KSDS Jazz 88
Your Connection To The Arts In San Diego
Funding for "Pat Launer, Center Stage", is provided by the Elaine Lipinsky Family Foundation.
A theater production is like a jigsaw puzzle. There are myriad little pieces that have to fit together just right, in order to form a compelling picture. There’s the text, casting, direction, design, performances, pace and timing, character development and innumerable unseen details.
Alas, a less-than-perfect final image appears in two local productions, both Asian-themed and well-intentioned.
“BFE” is the short-form of an off-color colloquial expression about being stuck in the middle of nowhere. It’s also the title of a 2005 play by Julia Cho, an overstuffed tragicomedy about the blonde bombshell beauty myth and the agonies of teenage insecurity, outsider status and low self-esteem.
Panny comes from a delusional, dysfunctional family. Her mother, an alcoholic, narcissistic agoraphobic, offers Panny plastic surgery for her 14th birthday, so she can “fix” her bridgeless Asian nose or slanted eyes. Panny’s devoted uncle Lefty is something of a geek, socially inept and fixated on his tiny Dungeons and Dragons figurines. Each of these lonely, pathetic characters gets an unsuccessful or inappropriate love-interest. But hovering over all is a serial killer who, like most everyone else in Panny’s suffocating universe, prefers blondes.
Asian American Repertory Theatre chose “BFE” for the first production of its one-year residency at the La Jolla Playhouse. It’s a complex piece, filled with cinematically brief scenes and frequently-changing locales. Instead of using different areas of the vast stage at the Shank Theatre on the campus of UCSD, the director and designer created huge, movable abstract set-pieces, which are bulky, cumbersome and significantly slow down the action in what should be an intense, fast-paced comic drama. Some scenes should play a lot funnier, which would be helped by a consistent level of talent and articulatory clarity.
Same goes for “Mozu,” a world premiere by local Steven Oberman, produced under the banner of his TAFFE Productions, Theatre Arts for Fun Education. This is a musical in which several cast members can barely sing. The plot, inspired by a documentary about Japanese snow monkeys, is also about one young female’s misguided self-perception. The play is supposed to focus on one macaque with deformed hands and feet, and how she adapts to her disability. But Mozu’s story is dwarfed by the bigger issues of troop behavior, struggles for dominance and the value of group cohesion. The lessons and morals are very direct and explicit. The music, lyrics and humor, though sophomoric, would be better served by a more uniformly capable cast. The production values are outstanding, though: beautiful Japanese set, costumes, makeup and wigs. The show, pared down to a brisk 60 minutes, would seem to be most suitable for schoolchildren.
There are effective elements and performances in each show. But in these puzzling productions, some of the pieces just don’t fit.
“Mozu” runs through September 12, at Diversionary Theatre in University Heights.
“BFE” continues through September 19, at the La Jolla Playhouse on the campus of UCSD.
© 2010 Pat Launer
Sometimes, you need a bit of outside intervention to get you back on track. It could come in the form of a matchmaker or a mix-tape or an interested immigrant. In a theatrical trifecta – “Hello, Dolly!,” “miXtape” and “Song of Extinction” – three knockout productions show you that a little push propels you forward, urges you to move on – from stagnation or age or even illness and death. In other words, you get by with a little help from your friends -- or a teacher, or even a yenta.
Like Dolly Levi, the ultimate meddler. There’s nothing she loves better than butting into other people’s business, to find them – or herself – a mate, a night on the town or a taste of happiness. There’s a reason that Dolly isn’t seen too often around town. The immortal 1964 character, whose music and lyrics were created by the incomparable Jerry Herman, is way larger than life, both dramatically and vocally. Fortunately, Starlight Theatre, and director/choreographer Dan Mojica, have a powerhouse in local favorite, Melinda Gilb. With her big voice and huge hats, she commands the stage -- and its colorful characters. If she ramped up the humor a notch (she’s definitely got the chops), she’d be perfect. The cast, production and orchestra, are stellar, too. Isn’t it high time for you to say “Hello, Dolly” again?
And while you’re humming timeless tunes, take yourself back to the ‘80s, that era of outrageously unfortunate outfits and diverse musical output. Lamb’s Players Theatre’s talented Colleen Collar Smith and Jon Lorenz have mined all the rock anthems, TV-show themes and sad laments to bring us “miXtape,” the tales of eight perpetually unsettled Gen Xers, whose lives are chronicled in mix-tapes that they made or were given, to mark their feelings and the stages of their unfulfilled lives. In the tradition of “Boomers,” this vibrant, inventive, enormously energetic creation, sung by a spectacular cast, accompanied by a sensational band, is destined for a long and triumphant run.
But not everything is melodious in these dog days of summer. You should definitely not ignore thought-provoking dramatic fare, especially when it’s as gripping and splendidly presented as ion theatre’s “Song of Extinction,” winner of the American Theatre Critics Association’s 2009 New Play Award. Playwright EM Lewis sets her piece in Portland, Cambodia, Bolivia and the imagination, capturing multiple journeys of mortality, survival and redemption. Claudio Raygoza has created a stunning soundscape and shepherded a marvelous ensemble, centered by luminous Robin Christ, heartbreaking as the dying mother, with Tom Hall and Matthew Alexander riveting as her distracted husband and distraught son, and Diep Huynh compelling as the kid’s caring but conflicted teacher, haunted by his memories of the Cambodian “killing fields.”
Three killer productions to choose from; why not end your summer on a high note?
“Song of Extinction” runs through September 4, at ion theatre in University Heights.
“Hello, Dolly!” continues through September 5, at Starlight Bowl in Balboa Park.
Lamb’s Players’ “miXtape” is an open-ended production at the Horton Grand Theatre downtown.
© 2010 Pat Launer
It’s an age-old love story: persistent male, resistant female. The twist is, in “Crazy for You,” they’re singing and dancing, tapping their way through gorgeous Gershwin tunes. In “The Last Romance, the cautious lovers are octogenarians, played by real-life, 80-something Marion Ross and her long-term partner, Paul Michael.
They were last together onstage at the Old Globe a decade ago, in Joe DiPietro’s lightweight comedy, “Over the River and through the Woods.” DiPietro wrote this one specifically for Ross and Michael, folding in a few elements from their lives. It’s still a fluff-piece, sweet, but sentimental and predictable, with minimal insight into the trials of late-life love. Michael is wonderful, though, effortless and thoroughly engaging as Ralph, the gruff old guy giving it one last go. Ross, an associate artist at the Globe, seems to be working harder, as Ralph’s somewhat more upper crust, and considerably more reluctant, paramour. As the third wheel, Patricia Conolly is a hoot as Ralph’s possessive, overprotective sister from Hoboken, where the action takes place. The symbolism is pretty heavy-handed – in the text and the design – but there’s one delightful surprise element: the play is laced with operatic arias, magnificently sung by robust baritone Joshua Jeremiah. The bottom line, intoned twice, in case we miss it, is that their story is just like opera: “People fall in love but can’t get together, because Life gets in the way.” Heavy, man.
No effort made in the direction of anything but featherlight entertainment in “Crazy for You.” There’s even a New Jersey connection. Some of the timeless George and Ira Gershwin songs were discovered in a warehouse in Secaucus in 1982. Ten years later, some of those finds, coupled with numbers culled from the 1930 score of “Girl Crazy,” became the big Broadway hit, “Crazy for You.” Like most jukebox musicals, it tries to cram a silly plot into a flashy song catalogue. Here, it’s the unlikely meet-cute of a New York rich boy and a downhome gal from Deadrock, Arkansas. Havoc ensues. But oh, those fabulous songs: “I Got Rhythm,” “Embraceable You,” ““Someone to Watch Over Me,” and more than a dozen others.
Moonlight Stage Productions has pulled out all the stops for this one. The excellent 19-piece orchestra, under the assured baton of Terry O’Donnell, is playing the original Broadway arrangements and orchestrations, which are phenomenal. And director-choreographer John Vaughan has re-created all the original choreography, which is fabulous, and fantastically executed by a killer ensemble. The tapping is terrific, and the singing is, too.
At the center of it all is one mega-talented, triple-threat knockout: the adorable, rubber-limbed, charismatic Jeffrey Scott Parsons. Dazzling dancing, singing, music, costumes and comedy. As the Gershwins would put it, “Who could ask for anything more?”
Moonlight Stage Productions’ “Crazy for You” runs through August 28, in Vista’s Brengle Terrace Park.
“The Last Romance” continues at the Old Globe, in Balboa Park, through September 12.
© 2010 Pat Launer
Meet the English theater’s master puzzlemaker – in triplicate. Sir Alan Ayckbourn loves to play with plays. Of his 73 full-length creations, one has 16 possible endings, one is two plays taking place simultaneously on two different stages. And then there’s “The Norman Conquests.” No, it has nothing to do with the Battle of Hastings or William the Conqueror. It’s about zhlubby Norman, the almost-conqueror. The 1973 trilogy takes three perspectives on one wacky weekend. We view the proceedings from three different locations: the living room, dining room and garden. Actions overlap across plays, and aren’t presented sequentially. So all the puzzling out and putting together has to be done by the audience. Each of the plays can stand alone, but it’s especially juicy to see them all – either on consecutive nights, or as I did, in one 6-hour marathon, with breaks for lunch and dinner in between.
It’s a gutsy structure, tackled by a fearless group. Cygnet Theatre Company is launching its 8th season with a 16-week rotating repertory run of “The Norman Conquests.” If you see ‘em all on one day, you can even get a t-shirt that says “I Conquered Norman.”
Norman is a scruffy, oversexed assistant librarian, who uncontrollably loves the ladies – even if he’s related to them by marriage. On this particular weekend, he’s arranged for a tryst with his wife’s sister. But when that goes awry, he makes a play for his other sister-in-law. He winds up rolling on the floor with each of them, and even seducing his hard-edged wife. All he wants to do is make people happy, he says. And all that results is chaos and commotion.
It would be pretty hard to make this miserable lot happy anyway. Each is staggeringly self-involved and discontent, mired in the monotony of their marriage and/or other relationships. When they all get together at the family’s big, old run-down Victorian country house, sparks fly, egos are bruised and tempers ignite. Just another weekend with the extended family, a neurotic collection of weak, ineffectual men and brittle, shrewish women. Ayckbourn has never taken a particularly positive view of marriage, and this assemblage scrapes the bottom of the matrimonial barrel.
Sounds pretty serious, doesn’t it? But it’s really ripping good fun. The six-members of the crackerjack ensemble are superb, under the hair-trigger-timed direction of Sean Murray and Francis Gercke. The set transforms wonderfully, and the sound, lighting and costumes are delightful. Do I have a favorite? Well, “Round and Round the Garden” has the first and last scenes of the weekend; “Table Manners” clarifies the relationships best. But I think I laughed the most in “Living Together.”
See them in any order, but see them -- if you want to get some acid-laced guffaws.
The three installments of “The Norman Conquests” run in repertory through November 7, at Cygnet Theatre in Old Town.
© 2010 Pat Launer
A thematic thread runs through the three plays in the Summer Shakespeare Festival at the Old Globe: emotions run amok – in two mad monarchs and one shrieking hellcat. In each case, self-awareness brings self-control.
The anchor of the season is “King Lear,” Shakespeare’s masterpiece of misguided parental myopia. Festival artistic director Adrian Noble has brilliantly sandwiched the tragedy between a drama and a comedy, imaginatively underscoring echoes of “Lear” in each.
In Allan Bennett’s 1991 play, “The Madness of George III,” there’s a wonderful moment when the 18th century English ruler, half out of his wits, reads scenes from “King Lear” with his doctor, played by Robert Foxworth, the same actor who’s Lear on alternate nights at the Globe. A reflexive, self-referential stroke of genius.
The Festival gets its special effects money’s worth this summer: all three shows feature a wildly swirling, thunder-and-lightning snowstorm.
There are many reasons for you to see all three productions, each a marvel in its own right. For one thing, it’s exhilarating to watch the same actors flex their dramatic muscles in vastly different roles. And each is a play of enormous substance and relevance.
This forceful “Lear” is an object lesson in governance, parenting and being blinded by flattery and fawning. Both historical and metaphorical, “George III” presents a fictionalized version of one decade in the life of the British King who lost the colonies (that would be us!) -- and the two-party, split-family, back-room political power-wrangling that served as backdrop to his bouts of lunacy. The smart, sharp-witted play also serves as a figurative commentary on a sick body politic and a defective health care system.
Miles Anderson is spectacular as the sporadically debilitated, deranged monarch. Under Noble’s direction, the ensemble is outstanding, though there’s a bit too much ceremonial posing and door-closing.
There’s a tad of excess in “The Taming of the Shrew,” too. Director Ron Daniels overuses the dancing boys and shoots for over-the-top, wink-nudge, audience-interaction comedy throughout. But he gets the central relationship thrillingly right. It’s not about the total subjugation of a woman; it’s a coming together of intellectual equals. This Kate realizes early on that she’s met her match in Petruchio. She seems to see the payoff in going along on his bizarre journey of control, a battle of the wills and wits that, in this rendering, will surely culminate in marital harmony. Clearly, there’s a strong physical/mental/emotional attraction between the couple, superbly portrayed by Jonno Roberts and Emily Swallow. This is a partnership forged in passion and playfulness, a partnership of peers – dressed, by the way, in the most stunning of costumes.
So, what are you waiting for? A terrific trio of productions is there for the taking. Hie thee forthwith to the Festival Stage in Balboa Park.
“The Taming of the Shrew” and “The Madness of George III” run in repertory with “King Lear,” through late September, on the Globe’s outdoor Festival Stage in Balboa Park.
© 2010 Pat Launer
Two families torn apart. One ancient, one modern. One mythical, one fictional. Both brought down by a misguided parent with misplaced priorities. One play is a titanic Shakespearean masterwork, the other a trifling, San Diego-set world premiere.
“King Lear” is often considered “the Everest of Shakespeare,” the role classical actors hope they’ll live long enough to inhabit. Robert Foxworth, a Patté Award-winning associate artist at the Old Globe and a recent transplant to North County, makes a formidable monarch. His Lear takes a terrible journey from pompous and pig-headed -- judging his offspring by their fawning adulation -- to wild, deranged and ultimately, humbled and heart-rending. Unfortunately, at the peak of his delirium, Foxworth has to compete with a storm so fierce and loud that, even shouting, he struggles to be heard. The other madman of the piece, poor put-upon Edgar, swindled by his malevolent, bastard brother, is wonderfully played Jay Whittaker.
Those are the most memorable performances in this noteworthy, if not definitive, production, ably directed by Adrian Noble, who for 13 years was head of England’s renowned Royal Shakespeare Company. There’s a spate of gratuitous gore here, but the language is very well-spoken, and the relationships are crystalline. In a tale where eyesight is insight, two fathers, foolish old men duped by flattery and deceit, pay a horrible price for their myopia.
There’s a problem of vision in the latest work by Annie Weisman, the L.A.-based playwright who grew up in these parts. In “Be Aggressive,” which premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse in 2001, she was uncompromisingly funny and quirky, aiming lovingly poison-tipped darts at her vapid, materialistic hometown. In “Surf Report,” she seems to have little left to say about San Diego. Her characters are stereotypes – an over-rich, overgrown surfer dude who’s a vulture, um, venture capitalist; a woman so devoted to his every need that she neglects her confused daughter and seriously ill husband to follow the monster boss and perhaps even have a tryst with him, though most of his paramours are the age of said daughter – oops! Spoiler! -- and harbinger of predictable things to come. There are a few laughs along the way, but the action descends into melodrama, and these characters are so thoroughly unlikable we wouldn’t care if full-on tragedy felled them in the first act.
The production is stunning, though, the set an ultra-modern seaside villa fancifully ensconced in the curl of a wave. The surfing imagery and metaphors float tiresomely by. Under the direction of Lisa Peterson, the cast is fine, and convincing, though what they have to say is lifeless and trite.
Not every play’s a winner right out of the gate. And then there are those that, 450 years after their creation, still feel fresh and relevant and gut-wrenchingly real.
“Surf Report” plays through July 11, at the La Jolla Playhouse on the campus of UCSD.
“King Lear” continues in repertory, as part of the Summer Shakespeare Festival, through September 23, in the Old Globe’s outdoor theater in Balboa Park.
© 2010 Pat Launer
For an archive of all of Pat's reviews, going back to 1990, use the 'search' function at www.PatteProductions.com.
