Bat Boy

 

One would hardly think of the Weekly World News as a source for material to inspire a musical, but that’s exactly where Laurence O’Keefe, Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming came up with the idea for “Bat Boy: The Musical,"  now being performed on the university’s Wyatt Stage by the student-run Studio 301, directed and choreographed by Chris McCoy.

The “real” Bat Boy was, according to the Weekly World News, a creature who was half-human and half-bat captured in 1992 in a West Virginia cave by Dr. Bob Dillon of the S.O.S. (Seeker of Obscure Supernaturals). The newspaper reported on his capture, escape and recapture a few times throughout its brief history. Editor Dick Kulpa eventually admitted the story was fiction.
Studio 301 has presented a very polished production of the horror story, with a strong cast, some fun tunes (some forgettable) played by the competent six-piece off-stage orchestra under the direction of Alex Stalarow and sung by some very strong voices.

The story opens with a very realistic depiction of sibling spelunkers Ron (Johnny Wylie), Rick (Jimmy Beall) and Ruthie (Marissa Saravis) descending into a cave near the town of Hope Falls, W.Va. They are excited to possibly be the only people to have ever descended this far into the earth, and then shocked to find a creature living there. The headlamps on each of the characters, piercing the pitch black of the theater and only occasionally flashing on the creature add to the suspense.

The creature is captured, but not before biting Ruthie, who is rushed to the hospital and lays in critical condition throughout the play. The creature, whom they name Bat Boy (Marcos Sastre III) is taken to the town doctor, Dr. Parker (John Unrath), where he is placed in a cage and becomes an object of interest for Parker’s wife Meredith (Elizabeth Tremaine) and daughter Shelley (Rachel Wagner).

Meredith takes an unusual liking to the creature and insists he be called “Edgar,” while Shelley, first repulsed by him, grows to love him. The doctor comes home to find the creature in his home and intends to euthanize him but does not when his wife promises him sex if he will not do it. Parker feels this is a way to mend his broken marriage.

Unrath and Tremaine have beautiful voices. Unrath’s startles as he begins singing “Dance with me, My Darling,” and Tremaine’s emotional “A Home for You” is stunning.

Under tutelage from the family, Edgar quickly learns how to be human. He seems to be exceptionally intelligent and, thanks to BCC language tapes, speaks with an upper crust British accent.

The townsfolks, however, who sing about “Christian Charity,” are anything but Christian. It’s another case of outsider fear and they still want to “Kill the Bat Boy,” but if that can’t happen at least they can request that he not attend an upcoming revival meeting led by the Rev. Hightower (Malia Abayon).

Act 2 is the revival meeting, which Edgar insists on attending to ask the townsfolk to “Let Me Walk Among You.” (Sastre also has an excellent voice.) The meeting quickly disintegrates when Dr. Parker announces that Ruthie has died. This sets off a series of deaths and revelations about Bat Boy’s parentage and birth, better experienced than written about.

And we also find out why all the cows are dying, a parallel curse which, with the discovery of Bat Boy, everyone assumes is his doing … but really is for quite a different reason.

This is a pretty silly show, but performed beautifully by all of the actors involved.

The opening night audience was disappointingly small and I would hope that others decide to check this show out because,  for one thing where else are you going to see it? And for another silly or not, it really is a good show.

Peter Pan

If you have children — or grandchildren — looking for something to do the next couple of weekends, I highly recommend taking them to Woodland Opera House’s sparkling new production of “Peter Pan.”

This is not the Peter Pan of Disney and you probably won’t recognize any of the songs, but this version, with book, music and lyrics by Piers Chater Robinson and directed by Angela Baltezore, is loads of fun. The theater full of young children — who sat spellbound throughout the evening and cheered at the end — attested to that (there was even one toddler, so caught up in it all that when the children’s choir marched up on stage to take their bows, he slipped out of his seat and followed them and had to be rescued by his mother).

Robinson created this adaptation of J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan” in 1985, following approval by the trustees of Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in Britain, to whom Barrie had left the Peter Pan rights. Robinson’s adaptation was further developed into “Peter Pan The Official British Musical.” It has since been performed all over the world and has been a favorite in the West End in London for the past 25 years.

Leading the cast in the title role is Emily Jo Seminoff. I first met this talented actress in 2006, when she was playing this role for the second time with Davis Musical Theater’s Young People’s Theater. It has been a delight to watch her grow up on stage and her Peter in this production is spot-on, the perfect little boy who won’t grow up and becomes confused when Wendy wants to. She also flies through the air with the greatest ease, courtesy of ZFX Flying Effects.

Seventh-grader Emily O’Flaherty tackles the role of Wendy and does it beautifully. She has a lovely voice and is wonderfully at home on stage.

Her brothers, John (Bailey Robinson-Burmester) and Michael (Makenna Harding-Davis) also deserve kudos. Robinson-Burmester continues in his theater family’s tradition and carries the torch very well, while Harding-Davis is just cute as a button in all of her scenes.

Rodger McDonald is the father of the Darling children and also Captain Hook. Was there ever a better actor for the role? As Hook he is appropriately nasty, without scaring the children in the audience, and as Mr. Darling he is all bluff and bluster, but obviously loving his children very much.

Returning to the stage after a long hiatus is Betsy Taloff, as Mrs. Darling, the mother everyone would like to have, loving and understanding, particularly when Wendy expresses a desire to return to Neverland once a year to help Peter with spring cleaning.

Stealing the show are Marcus Lucia as Nana, the nursemaid dog, and Mary Dahlberg as the crocodile who follows Hook everywhere, hoping to get another taste of him. Aided by the costume design of Denise Miles these two make very credible (and popular) animals.

Kudos also to Chris Taloff for “playing” Tinker Bell. The green light which flitted around the stage, augmented with twinkle music by musical director James Glica-Hernandez, was just perfect, especially when Tink nestled in Peter’s hands, dying. There was also lots of fun with Hook at the curtain call.

The crew of Lost Boys — Emily Miller, Ryan Everitt, Hayley Harrison, Casey Wathen, Jimin Moon and Jordan Hayakawa — were all great, and the Indian dancers — Camila Morales, Keri Ruanto, Andrew Duncan and Hunter Lamar — along with chief Horacio Gonzalez had the show stopping dance of the evening, choreographed by Angela Baltezore and Eva Sarry.

Hook’s second in command, Smee (Jeff Nauer) succeeded in making the bumbling pirate more lovable than frightening.

The production is great fun for the whole family and will only be around weekends until May 12, so get your tickets before they are sold out.

Oklahoma!

A big “Yeeow! Aye-yip-aye-yo-d-ee-ay!” to Davis Musical Theater Company for its energetic opening weekend of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!”

This show hits high marks across the board from strong direction and choreography by Jan Isaacson, a strong cast, Jean Henderson’s great costume designs (though I have to admit those cowboys had the shiniest boots I’ve ever seen!), and music direction by Chris Congdon.

“Oklahoma!,” the first musical collaboration of Rodgers and Hammerstein — who later brought the world the likes of “Carousel,” “South Pacific,” “The King and I” and “Sound of Music” — changed the face of musical theater history when it debuted in 1943, for telling an emotional story through music, lyrics and dance as had never been done before. Based on the play “Green Grow the Lilacs” by Lynn Riggs, “Oklahoma!” brought something akin to folk art to professional theater and won a Pulitzer special award and citation for music in 1944.

One dare not look too closely at the plot of this musical, for there is little there. At a time when musicals are just as likely to have a dark side as a cheery side, the story of a boy and a girl, their friends and a lunch box social is not exactly likely to provoke much psychological introspection.

The story is set in the Oklahoma territory in 1907 — the days just before statehood — and touches ever so lightly on the ongoing feud between farmers and cattlemen, though that definitely takes a back seat to the story of Curly, a cattleman, in love with Laurey, who lives on a farm with her Aunt Eller and the hired man, Jud Fry, the dark character who has his eye on Laurey, while Laurey has her eye on Curly.

Travis Nagler isn’t quite your typical pretty boy Curly, but looks every bit the catttleman and delivers solid vocals whenever he opens his mouth. His relationship with Laurey (Laura Woodruff) showed some sparks, especially in their verbal battles with one another, and they were believable in their romantic scenes.

Nagler also does his own dancing in the dream sequence with “Dream Laurey” (Kaylin Scott) and “Dream Jud” (Gabe Avila).

Woodruff was a lovely Laurey, with a beautiful soprano. I particular enjoyed her scenes of introspection, when she talks about her dreams and seems to escape into that wished-for world. It was very moving.

Mary Young reprises her 2006 performance as Aunt Eller, one of her better roles. She’s a crusty old dame, reluctant to let her softer side show, and commanding enough respect that everyone listens to her.

Outstanding was Scott Scholes, as Will Parker, in love with Ado Annie (Ashley Holm) and just returned from Kansas City, where he entered a rodeo trying to win $50 so he can marry the girl of his dreams. His “Everything’s Up to Date in Kansas City” was a real show stopper, especially with the choreography for the cowboys.

Holm is perfect as Annie, the hormonally charged young woman who just can’t say no to any man who “talks purdy” to her. In Will’s absence she decided she’s in love with the Persian peddler Ali Hakim (Avila), who eagerly returns her interest, but his own interests don’t really lead toward the altar.

Avila was fun as Hakim who is a typical traveling salesman until he finds himself in a romantic mess. He finds a clever way to extricate himself from a bad situation.

Left out of the program, but still an important character is Andrew Carnes (Michael Davis), Annie’s father who refused to permit Annie to marry Will unless Will could show some responsibility by coming up with $50 cash. For Davis, this was one to check off his bucket list, as, after a productive lifetime, he has finally appeared on stage in a musical … and has done a credible job of it too!

I always have trouble with the plot line and the character of Jud Fry (Steve Isaacson). Jud is the “bad guy,” the “outsider” whom nobody likes and who turns violent in the end. Isaacson owns this role. He brings humanity to Fry and gives the audience a glimpse of why he is the way he is. It is a beautiful and moving performance and makes me wish that Isaacson appeared on stage more often, since he is such a talented actor.

In this week, when we have once again seen the length to which “outsiders” will go when they become angry, I couldn’t help thinking of the bombers of Boston and all the other “outsiders” we have witnessed in the news in recent years.

Jud’s “outsiderness” is even more apparent when there is a more or less a sham trial following his death, in the front yard of Aunt Eller’s house, where the judge laughs and pronounces Curly not guilty of murder so the young folks can get on with their honeymoon and not bother about a more formal trial at the courthouse.

One suspects that had it been Fry who killed Curly, the response of folks would have been quite different.

However, “Oklahoma!” is not a message show, unless the message is to kick up your heels and have a good time, which the DMTC audiences certainly will have if they are fortunate enough to catch this production.

Billy Elliot

When “Billy Elliot,” the musical based on the 2000 movie, with music by Elton John, opened on Broadway, it won just about every award possible, including 10 Tonys, 10 Drama Desk awards, and 8 Outer Circle Critics Circle awards.  America took the story of a young northern England boy who just wants dance to its heart.

The show is now running at the Sacramento Community Theater and judging by the sustained cheers throughout the musical, and the standing ovation at its conclusion, Sacramento has taken the show to its heart as well.

The story is set during the 1984-85 miners’ strike and the story of the dancers intermingles with the story of the striking miners an often ingenious ways.

Billy’s father wants him to be a boxer, but after an unpleasant beginning, Billy stumbles on a dance class being held in the same building.  Intrigued, he begins to mimic the girls in the ballet class and soon is one of the students himself.  His teacher realizes that he has talent and takes him under her wing with private lessons when his father forbids him to attend the class again.

The dancing in this show is amazing.  Billy was played on opening night by Mitchell Tobin, a 12 year old from Florida who has been dancing since he was 3 years old. He shares the role at other productions with Ben Cook, Drew Minard, and Noah Parets. 

Tobin had a few minor fluffs in his dancing on opening night, but is simply amazing.  The Act 1 “Angry Dance” will leave you breathless. And as good as his dancing is, the kid is also a convincing actor who will bring you to tears.

Janet Dickinson is Mrs. Wilkinson, Billy’s dance teacher who discovers the talent in the boy and becomes a sort of surrogate mother to him when she learns that his own mother (Molly Garner) is dead.  Though she obviously cares for the boy, she keeps him at arms length, keeping the teacher/student relationship very strong.

Billy’s father is played by Rich Herbert, a bear of a man who is torn between his desire to make a man of his son and his son’s passion for dancing.

The character of “Dad” has been written, in this show, somewhat confusing.  In the movie, the struggle to accept Billy’s love of dancing evolves over time, when in the musical it seems instantaneous and somewhat unbelievable.

There are some sweet moments between Billy and the ghost of his mother, especially when it comes time for her to finally leave him.

Billy’s cross-dressing friend Michael was played on opening night by Sam Poon, who alternates in the role with Jake Kitchin.  Billy keeps Michael’s secret and their relationship is very sweet.

It was a little unsettling to see this show immediately following the death of Margaret Thatcher. The show goes out of its way to vilify the former Prime Minister for her attempts (ultimately successful) at breaking the miners’ union.  The opening of Act 2 is particularly mean-spirited, being held at a Christmas pageant where people wear Thatcher masks and wigs, a chorus of puppets are dressed as Thatcher, and an enormous inflated Thatcher rises out of the building.  At one point the lyrics include

Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher
We all celebrate today
‘Cause it’s one day closer to your death.

while dancers carry around a grave marker with “Thatcher R.I.P.” on it.

In London, a vote was taken of the audience about whether this number should be left in the show for the night of her death and the vote was nearly unanimous that it should remain, with only one dissenting vote.

The show’s biggest problem is difficulty understanding lyrics and dialog, a combination of the difficult Northern England accent and terminology combined with the perennial acoustical problems of the Community Center theater.

However, that should not deter anyone from seeing this show.  I have been wanting to see “Billy Elliot” since it opened to rave reviews on Broadway...and it was well worth the wait!

The Mountaintop

The setting is Room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee.  The date is April 4, 1968.  There is a storm raging outside.  The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. has just given his “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech in support of the Memphis sanitation workers’ strike and has returned to his motel room, exhausted, craving caffeine.  He has sent Ralph Abernathy off to get some Pall Mall cigarettes for him. 

He prepares to work on his speech for the next day, which will address “Why America is going to Hell.”

Unbeknownst to King, it is his last night on earth and it’s going to be a strange evening. The play imagines the events that might have taken place the night before King’s assassination.

This is King’s own particular garden of Gethsemane, written by playwright Katori Hall (who won the Olivier Award for this play), presented by Capital Stage, and directed by the multi-talented Anthony D’Juan, making his Capital Stage directorial debut (though familiar to Capital audiences from his on-stage performances).

It was important to Hall not to deify King.  “King changed the world, but he was not a deity.  He was a man, a human being.  So it was important to show him as such: vulnerable,” the playwright states.

Beethoven Oden creates a very human King.  He’s tired.  He’s coming down with a cold.  He has smelly feet.  He smokes too much. He’s caffeine addicted.  He lies to his wife.  He’s disappointed at the turnout for his speech, afraid that his followers are tired of the fight...and he’s concerned about the continuing threats on his life and that of his family.  The threats have loomed so large that he mentioned them in his speech (“I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you...”)  Paranoid, he obsessively paces back and forth, peeking through the curtains, checking tables, lamps, etc. for listening devices.

He calls the front desk for coffee, which is delivered by Camae (ZZ Moor), a maid at the hotel, who says she’s working her first night.  She is awed by King and is at first coyly deferential, and then, as it appears there is chemistry between them, becomes flirty. She tries to leave several times, but, encouraged by King, continues to stay, sharing a cigarette (she has Pall Malls) and prompting King to confront his life, his past, his legacy and the future of his people..

Camae is just what King needs to relax.  As she becomes more comfortable with him, she allows herself to be foul-mouthed and sassy and puts King at ease. With King’s reputation as a womanizer, it looks like this play is going in one direction, but then, as Camae’s secret becomes known, it takes a 180 degree turn and goes in a completely different direction.

Moor’s performance is spot on, with her accentuated Southern drawl.  Her performance could easily descend to the cutesy but she stays in character, not caricature.

As the play moves forward and the focus of it shifts, it loses a bit of credibility and enters more of the fantasy realm, in stark contrast to the beginning, though the finale, where King is able to see the results of his work is masterful and impressive.

The set for this production is by Capital Stage co-founder Jonathan Williams, who obviously must have spent a lot of time in seedy motels in order to create one so perfectly. (I did wonder if the hem of the bedspread, askew on one of the beds, was deliberate or accidental.)

This is a 90 minute, no intermission play, which is a good thing because to include a break in the middle would destroy the mood set throughout.

In his last speech, King said “I’m happy tonight.  I’m not worried about anything.  I’m not fearing any man.  Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”  One hopes that on his last night he really came to feel that.

"Master Harold"...and the Boys

Sacramento Theater Company’s new production of Athol Fugard’s “‘Master Harold’...and the Boys” is not to be missed.  Set in a tea room in South Africa during the period of apartheid, it tells the coming of age story of a young white boy of privilege and his relationship with the two black employees at his mother’s shop.

Director Buddy Butler has a dream cast.  Will Block (Harold...or Hally) is finishing his sixth year with STC’s Young People’s Company with this production and his performance is mesmerizing.  His is a complex character, a good friend to Sam (Michael J. Asberry) and Willie (Rob Anthony Gray), but recognizes the disparity in their ranks.  Still, Sam has been both a father figure and his student throughout his growing up years and their relationship is complicated. Hally helps Sam with vocabulary, Sam teaches Hally life lessons.

Block hits all the proper nuances.  He beautifully and poignantly portrays Hally’s struggles with his feelings about his father, and his convoluted relationship with Sam.

Asberry likewise gives a sensitive and layered performance.  He brings dignity and wisdom to his menial job and finds joy in simple things, like the upcoming ballroom dance competition in which both he and Willie will be competing. He feels very protective of Hally, yet walks on eggshells some of the time, very much aware of the class distinction between the two of them. He has known the boy since he was very young and the two have reached a point where their relationship may have to change. The tenderness and humanity he displays in the earlier scenes with both Willie and Hally give way to anger and raw emotion in the play's climax. When Hally eventually strips him of any and all dignity, the man that Sam becomes is frightening and Asberry gives a gut wrenching performance.

The action takes place on a rainy afternoon in the tea room, when Hally comes home from school for his afternoon meal, which appears to be his daily habit.  Sam has been busy helping Willie with the finer points of the quick step.  Gray is perfect as the charismatic Willie, with an innocent sense of humor, but whose temper is quick, and who routinely gives his wife a “hiding.” He accepts as something that a husband must do to a wife and can’t understand why this makes her angry.  He is afraid that her last beating was so severe she won’t even compete in the dance competition.

The parental-like relationship between Sam and Hally is beautifully demonstrated when Hally recalls “the best day of his life,” when Sam made a kite for him and he was able to fly it for the first time.  His face glows with the memory, though Sam’s later recollections of that day are quite different.

The central figure in the story is Hally’s father, apparently an amputee, and and abusive alcoholic. The father has been in the hospital, but is being released early, which sends Hally over the edge, desperate to convince his mother, by telephone, that the father needs a longer recovery period and should not be brought home. You can see the fear in Hally as he contemplates how his life will change with his father home again.  Feeling powerless to stop what is about to happen, Hally takes his anger and frustration out on Sam and Willie.

Thought the play is an example of the world of apartheid, it still rings true today, in an era where we are sadly still divided in to “us” and “them” and where in moments of stress “we” can still reduce “them” to the class of “other” and thus not equal.  Sam brings such dignity to the world of the “other” and shows us the humanity that Hally forgets in his anger.

Midsummer Night's Dream

Love is in the air at the Sacramento Theatre Company, as once again the company presents one of Shakespeare’s most beloved classics, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
Director Christine Nicholson has given us a more modern version, set in the early 20th century, with colorful costumes by Jessica Minnihan. Nine actors play all 23 roles, several playing three different roles, which is occasionally confusing, especially keeping the queens straight.

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

King Thesius (Troy Thomas) and Hippolyta (Carolyn Howarth) are discussing plans for their upcoming nuptials. But plans are interrupted by the arrival of Egeus (Michael RJ Campbell), a nobleman asking for help in forcing his daughter Hermia (Melanie Marshall) to marry Demetrius (Brent Bianchini), the husband of his choosing, though she is in love with Lysander (Anthony Person).

To further complicate things, Hermia’s friend Helena (Elizabeth Holzman) is in love with Demetrius — setting the stage for all of the twists and turns that develop over the course of the story.

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

A group of mechanics are rehearsing in the woods, under the direction of Quince (Campbell). His four actors are Nick Bottom (Matt K. Miller), the weaver, who plays Pyramus in the troupe’s production of “Pyramus and Thisbe” to be presented later for Thesius’ wedding; Bianchini as Flute, the young man who argues against appearing as the very feminine Thisbe; Person as Starveling, a stereotypical backwoodsman who would rather whittle than perform; and Holzman as Snout, the tinker, who also plays the Wall.

The play within a play is wonderfully bad and the wall is handled beautifully with flowing garments and an interesting kind of “chink.”

This is an uneven production, but the good far outweighs the less good. In the less good category is the set by Anna Katherine Mantz. A large box sits in the middle of the stage and has no real discernible practical reason for being there, other than as a perch for Puck (Jason Oler) from time to time, and makes the rest of the stage seem crowded. It does open up to allow for action to take place inside, but it seems intrusive.

STC audience favorites Campbell and Miller raise any production a notch higher and this is no exception. Campbell is at his best as Quince, trying desperately to direct a production of “Pyramus and Thisbe” to be presented later to King Thesius (Thomas, who also plays Oberon, the king of the fairies).

Miller is Bottom, the egotistical would-be actor, who wants to play all the roles, because he knows that he can do each better than anybody else. (His instructions for how to play a lion are very funny.) When Puck turns him into a donkey, a simple cap-like piece is used rather than a full head mask, giving Titania the opportunity to have a lot of suggestive fun with the ears.

No program credit is given for incidental music, which occasionally blends nicely with the action on stage, but more often than not is intrusive and, during the intermission, downright annoying.

The fairies finally undo all the mischief they caused, and Puck offers amends to the other characters, and apologizes to the audience for anything that might have offended. This weak and idle theme was no more yielding than a dream.

Tribute

“Tribute” by Bernard Slade — perhaps better known for the play “Same Time Next Year” and his work in television productions such as “Bewitched,” “The Flying Nun” and “The Partridge Family” — is rarely performed, and it’s a shame. It’s a gem of a play, nicely balancing comedy with tragedy and leaving the audience feeling both good and sad at the end.

Director Dean Shellenberger has brought this play to the Woodland Opera House, and what a gift he has given to theatergoers of this area.

“Tribute” is a seven-person play that rises or falls on the character of Scottie Templeton, a man who is the person Murray of “A Thousand Clowns” would be if he were in his 50s. He has squandered his life and has ruined two marriages. He’s a Broadway press agent who can make anyone like him, but is so happy-go-lucky, he can’t take anything seriously.

But, we like Scottie for the same reason his friends like him — he’s totally charming, he loves life and he refuses to think of the negative. If the actor isn’t believably charming, the play would fall on its face.

Actor Bob Cooner is delightful, charming, lovable and frustrating all at once. Along with his ex-wife Maggie (Julie Bock) and best friend Lou (Walt Thompson), we roll our eyes at yet another dumb mistake Scottie has made.

The play begins at a tribute for Scottie, held in a theater because what other place would be large enough to hold all of his friends? Scottie, you see, was diagnosed with end-stage leukemia. The doctor (Georgann Wallace) says he has just a few months to live. The play follows his acceptance of the diagnosis and his attempt to establish a relationship with his adult son, Jud (Brent Randolph) with whom he has never been able to bond.

Randolph is suitably uptight and self-absorbed, a young man filled with anger who somehow — as the play progresses — begins to break down the walls he has been hiding behind for all of his life.

Maggie is the heart of the play, with her continuing love for Scottie (though apparently she is happily re-married), taking care of him as she would a child, with the overtones of a satisfactory sex life behind them.

Lou is the continuing thread through the play, who hosts the tribute and always seems to turn up when Scottie needs his friend. Walt Thompson is as likeable as Lou as Cooner is as Scottie.

Other characters who fill out the play include Leasa Talmadge as Salley, Scottie’s latest female acquaintance, whom he tries to set up with Jud, feeling the young man needs a woman in his life. Talmadge wears the most beautiful red costume of the play, designed by Denise Miles.

Jen Smuda-Cotter is Hilary, an ex-hooker and longtime friend of Scottie.

Wallace is that rare creature — a doctor who makes house calls. She is a gruff doctor, whose affection for Scottie can’t be denied and who desperately tries to get him to agree to take the treatment that could prolong his life.

Set design is by John Bowles, a two-level apartment big enough to hold a grand piano. The one thing I love about Woodland sets is they are all so solid. When someone slams a door in this play (which happens often), there isn’t a single tremor through the rest of the set … it’s as solid as your own house. The “tribute” portion of the play takes place in front of a curtain that is lowered in front of the apartment set.

This is a play with lots of chuckles throughout, though the audience is never far from thinking about the meaning of life and how one makes one’s mark in the world.

The Opera House was less than half full on opening night, which I felt was terribly sad because this is a good play and the performances are outstanding. I hope more people will turn out to see it during the remainder of its run.

Flash

“Flash: A New Choreography” is the latest work created and choreographed by Qudus Onikeku, UC Davis Granada Artist-in-Residence and preeminent performance artist known for his Yoruba culture-based choreography that fuses together movement philosophies of hip-hop, capoeira and Nigerian masquerade tradition.

Onikeku’s poetic and multidisciplinary attempt to present painful memories runs through Sunday at the Main Theatre in  Wright Hall at UCD.

“All my work as a creative artist has been a series of possibilities of responding to issues that affect me primarily, and those that affect the permanent human values which I defend,” Onikeku said. “I know that my audience is not particularly concerned with these matters before coming to the theater, so it then becomes my responsibility to find other interesting and spectacular ways of reaching out and communicating.”

Onikeku grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, where survival of the fittest was the rule, “the continual crushing of one another, killings and lust for power.”

“How can we live with love in our hearts, with laughter and joy, when there have been and continue to be inhuman cruelties and murders committed every second of every day?” he asked.

“Flash” is not an uplifting work, but it is one that will profoundly affect the audience. The stage is bare, covered with black soil and fabric panels running around the outside. There is a cast of one narrator (Lindsey Beamish) and 10 dancers: Cynthia Arellanes, Mary Ann Brooks, Nicole Casado, Zach Heinzer, Mariah Heller, Hien Huynh, Manami Ii, Maribel Lopez, Jake Parkhurst and David Shih.

The 10 work as an ensemble, within which each dancer is encouraged to create his or her own character that integrates into the whole. Onikeu’s approach is innovative since he integrates improvisational and choreographic techniques. He also works with character and draws out the unique genius of each performer.
Beginning with the “nothingness” that is the world and the “spark” that creates the flash that directs the play, the narrator sets emotional scenes, to which the dancers react. In the first scene, for example, the narrator is describing the murder of a mother and her child as witnessed and, in some sense directed, by her son. It is a tale that doubles you over in pain and the pain is elaborately expressed by the dancers.

There is one brief “happy dance,” where the dancers rejoice in their lives, only to have the horror of their situation brought home to then again.

Brooks is spotlighted as she expresses her own pain eloquently. “I have been challenged as a performer — dancing from the inside out and not controlling the dance but letting the dance have its own life,” she said. “As dancers, we’re taught to control our movements, yet Qudus is teaching us how to allow the dance to develop and become something larger than us and our habitual dancing patterns.”

A girl carrying cheeses home for her mother comes upon a group of refugees, obviously starving, and she tries to share her cheese with them, until threatened by soldiers to move on or join the group.

The final scene graphically represents carnage, as a machete-wielding soldier attacks the people of a village. Anyone who has seen “Hotel Rwanda,” or has followed the carnage taking place in many African countries, will find the story familiar. As the machete came down again and again and again, I was reminded of our friend Victor, a refugee from the carnage taking place in then-Zaire. One night a police car stopped in our driveway and Victor was terrified. Later, he told us “when the police come to your house in Zaire, it is to kill you.”

I pictured Victor and his family as I watched the finale of this powerful work. Onikeku had brought that very real scenario of my friend to life for me and I felt changed by it.

Following opening night, there was a question-and-answer session and one dancer summed up the experience very well, saying that it was “an interesting journey of self-discovery.”

Whether on stage or in the audience, I suspect everyone will leave Wright Hall having been on their own journey of self-discovery, with greater awareness of what is going on in the world around us.

Nunsense

 

Dan Goggin apparently enjoyed his Catholic school upbringing so much that he decided to honor those wacky nuns of whom he was so fond. He penned a cabaret show called “The Nunsense Story,” which opened for a four-day run and was so popular it was extended to 38 weeks.

Encouraged, he expanded his original concept into a full-length comedy called “Nunsense,” which opened off-Broadway and ran for an unbelievable 10 years, the second longest running off-Broadway show (second only to “The Fantasticks”). By the time it ended its run, it had been translated into 26 different languages and had seen more than 8,000 productions worldwide.

It spawned a whole industry for Goggin, with (so far) five sequels to the original production. The Winters Community Theatre presented the third of these, “Nuncrackers, the Nunsense Christmas Musical,” in 2002 and now it is bringing the original to the stage.

“Nunsense” is a great show for community theater. There are only five in the cast (six, if you count Sister Mary Melody — Debi Bowen, who plays the piano accompaniment), there are no costume changes, and the set can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it.

What it does require is five talented actresses who can sing, dance and deliver corny old jokes and get the audience to laugh (or audibly groan) every time. Winters has found these actresses.

The story involves the Little Sisters of Hoboken — who once worked in a leper colony in the south of France — who are now living in New Jersey, after having been ousted by Protestant missionaries

While several of the sisters were out playing bingo with a bunch of Maryknolls, their cook, Sister Julia, Child of God (that’s one of the groaners) accidentally poisons 52 of the nuns with her tainted vichyssoise. The remaining sisters managed to bury all but four of the departed when they ran out of money and discovered that the Mother Superior took some of the money raised to buy a flat-screen TV.  So the four remaining are being kept in the freezer (“blue nuns,” you might say) and the health department is beating at their door.

They have decided to put on a show to raise the rest of the money so they can finally bury their fellow sisters … and thus is the set-up for the rest of the show.

This may be one of the strongest shows I have seen at Winters in a long time, due in large part to the addition of Mary Young, a longtime favorite of Davis Musical Theatre Company audiences, making her Winters debut in this production as Mother Superior Mary Regina, a former circus performer who can’t resist the spotlight. She is a delight to watch.

If you have been raised in Catholic schools, you may find several of your old teachers in the cast, as I did. Sister Mary Hubert is a dead ringer for my old home economics teacher, and I enjoyed Christine Beamer’s performance very much. It doesn’t hurt that she also was a knockout in DMTC’s recent “Follies.” Hubert is the director of novices and aspires to be Superior. Her “Holier than Thou” is the show-stopper of the evening.

When Mother Superior is detained after an Act 1 incident (Young as you’ve never seen her before), Sister Robert Ann (Eleanor Yeatman), the show’s understudy, seizes the moment to reminisce about her childhood at St. Claire’s Catholic School, a beautiful, poignant song about the changes in the modern church. It is a stand-out moment for Yeatman.

Joanie Bryant is the novice, Sister Mary Leo. She is very sweet and wants to be the first ballerina nun. I’m not sure what the Little Sisters are doing with a Daughter of Charity cornette, but Mary Leo dons the headpiece and dances for all the world like The Flying Nun.

Rounding out the gang of five is Sister Amnesia (Linda Glick), who can’t remember who she is but who ultimately comes up with the solution for the burial of the blue nuns just in the nick of time.

The material is dated, some is mildly offensive (I didn’t like the song about the leper colony) and the jokes are corny, but the show is a delight, sure to please anyone, no matter what their religion.

Beauty and the Beast

There were a lot of sleepy little princesses leaving the Sacramento Community Center Theater on opening night of “Beauty and the Beast.”  This is a sure-fire kid pleaser and, given the number of people in the audience without children in tow, it is equally enjoyable for kids of all ages.

It’s a tale as old as time:  She’s the daughter of the crazy old town inventor, ridiculed by the townsfolk for her bookishness and her dreams of finding her prince charming.  He’s a prince with a curse on his head, hiding his hideous form away in a creepy old castle, feared by the townsfolk because he’s “different.”   The two outcasts find each other, fall in love, and live happily ever after.

The touring company of the Tony award-winning “Beauty and the Beast,” directed by Rob Roth, is a big, bold, opulent production that had everyone totally captivated.  The man behind me was a big, loud laugher and I wondered if he’d ever attended a theatrical production before.

Director Roth has managed to tell the simple love story with just enough glitz to keep it moving crisply and always entertaining, but never detracting from the message of seeing truth beneath physical appearance, or discovering the redemptive power of love.

“Beauty and the Beast” was last on the CMT stage in 2000, and was the first show I reviewed, so I have a soft spot in my heart for the show.  But there have been some changes over the years.  Primarily I missed the increasingly intricate costumes of the household staff as they come closer and closer to becoming permanent pieces of household furniture. Other than Cogsworth, the clock, acquiring a wind-up key, there was no change in any of the other costumes. 

I was also disappointed to note that if you didn’t know that “Babette” was supposed to be a feather duster, you would be hard pressed to figure that out, based on her costume.  But those are small complaints.

“Beauty and the Beast” is a technician’s dream, from the lavish sets by Stanley A. Meyer which flew in from above, rolled in from the wings, swivelled on turntables or just hung there looking every bit like the real thing..  And then there were the special effects--candles which ignited at a moment’s notice, sparkles, flashes, strobe lights, a headless kid who didn’t develop legs until the finale, and a transformation from Beast to Prince that would have done David Copperfield proud.

The lighting of Natalie Katz, however, was often too dark and made it difficult to see what was going on on stage. (If I didn’t know how Gaston met his end, I would not have been able to tell from what I could see on stage).  Likewise, the sound of John Petrafesa, Jr., needed serious tweaking.  Many of the conversations between Belle and the Beast were unable to be heard over the orchestra.

Hilary Maiberger is delicious as Belle, the spunky heroine, who, to save her father’s life, agrees to live in the castle of the Beast forever.  Maiberger is not only a beautiful singer, but no slouch in the dancing department either.

Darick Pead as the Beast is fierce and then endearingly tender as his love for Belle grows. His “If I can’t love her” was beautifully poignant.

 Joe Hager, as the town hunk, Gaston, the muscle-bound fool who is determined to marry Belle, swaggers onto the stage like a combination of Jethro Clampet and Li’l Abner.  He’s the villain you love to hate, and as male chauvinists go, none can hold a candle to this Gaston. 

His hapless foil, Maurice (Jimmy Larkin) was a delight, with a body made of rubber as he is routinely whacked about the stage by Gaston.

The supporting players are a marvelous collection of cartoonesque characters. Cogsworth (James May) the fussbudget clock and  Lumiere, the Candlestick holder (Hasan Nazari-Robati) nearly steal the show with their antics and groaners like “You’ve cut me to the wick...”  They are balanced nicely by Erin Edelle, as Mrs. Potts, the teapot, along with her son Chip (played on opening night by Gabriel L. Reis).  (There is a nice bit where Mrs. Potts carries her son on a tray across the stage.)

There are some gems in the smaller rolls, particularly Jessica Lorion as Babette, the feather duster, and Shani Hadhan as Madame de la Grande Bouche.  Taylor D. Colleton, Amanda Grace Holt and Stephanie Moskai as the three silly girls swooning for Gaston are likewise delightful.

The score by Alan Menken and lyrics by the late Howard Ashman, from a book by  Linda Woolverton, will be familiar to anyone who has seen the Disney animated feature that was the basis for this show.  There are six new songs added for the stage, with lyrics by Tim Rice, plus another song (“Human Again”) with lyrics by Ashman, which was cut from the movie.

Choreography by Matt West is a delight.  It’s not easy to design for dancing pieces of furniture, but West does well and the familiar “Be Our Guest” is a show-stopper.  Lesser known musically, “Gaston,” a drinking song with intricate moves involving beer steins, is absolutely fabulous, and perhaps my favorite number in the show.

This show will make anyone believe that miracles do happen, people can live happily ever after, and that inner beauty can tame the beast.

Urinetown

It is highly unlikely that when the Davis Musical Theatre Company was choosing its spring show for 2013, there was any reason to believe that at the same time the city of Davis would be embroiled in a discussion over water. Nor was there any reason to believe that — facing sequestration — the U.S. Department of the Interior would issue a statement threatening to lock all bathrooms in national parks if massive budget cuts take place.

But that is what is happening in the real world, while in the DMTC theater audiences are howling uproariously at Mark Hollmann’s and Greg Kotis’ musical “Urinetown,” a show that takes place in some dystopian society were water is at a premium, private bathrooms are outlawed and all citizens must pay to pee. The authors explain that this is “theater of the absurd, not absurd theater.”

Director Steve Isaacson calls it “the show with the worst title in Broadway history but one of the funniest shows.”

For a show with the worst title in Broadway history, this little musical has done well for itself. It was nominated for 10 Tony Awards, and won best book, score and direction. It also won the Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle awards for Best Musical. It ran 965 performances at the Henry Miller Theatre, closing only because the producers were notified that the theater was being torn down.

For Isaacson, it had long been a dream to bring “Urinetown” to the Davis Musical Theatre Company ever since he first saw it on Broadway. Now his dream has become reality and the decision was an excellent one. This is a fun show from start to finish, with a strong cast who are each perfect for their roles.

Starting the show is Tev Ditter as Officer Lockstock, whose partner is Officer Barrel (Steve Mo). Ditter is square-jawed and steely eyed, someone you expect to have just walked off the pages of a Dick Tracy cartoon. Lockstock is the narrator of the show, telling the story to Little Sally. The two make fun of both the show and of musical theater.

Little Sally (Cassie March), a street kid, wise beyond her years, warns people that this is not a happy musical, but Lockstock knows that, as narrator, nothing bad can happen to him.

Private toilets have been outlawed, and now the public must pay to use the restroom. These public amenities are run by corporate giant UGC (Urine Good Company), headed by the evil Caldwell B. Cladwell (Richard Spierto).

If citizens relieve themselves in public or refuse to pay the fee, they are sent off to the dreaded Urinetown, a secret place that Lockstock promises the audience will be revealed in Act 2.

Bobby Strong (an impressive performance by Joshua Smith), is the janitor at the poorest, dirtiest facility in the worst part of town, run by Penny Pennywise. Strong decides to start a revolution after his father, Old Man Strong (Adam Sartain), is arrested for urinating in the street when he has no money to pay to use the facilities.

Pennywise is played by Andrea Eve Thorpe, showing once again the breadth of her talent, playing a harsh, cruel penny-pincher who is hiding her own secret.

This show parodies such Broadway classics as “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Les Miserables” and “West Side Story” (among others), a triumph for choreographer Pamela Lourentzos, who hits her peak with the “Cop Song” and the Act 1 finale, both of which are stunning (and hilarious).

Costume designer Jean Henderson, whose costume design is always wonderful, hits highest marks with the “Fiddler on the Roof” spoof.

(The problem with reviewing this show is that a big part of the fun are the surprises that pop up, and I don’t want to give anything away!)

Despite the title, this show is a gem with an excellent story and songs, performed beautifully by the DMTC cast under Isaacson’s direction.

Tis Pity She's a Whore

I find myself on the horns of a dilemma about Studio 301′s production of “Tis Pity She’s a Whore,” playing at the UC Davis Science and Lecture Hall on Hutchison Drive.

While the performers were — for the most part — quite good, it was perhaps the directorial decisions of Mitchell van Landingham and the rudeness of the audience — who are always prone in these student-run productions to laugh at their friends on stage — that turned this tragedy of incest, out-of-wedlock pregnancy, betrayal, depravity, murder and dismemberment into a rollicking comedy.

It’s not that the humor wasn’t fun, but I don’t think this is what playwright John Ford, who wrote this 17th century classic, had in mind.

There were several confusing things about this production. For one thing, it is set in “Parma, Oklahoma” though Shakespearean-type English is spoken throughout. The set consists of a long clothesline that spans the stage and is hung with sheets and underwear, though absolutely nothing is made of the clothesline and it appears only to separate the audience from “backstage,” and perhaps give the effect of a trailer trash-type environment, which makes the very proper English even more incongruous.

However, the settings are provided by photographs projected on the back wall, everything from a typical Midwestern home, to something looking more like a mansion one might find in Europe, to a brick-lined street that certainly would not be found in Oklahoma (especially since one of the businesses on the street has the word “Wharf” in its name). With the plethora of photographs available on the Internet, certainly something vaguely coherent could have been chosen.

I understand the challenges provided by a very small budget, and there is nothing wrong (nor innovative) about setting a classic piece in modern times, but nothing went together logically in this production and the total effect was jarring.

At the start of the play, Giovanni (Robert Hansen) is confessing his sexual feelings for his sister Annabella (Callie Heyer) with his tutor, Friar Bonaventura (Sarah Cohen), who tries to convince him that these are evil feelings that should be suppressed. Cohen does an excellent job in this pants role and is passionate as the moral voice of the piece … until the Friar himself succumbs to the temptations of the flesh.

Giovanni, unable to suppress his feelings, confesses them to his sister, who in turn confesses her own love for him and in short order, with the encouragement of the girl’s tutor Putana (Wendy Wyatt Mair) — “What though he be your brother? Your brother’s a man, I hope; and I say still, if a young wench feel the fit upon her, let her take any body, father or brother, all is one.” — they consummate their relationship.

Sadly, there is little to no chemistry between these two characters, and when Giovanni first kisses his sister it is with all the passion he might have given to his great-grandmother. In what should be a very erotic scene, we get nothing, and whatever true passion there might be all apparently occurs behind the clothesline.

When Annabella finds herself pregnant, she agrees to marry Soranzo, a nobleman (Skylar Collins). Soranzo is indeed noble, though turns abusive when he discovers he’s been duped.

His servant Vasquez, as performed by Marcos Sastre III, may be the strongest character in the show. Sastre is flamboyant and chews scenery deliciously.

The pregnancy and marriage set off a series of escalating bloodshed and tragedies which, as presented by Studio 301, continue to inspire giggles and guffaws from the audience. This is not really helped by the fact that the fatal knife work at the end of the play seems to have been accomplished by a number of Boy Scout knives.

Strong performances are given by Ting Jung Lee, as Hippolita, Sastre’s rejected lover, and Alyssa Parsons, as Florio, the siblings’ mother.

If director van Landingham intended to make light of Ford’s tragedy, he succeeded, and the result was enjoyed by the audience, though I suspect the playwright would not have approved.

The North Plan

I have watched, with great pleasure, the development of Katie Rubin as a performer, since I first saw her in "The Laramie Project" at UCD back in 2004. I have watched her grow as an actor, a very funny comedienne, and a master of physical comedy.

Her talents serve her well in the hilariously funny comedy, "The North Plan" now at Capital Stage in Sacramento. The show is directed by Peter Mohrmann, who obviously has a great sense of comic timing and a flare for creating tension.

The show starts with Rubin as Tanya Shepke, in a holding cell of a small town in So. Missouri. Tanya turned herself in for driving drunk and was immediately arrested on several outstanding warrants, and she is furious because she feels she should be applauded for doing the right thing and turning herself in in the first place.

In her opening monologue, and brief verbal interactions with jail attendant Shonda Cox (Alexandra Barthel), Rubin is at her best, her body language and facial features eloquently complementing her continuing rant against the officer who arrested her.

Barthel is perfectly cast as Shonda, giving her character the personna of the stereotypical underpaid, unappreciated civil servant, bored with her job, fed up with prisoners like Tanya and completely unsympathetic to anything Tanya might have to say. Barthel takes it to the next level in Act 2, where she battles her scruples beautifully and displays her own expertise at comedy.

Into this scene comes Chief Swenson (Harry Harris) with prisoner Carlton Berg (Cassidy Brown), a political dissident arrested on orders from Homeland Security. It is Carlton’s rants which set the stage for the meat of the show.

Harris gives us an Andy Griffith kind of sheriff, a good man at heart who wants to do the right thing, but doesn't quite know what the right thing is.

The program explains that "The North Plan" refers to a secret military contingency plan titled Readiness Exercise 1984, co-authored by Oliver North and designed to test the federal government’s ability to suspend the Constitution, declare martial law, and detain large numbers of American citizens deemed to be "national security threats."

Playwright Jason Wells says that he had been thinking about "the hyperbolic political climate of recent years"and the possibility for a military coup. The play is the result of his machinations, set in a time when all civil liberties have been suspended in the name of "homeland security."

Carlton, a State Department employee, has apparently stolen "the data base of data bases," which profiles the membership of every organization the provisional government doesn’t trust. He also has the Enemies list, the names of everyone who is going to start making those whom they think are a threat to their new government disappear.

"They’re arresting people. They’re re-censoring the media. The army is surrounding major cities."

Carlton hopes to enlist either Shonda’s help or Tanya’s help to get the information out of his computer in the evidence room and get it to his friend in Houston, who apparently will know what to do with it. This is the premise of this comedy and sets off a lot of very funny situations.

Brown as Carlton is very intense. He’s a man who knows his life is at risk, who feels he can save the country and who is desperate to find someone who will help him.

The Homeland Security team of Dale Pittman (William Elsman) and Bob Lee (Andrew Perez) could not have been better cast. The very tall Elsman has a sneer that is certain to chill the soul, and Perez is a fraction of his height and very intimidated, though determined to get credit for his part of the action.

Pittman is ready (and apparently eager) to torture and kill for the new government, as long as he has official permission to do so, so he can’t be faulted for it. His zeal matches Carlton’s, but his ambition is greater.

Capitol Stage has posted an word about gun violence in the play. "While ‘The North Plan’ is not a play about guns, the use of firearms in Act Two is central to the play’s story line. When this title was selected in the spring of 2012, none of us anticipated the tragic shootings that our nation, and more recently our city, would experience." The group invites interested audience members to attend the performances on February 3, 7, and 17 to discuss the play with the artists and other audience members.

The Undoing of Prudencia Hart

Can an evening possibly go wrong when it starts out with Celtic music played on the uilleann pipe — the smaller cousin to the bagpipe? I think not.

“The Undoing of Prudencia Hart” is a gift to the audience by the National Theater of Scotland, now playing at Mondavi’s Vanderhoef Theater through Sunday. It was a big hit at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, so you knew right off that it was not going to be your run of the mill play.

And it wasn’t.

For starters, the audience members were taken in, about 10 at a time, to give guides inside an opportunity to explain how the evening would go.

The theater seats were gone, in their place, tables and chairs had been set up to simulate a Scottish pub. A bar was placed along one wall, where free “wee drams” of Scotch whiskey were being served. (Another free “wee dram” would be offered at intermission, along with finger sandwiches passed around by the ushers.)

Our guide explained that it was open seating and that it wasn’t important to sit near the stage, since the actors would be using the entire room as the play progressed.

The actors (Annie Grace, Melody Grove, Alasdair Macrae, Paul McCole and David McKay) passed among the tables, explaining that we were supposed to tear the paper napkins given to us into small bits to be used as snow later in the show.

As the action began, there were two problems with the show. The lack of microphones made much of the dialog (which, when we could understand it, was very clever verse) difficult to hear, made more difficult by the heavy Scottish accents. But understanding every word was not necessary to the enjoyment of the evening.

The story of the writing of the script for this show is almost as entertaining as the show itself. It came out of an experience by writer David Grieg, director Wils Wilson and composer Alasdair Macrae, when they visited a pub while researching the Border Ballads for the show. It was the coldest winter in Scotland in many years and they were so comfortable in the pub that nobody wanted the evening to end, so they locked the pub doors and sat around all evening telling story after story. Out of one of those stories (said to be 110 percent true) came the story of Prudencia Hart.

Prudencia (Grove) is an academic, an expert on ballads, literature and “the topography of hell.” She is en route to a conference in the border town of Kelso, driving through a snowstorm to get to a professional meeting. The entire cast gathers around Pru to form a car, with flashlights for headlights and, most clever, the use of a violin bow as a windshield wiper, while tossing bits of napkin bits for the snow.

After much verbal sparring between Pru and her fellow academics, she is trapped in a pub with her nemesis Collin Syme (Clark), where the whiskey flows and inhibitions dissolve as the lights go out, leaving the pub in complete darkness, a problem very cleverly solved by the cast.

Ultimately Pru tears herself away and goes out into the night in search of a B&B and finds herself, instead, in hell.

After the intermission, Act 2 seems like a different play, much more sedate, much easier to follow, and initially lacking the free-wheeling antics of Act 1. Hell, Pru discovers is far more entertaining than she ever imagined — at least for the first few millennia.

Ultimately, however, the lure of “every book that was ever written and even those that have not been written yet” loses its appeal and she finds herself popping up to watch the grass grow in the cracks of the Costco parking lot instead. She decides she wants to return to her non-dead life. She attempts to trick Satan (McKay) into rhyming with her (using the language of love and humanity) to get him to take pity on her and allow her to return to her old life. McKay’s response to his inability to stop rhyming is very funny.

There is a bit of the Orpheus mythology about Pru’s attempts to escape, and the attacks on her would-be rescuer, Collin, are hilarious.

The fun of this show is not necessarily in the plot, but in the ensemble, the music, the hijinks. It is a unique piece of theater, and easy to see why this was a sell-out at the fringe festival and has been a sell-out wherever it plays.

Rock of Ages

At its core, “Rock of Ages,” now at the Sacramento Community Center Theater, is a simple story — boy meets girl, boy loses girl, girl becomes stripper, boy becomes rock star, mean landlord threatens to destroy legendary nightclub, everybody learns that if they “don’t stop believing,” all will live happily ever after, with arms waved in the air in the manner of a last act finale.

(Parents should note that there is more butt sniffing, crotch scratching and simulated sex than you’d find in “Bark the Musical” at Sacramento Theater Company, along with lots of one-finger salutes, cigarette smoking and skimpy costumes. So if you intend to take your kids to show them what the rock scene was like in your day, you might want to take that into consideration.)

The always muddled sound system of the Community Center Theater made following the very thin, yet apparently convoluted plot all but impossible. However, when you add the music of iconic rockers such as Journey, Styx, REO Speedwagon, Foreigner, Pat Benatar, Whitesnake and many more (some 28 classic rock tunes of the ’80s are woven into the story, much the way ABBA songs form the basis for the plot of “Mamma Mia”), the “simple story” becomes a lively, ear-splitting trip down rock-and-roll memory lane that delighted the Sacramento audience.

Directed by Tony Award nominee Kristin Hanggi and choreographed by Kelly Devine, “Rock of Ages” is a multi-award-nominated musical (five Tonys, two Drama League Awards, two Outer Critics Circle awards).
Heading the cast is Lonny (Justin Colombo), who serves as the show’s narrator and keeps the interaction with the audience going. Colombo is heavy smoking and crass, as the role requires.

Danny McHugh is Drew, working as a busboy in the legendary Sunset Strip club, The Bourbon Room, owned by Dennis (Jacob L. Smith). Drew has dreams becoming a rock star and spends his spare time writing songs, hoping for his big break someday.

Sherrie (Shannon Mullen) is a wide-eyed, innocent young girl just arrived from Kansas with stars in her eyes, hoping to become an actress. She and Drew become instant friends when Drew helps her get a job at The Bourbon Room.

Their friendship is affected when Sherrie decides she “wants to know what love is” and has sex in the men’s bathroom with Stacee Jaxx (Universo Pereira), lead singer for the group Arsenal, who not only promptly dumps her, but insists she be fired from the club or he will refuse to perform.

With nowhere to go, Sherrie is taken in by Justice (Amma Osei), owner of a strip club, who teaches Sherrie the moves.

In the meantime, German developers Hertz (Phillip Peterson) and his son Franz (Stephen Michael Kane) want to introduce “clean living” to the Sunset Strip and plan to demolish The Bourbon Room.

This sets off a protest led by Regina (Megan McHugh) — emphasis is made that the character’s name rhymes with a female body part — who spends her time chained together with her fellow protesters marching up back and forth across the stage with their protest signs.

The playing out of the various plot lines in Act 2 is merely an opportunity for performing several well-known classic songs (“Anyway You Want It,” “I Hate Myself for Loving You,” “Hit Me with Your Best Shot,” “Every Rose has a Thorn,” “Oh Sherrie,” among others), and of course, The Bourbon Room is spared, the Germans have a change of heart, Franz gets to fulfill his dreams of owning a candy store, Sherrie and Drew reconcile (“The Search is Over”), Dennis passes on and becomes an angel and everyone realizes that the dreams you start with are not always the dreams you end up with, but they still rock (“Don’t Stop Believin’”).

It’s all very silly, but you go to “Rock of Ages” for the music, not for the story, and those for whom this is the music of their lives will come away satisfied.

Godspell

“Godspell,” the musical based on the parables contained in the Gospel of Matthew, opened at the Woodland Opera House this week, under the direction of Jason Hammond.

“Godspell,” with music by Stephen Schwartz and book by John-Michael Tebelak was first presented in 1970 as Tebelak’s masters project thesis at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. It subsequently had a 10 performance run at La Mama Experimental Theater club in New York, where it caught the eye of producers Edgar Lansbury (brother of Angela) and Joseph Behruh, who hired Steven Schwartz to write a new song score, incorporating a variety of musical styles including pop, folk rock, gospel and vaudeville.

The newly reworked show opened Off-Broadway in 1971 and has been playing around the country ever since, including a 2011 Off-Broadway revival which played from October to June 2012.

Perhaps more than most musicals, this show seems to have a lot of opportunities for different visions, depending on director. A broad, circus-like version received a lot of critical complaint for its irreverence. For director Hammond, keeping the reverence in all the silliness was crucial.

“In all my theater ventures, I keep God center stage; but this show is particularly close to my heart in that I was raised on these parables and hold the teachings to be relevant, powerful guides in my life today,” he said.

There are 12 actors listed in the cast. “Father” (Jerry Stadel) is not seen, but is only a disembodied voice at the start of the show. “Boy” (James Hayakawa) is briefly seen at the start of the show. And Eric Alley, a part of the ensemble, was not able to participate, due to a broken foot, but his part was beautifully sung from the orchestra by musical director James C. Glica-Hernandez. So seamless was the substitution, that it almost seemed as if it had been planned that way.

After a cacophonous opening number by the ensemble representing various philosophers and their philosophies, Matt Taloff as John (and also, later, Judas) starts the actual story, meeting Jesus (Erik Catalan) and baptizing him. Taloff is a powerful presence throughout, and Catalan exudes the peaceful, yet powerful, persona of Jesus. It is easy to see how people want to follow him.

As the parables unfold, each of the cast gets his or her moment to shine, starting with the story of the master forgiving a servant’s debt. Emily O’Flaherty sings “Day by Day,” the only song which really achieved much prominence from this show. It has an almost “Hair” quality about it.

The parable of Lazarus and the Rich man is sung (“Learn Your Lessons Well”) by Emily Delk, who later does a beautiful reprise with Glicia-Hernandez.

Ayesha Thomas rocks the house with the gospel tune “O Bless the Lord, My Soul,” followed by Quentin Carbajal’s “All Good Gifts” to represent the parable of the sower and the seed.

Eimi Taormina reminds the audience of the necessity of turning to God in “Turn Back, Oh Man,” while Hannah Wallace sings a beautiful “By My Side” as the adulteress, whom Jesus rescues.

One of the many lighter moments comes with “We Beseech Thee,” separating the sheep from the goats, sung in vaudeville style by Alex Cesena.

Jesus suffering in the Garden of Gethsemane (“In the Willows”) and subsequent betrayal by Judas and crucifixion was poignantly portrayed by Catalan.

If one wanted to quibble, there are funny bits that might seem sacrilegious (such as the blessing of Goldfish and YooHoo drink at the Last Supper), but this production never loses its reverence for the word of God, and I think Jesus himself might have smiled watching it.

As I left the theater, I couldn’t help but think that if more churches incorporated some of “Godspell” into their services, church attendance might rise.

Bark, The Musical

“Bark, The Musical,” directed by Michael Laun with choreography by Jacob Montoya, is now entertaining audiences on Sacramento Theater Company’s Pollack Stage. A portion of the proceeds will go STC’s partner for this production, the Sacramento SPCA. Adoptable dogs will be on display at some productions, and a poster of dogs up for adoption adorn the lobby.

This show is somewhat of a phenomenon. After making its debut in Los Angeles in 2004, it received rave reviews, ran for two years, and became the third longest running show in Los Angeles history. It ran seven months in Chicago and has played in little theaters all across the country, as well has having had a Portuguese translation for showing in Brazil.

This isn’t exactly the dog-lovers’ answer to “Cats.” The scale is much smaller, and the dog-specific parts of the costumes (by McKayla Butym) are limited to collars, leashes and pads for hands, but it is as earnest as a puppy begging you to love it.

This a show built by committee. The book is by Mark Winkler and Gavin Geoffrey Dillard, music by David Troy Francis, lyrics by Dillard, Winkler and Robert Schrock, with additional lyrics by Jonathan Heath and Danny Lukic.

There are 23 songs that give us a glimpse at life from a dog’s perspective. Titles such as “Whizzin’ on Stuff,” “Fooood!” “Howling Just to Scare Away the Blues,” and “Dirty, Filthy Old Flea Bag” let the audience know immediately what to expect, though it is less clear with songs like “Mighty Mutt from Mars” or “Senorita la Pepita.”

Dog lovers will recognize each of the characters by their breed. King, the Labrador Retriever (Armond Edward Dorsey), is missing his master, who has grown up and gone away to school. He awaits the day when they will be together again. His interpretation of “Dog’s Best Friend” and the later “Grassy Field” are both very emotional, while his story of being neutered was very funny.

Jessica Goldman is listed as Boo, the Cocker Spaniel, but was unable to perform on opening night, so her role was played by Meghan Greene, from STC’s Young Professional’s Conservatory. Greene is a sweet and cuddly cocker spaniel, though her voice did not have the power of her co-stars. She did, however, give a touching rendition of “Pound Song,” telling the story of losing her pups when they were rounded up by the dog catcher.

Golde, the Bull Dog was played by Miranda D. Lawson. Golde is the comedian of the group, always with a cynical, sardonic aside. Her depiction of a dog wearing a neck cone is hilarious.

Tyler Wipfli is Chanel, the French Poodle. Owned by a gay couple and dressed in pink and feathers, Chanel’s favorite time of the week is when she and one of her owners listen to opera together. Her song “Il Cane Dell’Opera” was one of the highlights of the show, and displays her musical training (she is a Music Theater major, studying voice at Oklahoma City University).

Sean Patrick Nill plays Sam, the Pit Butt Mutt. He and King vie for yard superiority. His “M-U-T-T Rap” is another highlight, which lists just about every breed in the book, comparing them to plain vanilla mutts.

Rocks, the Jack Russell pup is played by a “please love me!” Scottie Woodard, so eager to please and a continually wagging tail. Rocks presents the only real “story” of the evening, trying to learn how to bark, and getting lessons from the older dogs.

The dogs remind us that their needs are simple — a handful of kibble, fresh water, a loving hand to pet them, and a place to call home. “Bark” is a reminder to go home and give our pets a scratch behind the ears and a tummy rub and let them know how glad we are that they are in our lives.

And if you have no dog in your life currently, the SPCA will be happy to help you find your own forever friend at one of the performances.

Radium Girls

I am continually amazed that Acme Theatre Company, whose young members spend a maximum of three, possibly four years, performing with the group before moving on to college, continue to present some of the most professional theatrical productions around.

The company also continues to present shows that make us laugh and think, and especially leave us with topics to talk about, topics that may have a historical context, but that are relevant even today.

“Radium Girls,” by D.W. Gregory, covers one of those topics. At the dawn of the 20th century, according to program notes, radium was full of glowing promise and represented the bright potential of scientific progress. The Curies were celebrities and radium’s fantastical healing properties were an overnight sensation. Radium-infused toothpaste, hair creams, medicinal waters and make-up were made quickly available to the public.

In 1917, the U.S. Radium Corp. opened a factory in Orange, N.J., and began hiring young women to paint the small, glowing numbers on watch dials. The job paid well and the work was challenging, but appealing, until the dial-painters began experiencing health problems, which were not properly diagnosed.

When studies linked the strange physical conditions — rotting jaw bones, various cancers, necropsy of extremities — to radium, U.S. Radium Corp. covered up the findings and insisted that their plant was “clean” and presented no danger to the workers.

“Radium Girls” follows the case of three young women — Grace (Camila Biaggi), Kathryn (Eden Tomich) and Irene (Margaret Starbuck) — as they first work for the plant and then, one by one, begin to get ill. After Irene’s death, Grace and Kathryn decide to bring a lawsuit against the plant, and the plot is on.

Grace is the longest-lasting and hardest-fighting of the trio and we watch her character grow throughout the play. Her formal education ended at age 15 and she starts as a naive thing who trusts that her employer will take care of her, but she learns a lot along the way and ends up much stronger for it. It is a beautiful performance by Biaggi.

The play, which is staged at the Pamela Trokanski Performing Arts Center on Del Rio Place (a perfect venue for Acme!), is directed by Maddy Ryen and includes eight actors, six of whom play many different roles. There is not a weak performance in the lot.

Will Kingscott is the other actor playing only one role, that of Arthur Roeder, the president of U.S. Radium Corp., torn between his drive to lead his company and to deny any responsibility for the girls’ illnesses, and his deeply embedded desire to be a good guy. We want to hate him, but Kingscott makes us feel the character’s dilemma. In the courtroom, and later at the cemetery, he is so guilt-ridden that he cannot look Grace in the eye.

In addition to playing Irene, Starbuck also appears as Kathryn Wiley, the lawyer whose determination kept the suit active but who, in the end, uses the girls for her own group’s purposes almost as much as their employer does.

Miki Benson and Wil Forkin are perfect as the newspaper reporters hungry for every gruesome detail about the girls’ illnesses and giddy with delight when some new tragedy befalls them. They are too sadly reminiscent of the paparazzi, celebrity reporters and talking heads of today.

Forkin also plays Grace’s long-suffering, devoted boyfriend, Tom, who stands by her through the early days of what ultimately will be her fatal illness.

Antonio De Loera-Brust is both Von Sochocky, the man who originally founded U.S. Radium and who developed the radium paint that is killing the workers, and the attorney who represents the corporation in the lawsuit, who attempts to buy the girls’ silence with a fairly low settlement offer.

In smaller roles are Katy Zaragoza-Smith, Brian Stewart and Matt Fyhrie, all of whom deliver the goods for their many characters.

Kudos also to whoever had the idea of using radiation green to light the back of the stage during scene changes!

Despite the depressing topic, there are some lighter moments that break the tension, but ultimately there can be no happy ending.

Director Ryen has created a tightly woven production that should remind all of us how little practices have changed in the business world today, as far too many corporations still value profits over the welfare of their workers.

Follies

The setting for Stephen Sondheim’s “Follies” is a run-down theater, so pretty much any theatrical group, with or without a large budget, can do it! A Broadway production can add glitz for the flashback scenes, but basically any stage can be given the run-down look.

The costumes must be spectacular, those for the former glamorous stars returning to their old theater for one last hurrah before it is to be destroyed and made into a parking lot, and especially for the flashbacks to their former days, but when you have someone like Jeanne Henderson, Davis Musical Theatre Company’s faithful costumer, it’s a no-brainer.

What you must have, however, is a stellar cast of principal-quality voices and, to his credit, director Steve Isaacson has managed to assemble just that for DMTC’s current production.

The story is pretty simple — the old stars having one big reunion and reliving their former glory days. The tension comes between two couples, Buddy and Sally, and Benjamin and Phyllis. Two chorus girls dating two admirers, and later marrying, with problems in both marriages. The unfolding revelations are at the heart of the action.

Sally (Lenore Sebastian) has “run away” despite Buddy’s (Rand Martin) edict that she should not attend the reunion. Buddy follows her. Sally still has the magic in her eyes as she sees the theater again. Sebastian has two knock-out numbers with “In Buddy’s Eyes,” talking about the love her husband has for her, and “Losing My Mind,” where she is furious that she has wasted the past 30 years obsessed with a man who has never loved her and never will.

Martin as Buddy, a character reminiscent of “Chicago’s” Amos Hart, brings down the house with “The-God-Why-Don’t-You-Love-Me-Blues.”

Phyllis (Allison Lizzi) married Benjamin (John Haine), a successful politician and businessman. The two travel in elite circles, but things are not as they seem, as we learn in Act Two, as Phyllis sings the acerbic “Could I Leave You?”

Many of the actors are “shadowed” by younger members of themselves. Caitlin Martin and Thomas Eredia, as Sally and Buddy, and Michele Guerrieri and David “Turtle” Akona as Phyllis and Ben, were excellent choices, acting the scenes among the four in their younger years.

But the real soul of the work is when the former show girls relive their big moments in the days when they were working for the womanizing Dimitri Weismann (Gil Sebastian).

All are wonderful, but the surprising stand-out is Jan Isaacson as Hattie Walker, a “Broadway Baby,” the one who never achieved her dreams, but kept on slugging away “pounding 42nd Street to be in a show.” This is Isaacson’s finest hour. The beaming smile on her face and the thunderous applause that followed her unique interpretation of the song told the story. Bravo, Jan!

Mary Young, longtime DMTC diva, who has not had a real “meaty” role in a while, was also in her element as Carlotta Campion, singing “I’m Still Here,” proving that she is, indeed, still here.

Stella Deams (Christine Deamer) gets the whole troupe up dancing together to “Who’s That Woman,” shadowed by a chorus line of tap-dancing young women.

The always-wonderful Marguerite Morris as Heidi gives a moving rendition of “One Last Kiss,” shadowed by Christina Gross as Young Heidi, who perfectly mimicked all of Morrison’s movements as well.
Chris Cay Stewart as Solange LaFitte, pushing her beauty product line, sings “Ah, Paris!” to great effect, while Rick Faiola and Barbara Ann Checceti as Vincent and Vanessa, who now teach dancing at an Arthur Murray-like school, do a sweet “Bolero d’Amour.”

Musical director Adam Sartain does double duty as Roscoe Whitman, the man who always sang those “Beautiful Girls” down the staircase to make their entrance. He ultimately married chorus girl Emily (Monica Parisi).

This is a show about youthful enthusiasm and middle-aged regrets mixed together with nostalgia and cynicism, a recipe for a hearty evening of entertainment.