ear worm for the rest of the evening. But at its heart, “Bingo, the Winning Musical” is about the importance of friendship, and that’s a good message for anybody to receive.

The show runs through Jan. 8, so grab your BFF and your bingo card dauber, head on over to the Cosmopolitan Cabaret and just immerse yourself in the inanity. You can even buy popcorn in the lobby

Amazing and Sage

In 2006, I wrote a review of a one-woman show called “Insides OUT!” I opened that review by saying, “Stop what you’re doing right now, go to the telephone, call Sacramento Theater Company, and order tickets for the production of “Insides OUT!” the powerful one-woman show by Katie Rubin. It’s that good.”

Those who took my advice and were fortunate enough to see this extraordinary piece of theater will be overjoyed to know that at long last Rubin is ready to reveal her latest work, which she calls “Amazing & Sage, a Joke-O-So-Theom,” at Capital Stage’s brand-new theater, 2215 J St. in Sacramento, for three nights only, starting Sunday.

The unusual secondary title is because Rubin says her show is “one long joke/song/theatrical poem.” While her first work was a “no-holds-barred, emotional, funny, gut-wrenching look at the 29-year-old Rubin’s journey through alcoholism, drug addiction, sex addiction, food addiction and self-loathing,” the current work centers on Rubin’s relationship history.

“It is a story, my continuing story, of the evolution of a human, me, as she trudges the road of deep spiritual waking that emerges as the result of letting go of dysfunctional relationships and relationship patterns,” she said in a recent interview.

Described as a “recovery entertainer,” Rubin began writing her show in graduate school in 2004. She explained that this show took a long time to write because she hadn’t yet lived through the things that she was writing about and she needed to live through them and fully heal before she could write about them.

“The story is about the healing pattern of unhealthy relationships,” she said. “I was simultaneously experiencing a transformation around those issues. It was very difficult and painful and uncomfortable to write.

“By the time I got the first act down on paper, I was so out of the relationship that created the impetus to write the play (that) I didn’t want to write about it any more.”

However, she realized she had something important here and decided to try to finish it. Then she created yet another delay for herself.

“I thought wouldn’t it be cool to be narrated entirely in poetry,” she explained. “It took me a longer time to heal the issues than I thought it would, and it took much longer to write because of the form.

“The piece is narrated poetically so the whole thing is a poem, but the moments that are not rhyming and poetic are the dialog moments with the other characters.”

Unlike “Insides OUT!,” where the many characters were all aspects of Rubin’s self, the characters in “Amazing & Sage” are not necessarily simply aspects of her own psyche, but six or seven other characters she encounters on her spiritual journey.

This is a piece that is about going beyond mental and normal therapeutic means to heal an issue that, for Rubin, was not otherwise healable.

“I needed to delve into really deep space of consciousness and deep spiritual states. I needed to go to great lengths to bring about transformation,” she said.

“This piece seeks to articulate that process with language that in and of itself is otherworldly. My interest is in taking people on a journey into another realm, and it’s cool to have us be already in another realm by way of language.”

In making her own journal through this transformation, Rubin sought a lot outside help. “I went to a three-year energy healing school, delved very deeply into Sufism and the healing techniques in the Sufi tradition. It was profound, the most profound healing I’ve experienced.

“I’ve done a lot of different energy work, a lot of therapy, Name it, I’ve done it. This, for me, is the most potent and the most effective in terms of bringing about actual and lasting change.”

Rubin began her career as a comedic writer/performer at Amherst College with her first original piece, “PartyBoobyTrap.” Her second play was produced through the 2000 New York Fringe Festival. “Insides OUT!” was her third original piece and her first one-woman show.

She is a graduate of the theater and dance program at Amherst College. She has studied at the Wynn Handman Studios, at Annie Bogart’s SITI Company and has a master of fine arts degree from UC Davis.

In addition to performing and writing original material, Rubin also works as a stage, screen and voice-over actress, and as an acting and vocal coach. While teaching acting to undergraduate students at UCD, she appeared in “The Laramie Project” and the musical “Falsettos.”

In 2000, Rubin made her television debut as a law student on A&E’s “100 Center Street” with Alan Arkin. She has continued to tour “Insides OUT!” to venues across the United States for the past eight years.

She came to Capital Stage because she had seen its production of “American Buffalo” and found it “guttural, visceral and inspiring.” She approached Capital Stage co-founder Stephanie Gularte with the idea of writing a three-person play that would be as guttural and visceral, but written for women, instead of for men.

“You don’t see that,” Rubin said. “Where women are all laying it out there like men do.”

Gularte liked the idea but time passed without any official commitment. Then Capital Stage received an Irvine Foundation grant to support female playwrights writing plays for women and Gularte asked Rubin if she was still interested in developing the play they had discussed.

“What happened was that every time I tried to write it, I would find myself working on the one-woman piece that I had started previously. I couldn’t help myself, so I surrendered to the process,” Rubin said.

The end result was a play about a woman written by a woman. Thankfully, Gularte liked it and felt it satisfied the requirements of the grant.

“I was very happy and very grateful,” Rubin said.

“Amazing & Sage” is directed by Janis Stevens, an actress and director. And, if past experience is any indication, those who attend this production will be in for something very special.

Frankenstein

Forget Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lon Chaney or any of the Hollywood renderings of the Mary Shelley novel, “Frankenstein.” You will see no green tinted skin or neck bolts coming from “the creature” in the production, dramatized by Tim Kelly, now at Sacramento Theatre Company through Oct. 30.

This production, directed by Michael Laun, sticks more closely to the original book. We never see Victor Frankenstein’s laboratory, and the horror comes from dialog that will have you leaving the theater talking about the philosophical implications of the story and asking … who was the real “monster”?

“Frankenstein,” was written in 1818 as the result of a contest among Mary Shelley and other writers — including husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and John William Polidori — to see who could write the best horror story. (Polidori later would be known as the creator of the vampire genre with his novel “The Vampyre,” in 1819.)

The STC production includes a top-notch cast, almost all at the top of their game.

William Elsman, last seen as Sherlock Holmes and a perennial favorite as Mrs. Baddenrotten in STC’s frequent Christmas show, “Cinderella,” is definitely bad and rotten as the tortured scientist, who confesses to his wife, on their wedding night, of all of his terrible misdeeds as he warns her that he is about to be killed.

The story is a bit vague on how the creature (who is never called by any name, but only “the creature”) was constructed, other than to say that a lot of grave robbing and deals with shady persons in back alleys were involved. We do know that Victor’s life passion had been to discover the cause of life and, by using various human parts, he is able to bring his creation to life.

It is his refusal to take responsibility for his success in doing what he set out to do that forms the basis for the story. It is difficult to understand why, after creating this human-like lifeform, he would then be horrified and run away from it.

But one must suspend disbelief in order to become involved in the rest of the story, which is that the creature (Ed Gyles Jr.), who is remarkably eloquent, has tracked down his maker, demanding that Victor create a mate for him. The creature suffers incredible anguish because he is terribly lonely. He is ugly so people shun him.

”I am an outcast with no hope of redemption and no love,” he wails. All he wants is a companion and promises that if Victor creates a female partner for him, the two of them will go away and nobody will hear from them again.

There are lots and lots of holes in the plot but the real drama comes from the discussions between man and creature and between Victor and his best friend Henry (Jerry Lee), to whom the scientist has confessed his actions and who agrees to help in the creation of a second (female) creature.

The success of this production, which becomes a morality tale about the creation and destruction of life, rests on the brilliant interaction between Victor and the creature and between Victor and Henry.

Gyles makes the creature almost likable, and we definitely feel the pain of his isolation, but then we remember that for some unexplainable reason, he killed Victor’s young brother and we see that he is capable of flying into rages when frustrated. He is Lennie, in “Of Mice and Men.” but with more stitching.

With Elsman, we see the brilliance of Victor Frankenstein, but also his weakness which results in the destruction of everything he loves in life.

Henry, as played by Lee, is still full of the wonder of Victor’s accomplishments and eagerly agrees to assist in the creation of another life, which ultimately proves to be his undoing.

Others in the cast include Brittni Barger, as Victor’s fiancée Elizabeth. Her role is small, but she ably displays her love for Victor, though surprisingly not much disbelief as he tells her of his creation.

Linda Montalvo gives a solid performance as housekeeper Sophie and Jim Lane can always be relied upon to give a good performance, in this production as Ernst, the inspector-general of police.

Miriam Gilbert (double cast with Kristal Celik) shows great promise in her first main stage production as Justine, a gypsy girl.

Susan Andrews, as Frau Frankenstein, Victor’s mother, may be the weakest in the show as one was always aware of her “acting,” and not really involved with the character.

The set by Jarrod Bodensteiner is sumptuous and the lighting design of Jessica Bertine nicely helped create the “horror” mood, especially during scene changes. Jessica Minnihan’s costumes and makeup were fine, though the creature didn’t look all that scary from the back of the house.

If you’re looking for an old-fashioned, Hollywood-style Halloween horror experience, this may not be your cup of tea. But if you want to find your horror in the things that men can do without thinking their actions through to their ultimate conclusion — which may be even more horrifying, though easier to believe in this day and age — this is a perfect way to spend an evening.

One thing is certain. You will be discussing the various elements of this show as you leave the theater, and perhaps for days to come.

Shrek: The Musical

The crowd at Tuesday night’s opening of “Shrek, The Musical” (book and lyrics by David Lindsay-Abaire, music by Jeanine Tesori) may have been one of the biggest I’ve ever seen at the Community Theater.

The line of patrons waiting to spin the wheel to win a prize at the Mix 96 booth stretched almost around the block, little girls came dressed in sparkly princess costumes, adults and children of all ages entered the theater wearing Shrek horns on their heads, and everyone seemed on the edges of their seats, expecting something special.

They were not disappointed. Based on William Steig’s book “Shrek!” and the Dream Works animated film, the story of everybody’s favorite ogre — with the message that everyone is worthy of true love — is filled with fun characters, double entendres, great costumes, fun dance numbers and more belch and fart jokes than I’ve ever seen in one show before.

This is not an instant stage classic that we will be seeing again for decades, nor does it have memorable music (except for the closing number, Neil Diamond’s “I’m a Believer,” first recorded by the Monkees in 1966). But for what it is, it delivers.

One problem with taking a popular, well-known cartoon like “Shrek” and giving flesh-and-blood actors the job of bringing well-known cartoon characters to life on the stage is that a lot of the elements get lost in the cacophony of orchestra, sound system and characters talking together.

Much of the movie’s charm came from in-jokes and visual effects and being able to snicker at the lesser characters who each brought a funny part of a familiar fairy tale to the story.

That is there in the stage show, but somehow it lacks the charm of the movie.

That said, however, the stage show delivers some really spectacular effects, particularly the Tony Award-winning dragon, created by Tim Hatley, as impressive as some of the costumes from “The Lion King.” The dragon swoops and flies and turns in circles on stage and above the stage and is amazingly lifelike — if there had ever been such things as fire-breathing dragons!

Likewise, the characters that Shrek (Lukas Poost) and his sidekick Donkey (Andre Jordan) encounter on their way to free the Princess Fiona (Liz Shivener) from the dragon’s castle are just loads of fun, particularly the tongue-in-cheek nod to “Lion King” designer Julie Taymor.

Fiona also does a wonderful dance number helping the Pied Piper with his rats.

As for the performances, Poost makes a lovable Shrek, an ogre who had been sent out on his own at age 7 and who just wants to live quietly, alone, in his little shack. But he has a sense of duty and when he takes on the task of rescuing Fiona for the scheming Lord Farquaad, he takes the task very seriously. Poost has a strong and resonant voice and despite the padding and face mask, makes a sympathetic character out of Shrek.

Shivener is an enthusiastic Fiona, thrilled to be released from the prison where she has spent her entire childhood, confused about who Shrek really is, but eager to meet her husband to be … and also hoping to keep her own secret hidden.

Merritt David Janes is the diminutive Lord Farquaad. The actor does well playing the role on his knees, with fake legs dangling in front of him. He is even able to dance.

Several of the lesser characters make an impact, primarily the whiney Pinocchio (Luke Yellin), whose nose grows and shrinks on stage without any visible assistance from Yellin himself.

Some of the scenic backdrops by Tim Hatley are simply spectacular.

“Shrek” will enchant most, no matter what age. And don’t forget to take home a pair of Shrek horns!

Midsummer Night's Dream

If you’re looking for something to do for entertainment on one of these late summer nights, why not get yourself over to the UC Davis Arboretum Gazebo and take in the fun production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”? This is the fifth production of the no-longer-fledgling Davis Shakespeare Ensemble.

Even if you are familiar with this Shakespeare comedy, I think you will find the setting and the theme of this production, directed by Rob Salas, surprising. It is a loving salute to the bicycle.

“Without a doubt, bicycles make Davis unique. What has fascinated us about bikes is not just their presence in Davis or their convenience, but something deeper,” the program notes say. “We are inspired by the thriving culture and sense of community that comes from a town that embraces bikes. We are inspired by their mechanics, which still seem magical amidst today’s advanced technology.”

Bicycle pieces adorn the posts of the gazebo, bicycle tires are strung together to create a ladder to the crawl space above the stage, and characters make their entrances either riding or pushing all sorts of wheeled vehicles, from scooters to clunker bicycles, to specially designed cycles. (Special thanks are given to The Davis Bike Collective and The Bike People.)

Since there is no specific set designer listed in the program, this was obviously a collaborative effort, and very successful.

Local artist Rebecca Portney is credited with “more intricate props,” including the figure of the young Indian Prince kidnapped by Titania, Queen of the fairies (Jessica Spaw, who also plays Hyppolyta, betrothed to Theseus, the Duke of Athens).

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream” tells several stories, each of which occurs during a single summer night in a magical forest outside Athens, in which fairies play pranks on lovesick mortals, and earnest youths endure comical romantic confusion.

(There is a bit of confusion for the audience as well, since the cast has chosen to rearrange scenes, putting a scene between Oberon and Titania as the opening scene, rather than later in the play.

(“We moved the scenes around to set a precedent for the use of bike parts, the importance of the magical fairy world, and to get the feel for why Titania and Oberon are fighting,” explains Steph Hankinson. “Usually we feel that this gets lost in the action of the play and with the ‘changeling child’ never being a physical presence.”

The cast of this show numbers nine, with most actors playing two or three parts. The exception is Robert Williamson, playing the slow-witted Bottom, head of the bike mechanics, rehearsing a play in the woods to later present to Theseus (Rob Salas, who also plays Oberon, the king of the fairies).

Williamson is a terrible actor. But that’s OK, because he’s supposed to be and one must be a pretty good actor to portray the character of a believably terrible actor. Bottom is later turned into a donkey by the mischievous fairy Puck (Gia Battista) and I won’t even begin to describe his donkey costume. It must be seen to be believed. It is definitely in keeping with the bicycle theme; kudos to costume designer Caitlin Cisek, who outdid herself on that one!

Battista (also playing Philostrate, charged with organizing entertainment for the Duke’s wedding) is a less playful Robin Goodfellow (“Puck”) than many, but still manages to create enough mayhem for everyone.

The ever-solid Hankinson (who also plays Quince, the mechanic and Cobweb the fairy) is Egeus, who brings daughter Hermia (Brianna Owens) to the court of Theseus, asking that the Duke convince her to marry Demetrius (Jose Cagigal, also playing the mechanic Snout and Peaseblossom), her mother’s choice for her daughter.

(Owens is adorable as Hermia, and yet changes character completely in her roles as the mechanic Starveling and one of the fairies. It’s a very talented performance.)

Headstrong Hermia, however, is in love with Lysander (Will Klundt, also playing mechanic Flute and Mustardseed).

To confuse matters even further, Hermia’s best friend Helena (Erika Haaland, also mechanic Snug and Moth) is in love with Demetrius, who can’t stand her because he is in love with Helena. The plot is confusing enough itself, without having actors play multiple roles! However, thanks to ingenious costuming by Cisek, somehow it all works, and works well.

Puck, trying to carry out his master Oberon’s orders, confuses things and it results in all the wrong people falling in love with all the wrong people. Mayhem and merriment ensue, but all gets sorted out at the end.

The mechanics finally get to put on their play, the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, which is worthy of any slapstick comedy you may have seen. It’s hilarious. My favorite costume was that of Snout, who plays the wall with a “chink,” through which the star-crossed lovers communicate. Brilliant bit of costume choice!

This production works on so many different levels. The costumes and scenery are a big hit, but the play would go nowhere without the work of nine very talented actors. Do yourself a favor and see this show before it ends Oct. 2.

The King and I

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “The King and I,” directed by Steve Isaacson and choreographed by Michael Miilar, was the show that closed out Davis Musical Theatre Company’s run at the Varsity Theatre in 2005. A beautiful new production, directed and choreographed by Jan Isaacson, is opening DMTC’s 27th season.

Right off the bat, I give failing marks to the audience, most of whom rudely talked among themselves throughout the overture. Even though the lights in the theater were not turned down until the end, the orchestra, which was quite good, deserves better than this!

The sets, by Steve Isaacson, are based on the design by Juan Ramos (who also played the King in that 2005 production). They are gorgeous, particularly the King’s bedroom, which is spectacular. The combination of the warm colors in the set and the warm lighting design (by Isaacson and Dannette Vassar) makes for a very inviting setting on which to place the story.

In previous productions of this musical — a subtext to the story of Anna Leonowens, the widow who comes to Siam with her young son to become teacher to the children of Siam’s beloved King Mongkut — there’s a sense of sexual tension, as the relationship between Anna and the King develops. This is particularly evident in the jealousy the king shows toward Anna’s friendship with British Envoy Sir Edward Ramsey (Gabriel Jacobo) and the dance between the King and Anna following the banquet held in Ramsey’s honor.

The decision to cast an older actress as Anna removes that sexual tension and leaves the way open to explore the professional relationship between the protagonists. Chris Cay Stewart has a lovely voice and beautifully portrays the relationship between herself and the King’s court (especially the children), and the on-again, off-again friendship with the King. Her age also makes for a more poignant and beautiful reminiscence as she sings “Hello, Young Lovers,” remembering her marriage to her husband, Tom.

Mark Suarze is a strong, vibrant King, straddling the fence between long-held cultural beliefs and his desire to move Siam into the modern age. He is powerful in his emotional numbers, particularly “A Puzzlement,” where he questions what he knows, what he should know and what he knows nothing about, but should.

Anna’s son, Louis, is played by William Chan, a talented young actor who could give lessons to many in the cast about projection, as his dialog was crystal-clear at all times. Sadly, that could not be said of Larry Lipman, playing the captain of the ship that brought the Leonowens to Siam. I never heard a word he said, and he also seemed to stumble over his lines as well.

Lenore Sebastian plays Lady Tiang, the King’s First Wife and the mother to Prince Chulalongkorn (Horace Gonzales), who is heir to his father’s throne. Sebastian is a wise and loving wife and that voice of hers is as warm and delicious as melted butter.

The lovers Tuptim (Lydia Smith), gift of the King of Burma to the King of Siam, and her escort Lun Tha (Kevin Foster), were very sweet. Smith has a lovely voice in her lower register, but loses it somewhat in her higher notes. Foster, however, has an amazing voice and showed it at its best.

Adam Sartain is an imposing Kralahome, the principal guard of the King, wary of anything that might upset either his boss or the long-held traditions of the court.

Tuptim’s theatrical performance of “The Small House of Uncle Thomas” was a real highlight of the evening and was danced beautifully by Shannon Mo, Kimmie Ruanto, Allison Ruanto, Rachel Pinto, Natalie Mo and Anthony Swaminathan. Jenny Plasse, who plays “poor Eliza,” deserves special notice, as she was quite good.

Of course, “The King and I” would not be as popular were it not for the King’s children, each one cuter than the other: Jenny Chen, Naomi Debello, Amaralyn Ewey, Cedric Hughes, Emma Kehr, Lily Linaweaver, Elena Lipman, Natalie Mo, Jihan Moon, Jimin Moon,Keri Ruanto, Kimmie Ruanto and Anthony Swaminathan.

DMTC’s 27th season is off to a good start.