NORTH COAST REP THEATRE SCORES BIG WITH HYSTERICAL HILARIOUS COMEDY FARCE MUSICAL

Front: Missy Marion, Omri Schein
Back: David McBean, Jean Schroeder, Luke H. Jacobs, Amy Perkins.
All photos by Aaron Rumley

No matter how many times one sees one of the funniest, most hilarious, musical comedy-farce  productions of the last 50 years, one still cannot help but enjoy the sheer madness and outrageous comedy audaciousness of “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” created by the legendary Broadway team of Stephen Sondheim, Burt Shevelove, and Larry Gelbart.

The only comedy writer/playwright with a better comedy track record than Shakespeare is the incomparable legendary Neil Simon, author of more than 33 Broadway smash hits with three of them running simultaneously in a single season!  No one has ever done that before or is it likely to achieve that again. Gelbart created TV’s MASH, Shevelove wrote Radio, TV, and movie comedies with Gelbart, and the Bard’s comedy credits are too numerous to list here.  Need I say more?

Which brings us then to the gold standard of The American musical comedy:  Either “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” or “Gypsy” are the recognized candidates. So choose your pick.  Both are bullet proof when it comes to music, lyrics, and librettos in structure, and execution.  Both are just flat out great entertainment.

So as long as North Coast Repertory Theatre (NCRT) is presenting “Forum” as the final production of its 36th season, it’s proper and fitting to review one of the best examples of a block-buster musical hit for audiences of NCRT.

“Forum” is the result of judicious research of playwrights of yore, by play director David Ellenstein, who  did his homework well; coming up with a favorite of his and mine, in the process. If I were to attempt to boil down a plot synopsis that would make sense of the onstage shenanigans from this gifted cast of top comedy-farceurs, I wouldn’t be able to finish this review in time for my paper. So with a mea culpa to Director Ellenstein, I’m borrowing and paraphrasing some his research notes.

Front: Jason Maddy, Omri Schein, Amy Perkins
Back: Missy Marion, Luke H. Jacobs

This wacky play was originally written and staged by bawdy Roman playwright Titus Maccius Plautus 2000 years ago. It’s a playabout sly servants, senile skirt-chasers, hen pecked husbands, domineering matrons, lovesick young, and comely courtesans, with hearts of gold; all mixed up in mistaken identities, disguises, double takes and double-entendres.

If Marty Burnett, resident Set Design wizard could take the NCRT production of “Around the World in 80 Days, on their cozy stage imagine what he and Lighting designer Matt Novotny could do with Rome, The Forum, and its environs, replete with the gorgeous gossamer costumes for sexy dancing girl outfits designed by Elisha Benzoni, along with authentic looking togas and robes for the male actors.  The costume for Roman Captain Miles Gloriosus makes one want fall in line and march off to a battle somewhere.  The choreography of Colleen Kollar Smith is tastefully done and is delicious to watch.

In making all the silliness come alive, belongs to a talented and gifted company professional actors, who when they find themselves on stage in a comedy-farce know exactly what to do and how to  do it. There are thirteen splendid actors who make the magic happen.

NCRT artistic director David Ellenstein who is also the director of “Forum” made a smart choice in casting Omri Schein in the lead role of Pseudolus, the slave who will do anything to buy his freedom.  It’s a star turn in a cast chock full of clever, talented, and inventive performers. Mr. Schein has energy and comedy timing to burn.  It’s a very impressive performance.

Chris M. Kauffmann and Noelle Marion

Kevin Hafso Koppman as Hysterium delivers a highly nuanced comedy gem of a performance as the harrassed head servant/slave in the House of Senex;  Andrew Ableson as Senex, the man who can’t quite catch the young Virgin Philia, sweetly  and naively played Noelle Marion; Chris M. Kauffmann as Hero, the love interest of Philia; Melinda Gilb as Domina, ‘she who must be obeyed’ and wife of Senex;  John Greenleaf as Erronius, who keeps searching the Hills around Rome for his two children who were captured by Pirates years ago (Remember, I told you it was a complicated story); Jason Maddy as the commanding Captain Miles Gloriosus of the Roman army; Luke H. Jacobs as Protean/Eunuch; Jean Schroeder as Tintinabula, an exotic dancer from the House of Marcus Lycus; Amy Perkins as dancer Protean/Panacea, also from the House of Marcus Lycus; Missy Marion as Protean/ Vibrata , yes, she too is from the House of Marcus Lycus, and David McBean as the man himself Marcus Lycus, in a terrifically inventive, fresh, scene stealing performance as Rome’s  procurer extraordinaire.

Jason Maddy and Melinda Gilb

There so many inventive directorial touches in this production that have the creative fingerprints of David Ellenstein all over it, makes NCRT attendance mandatory.

This cast is as close as one can get to a nearly flawless production.  The live musicians under the direction of Ron Councell feature: James Beauton, percussion, Sean Laperruque, Violin, Viola, Keyboard 2, Jim George, woodwins, and Ron Councell on Keyboard 1.  In a musical production there is no substitute for live musicians over tracks.

“A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” performs at North Coast Repertory Theatre, Solana Beach, CA and runs through August 12, 2018. Don’t Miss It!

PROVOCATIVE DRAMA EXPLORES IMMIGRANT LIFE IN AMERICA AT LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSE

Jolly Abraham as “Aamani,” Xochitl Romero as “Isobel,”
Brenda Meaney as “Renia” and Leslie Fray as “Pelagiya”
in "Queens" at La Jolla Playhouse. All photos by Jim Carmody

The La Jolla Playhouse (LJP) founded in 1947 by Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, and Mel Ferrer, is one of America’s prestige regional theatres. It has sent more than thirty productions on to the stages of Broadway, nabbing many Tony nominations and Tony Awards in the process.

The Playhouse’s 2017 production-transfer to Broadway, “Come From Away” won the 2018 Tony for Best Director of a musical for LJP artistic director Christopher Ashley.  Ashley has held the creative reins at the Playhouse for the last 11 years. Under his aegis, The La Jolla Playhouse production “Memphis,” also went on to win a Best Musical Production Tony Award in 2010.

With LJP’s current production “Queens”, the playhouse mounts a powerful drama about the plight of both legal and illegal immigrants, and their desperate drive to remain in the United States, in order to make a better life for themselves and their separated families, some of whom remain back in the countries they fled.

For most, ties to their country of origin and families has been severed.  Some cannot or will not go back.  They choose to live in their present situation in the hope that it will change for the better.  Hope is what drives the human soul to keep on going.  Without it, life dies prematurely.

Melissa Miller  as “Lera” and Rae Gray as “Inna”

Written by rising award-winning Polish playwright Martyna Majok, and directed by theatre-savvy veteran  Carey Perloff, the story of six female immigrants living in a basement apartment that is illegally-wired and without approved city permits and building codes is a recipe for the exploitation of many immigrants who have no surrogates to speak for them.

Men don’t seem to have Mother Nature’s support system that females have.  The community of women has learned the hard way the strength that bonding produces.  Women have a 10,000-year head start over men, who were too busy just being food and shelter providers, to say nothing of being wary of male strangers in their midst. (Perhaps, this was the impetus for the union movement?)

Director Perloff has seized the ‘Carpe Diem’ moment, allowing us to peek into a subject matter that almost every female in the audience can relate; delivering the reality of the basic inequality of life on this planet, which in the 21st century is finally being highlighted.

The all-female cast of characters represent the countries of Ukraine, Cuba, Afghanistan, Mexico, Poland, and Russia.  It’s an interesting mixture of cultures and accents involved in the telling of their compelling stories.  I’m assuming, in the case of this outstanding cast, either playwright Majok or director Perloff made the decision to have the actors speak in heavily-accented English.

Brenda Meaney as “Renia” and
Xochitl Romero as “Glenys"

Yes, it’s true to life.  Immigrants have been in America for over 400 hundred years (1607 Jamestown Virginia to the present). But understanding all six characters in heated dialogue, at times, made clarity and communicating the dialogue and the play’s message to the audience a real challenge.  It’s as if one wandered into a foreign language film screening that didn’t have English subtitles. When a production makes it difficult for the audience to connect with what’s taking place on stage, there is a natural disconnect that follows. Alas, some of the theatre audience failed to return for the second act.

For those who did return, the goal for them was to focus more intently on the characters’ accents and body language.  The actors are not only intense, skilled, and committed to the story; they make compelling cases for introspective reflection on the part of the audience.  We have to root for someone or the time invested by the audience will feel like they’ve been short-changed.

The story, in short, revolves around Renia, the landlord of an old building in Queens, NY, who rents out basement spaces in a makeshift apartment setting in 2017 to immigrant women seeking a place to live.  Young Inna arrives at the brownstone tenement where she is met by Renia, who stood on the same stairs sixteen years earlier herself.  The two women are guarded at this first meeting.  Not willing to disclose too much about their pasts or situation but time brings an understanding between them.

Inna agrees to the price of the weekly rental and eventually meets her “neighbors” in the partitioned areas.  The clever set design by David Israel Reynoso provides many nooks and crannies and performing spaces where the action takes place.   Costumer designer Denitsa Blinznakova delivers the thrift store-like costumes that are called for, and the lighting design by Lap Chi Chu imbues the drama with many mood-inducing moments.

Brenda Meaney as "Renia" and Rae Gray as "Inna"

There are no star turns in this poignant drama dealing with a slice of life most of the audience never had to endure.  The beauty of this production lies in the solid and capable performances of the entire ensemble group of actors: Jolly Abraham as Aamani; Leslie Fray as Pelagiya/Dragana; Rae Gray as Inna; Brenda Meany as Renia; Melissa Miller as Agata/Lera; and Xochitl Romero as Isabella/Glenys, whose individual performances inform the production of the American immigrant experience.

It’s compelling stuff that slowly wins one over, but make sure you stay until the end.  Also, I highly recommend reading dramaturg Shirley Fishman’s incisive interview in the Program with playwright Majok before the play begins. It’s fascinating and illuminating.

“Queens” performs on the Hugh Potiker stage at the La Jolla Playhouse theatre complex and runs through July 29, 2018.


L-R: Brenda Meaney as “Renia,” Leslie Fray as “Pelagiya,” Xochitl Romero as “Isobel,” Jolly Abraham as “Aamani”

PALM CANYON THEATRE STAGES THE MUSICAL COMEDY “THE WEDDING SINGER”

Shafik Wahhab and Elizabeth Schmelling star as Robbie and Julia, i
n the musical "The Wedding Singer." All photos by Paul Hayashi.

The Palm Canyon Theatre (PCT) of Palm Springs has a long and winning track record of producing musical theatre productions that please their audiences. The list of award-winning productions and Desert Theatre League (DTL) trophies is too numerous to list here.

All of their winning efforts have come from the pens of strong librettists and musical composers and lyricists.  Most of whom are enshrined in the Pantheon of Broadway Stars and stage productions.

“The Wedding Singer,” the stage musical is based on the Adam Sandler movie of the same name that debuted in 1988.  The current ‘Wedding Singer’ stage musical now on the Palm Canyon Theatre stage has been updated with a total of 20 musical numbers; some of which are new.  The PCT show also retained some the original songs written in 2006.

The production is energetically directed by choreographer/director Anthony Nannini, who challenges his ensemble cast and a few principals to deliver his vision of a musical set in 1985.  Mr. Nannini has the stage awash in the colorful costumes of resident costumes designer Derik Shopinski, amid a set designed by resident design wizard J.W. Layne, who also is the resident Lighting Designer. So, we’re off to a good start.

The story, however, is the weakest component in the production.  After all, it was co-written by Sandler for himself to star as the leading man Robbie Hart as a non-conforming, boorish, wedding singer, society misfit who drinks too much and appears to be stuck in a case of arrested development when it comes to common sense. Just the type of role that Sandler loves to play in his movies.  Not necessarily the qualities or the stuff that we expect of from our leading men as they search for love and some semblance of stability in life.  But alas, we have to root for someone, or we disconnect as an audience.  Aaah, to be young, carefree, and fickle. It’s a case of those pesky raging hormones again.  Were we really that callow back in 1985?  Yeah, I guess we were.

In the PCT musical production, Robbie gets a makeover of sorts. The new Robbie played by Shafik Wahhab, is not as off-putting a character as was Mr. Sandler.  However, he’s still stuck with some of those questionable character’s traits from the movie. Mr. Wahhab makes the best of the role because he’s a fine actor with a nice tenor voice that sounds great in two-part harmony with his leading lady Julia, winningly played and strongly sung by Elizabeth Schmelling.  Their on-stage chemistry works, making the principal supporting players’ jobs easier in keeping this predictable story at least within the zip code of reality and believability.

The story, in short, revolves around Robbie Hart, a New Jersey wedding singer, who really wants to be a rock star.  He’s the life of the party until his own fiancée leaves him waiting at the alter  “shot through the heart”, so to speak.  Robbie from then on makes every wedding he sings at as disastrously as he can.

Enter Julia, a winsome waitress who wins his affection.  As luck would have it, Julia is about to be married to a Wall Street wheeler-dealer and unless Robbie can pull off the performance of a decade, the girl of his dreams will be gone forever. It’s a tried and true old story line. It’s just like old wine in a new bottle.

Most musicals are remembered for their songs. It’s the melodies, and/or the lyrics that hopefully the audiences will whistle or hum on the way out or remember later. With all those singer-dancers up on the stage working hard to please the audience, I can only recall one song that is beautifully rendered.  It’s poignantly sung by Mr. Wahhab and Ms. Schmelling at the finale called “Grow Old With You,” written by Mr. Sandler and Tim Herlihy.

As lovely as it is, one song does not, however, make for a memorable musical production no matter how hard everyone tries. Also, the off-stage orchestra needs to ratchet down at least two levels so we can hear and appreciate the dialogue and understand the lyrics, as well as reduce the dialogue delivery from warp-speed to something closer to traditional speech patterns.

There are twenty-five cast members working hard to please. “The Wedding Singer”, will no doubt, resonate with younger audiences more easily than with their parents and grandparents tastes.  Helping to tell “The Wedding Singer” story are: Alisha Bates as Holly; Leslie Benjamin as Angie; Elissa Landi as Rosie; Cameron Merrihew as Glen; Keith T. Nielsen as George; Christian Quevedo as Sammy;, and Tessa Walker as Linda, along with sixteen performers in the ensemble.

The orchestra, led by Music Director Jaci Davis on piano features: David Bronson on drums, John Pagels on guitar, and Bill Saitta on Bass.

“The Wedding Singer” directed and choreographed by Anthony Nannini, performs at the Palm Canyon Theatre through July 15, 2018. For reservations and ticket information, call 760-323-5123.

“WOMEN BEHIND BARS” IS A NAUGHTY NOIR-COMEDY HOOT AT DESERT ROSE PLAYHOUSE

The cast of "Women Behind Bars" at Desert Rose Playhouse. All photos by Mike Thomas Photography.

Co-founders Jim Strait and Paul Taylor of the Valley’s only LBTGQ live theatre company has a winning production on their hands making it a great way to announce their mutual retirement from the award-winning Desert Rose Playhouse (DRP), in Cathedral City. When the time comes, everyone would like to hang out his or her ‘Gone Fishin’ sign and leave their creative endeavors on a high note.

Mr. Strait and Mr. Taylor have done precisely that.  After six years of serving the valley’s LBTGQ community with ‘its ‘blood, sweat, tears, as well as the ecstasy and adrenaline high that only comes with another opening night in a theatre.  They deserve our Mahalo’s for six wonderful seasons of a job well done. Please note: Desert Rose Playhouse will still be producing plays for the LBTGQ audiences of the Coachella Valley.  Messrs. Strait and Taylor have been practicing their Hawaiian Island dialects which, no doubt, will come in handy in their retirement years.

The changing of the guard at the Desert Rose Playhouse, so to speak, comes after the closing night performance of DRP’s current ‘Hot Summer Nights’ annual production series with “Women Behind Bars,” written by Tom Eyre, and co-directed by Jim Strait and Robbie Wayne, and produced by Paul Taylor.

Louise (Ruth Braun) and
Matron (Loren Freeman)
 in 'Women Behind Bars"

Director Strait has assembled a cast of actors that the writers and directors of those 1930’ and 40’s Noir dramas about femme fatales and life in prisons (a staple of Warner Bros. movies back then) would be proud to cast in their films.

The story is a simple ‘boilerplate’ script. In short, it’s all about women in prison sniping at one another and complaining about everyone and everything behind bars, as well as those who are living on the outside.  Most claim to be innocent, btw. The Matron mockingly says they all say that; and what the Matron says goes!  ll the ladies are serving time and just waiting to get out.

The meat and beauty of this over-the-top comedy lies in the sensational performances of the actors.  Comedy-farce productions always walk a very narrow line between being true to script/story, but, still staying within the zip code of reality or believability.

This production is a hoot of a comedy about serious subject matters inherent in their situations and reasons for being in prison. Set in 1950’s when America’s female population couldn’t possibly be anything but the sweet, wives, mothers, and in-laws, and/or our next door neighbors (or so Hollywood would have us believe).

Playwright Eyen, sort of tosses that “Father Knows Best” dialogue out the window with “Women Behind Bars.” The movie version played it as far more believable due to the time setting of the 50’s. This DRP version is a heck of lot funnier in 2018. It was a kinder and gentler America back then, not now, however, There is nothing actors like to do better than to chew the heck out of the scenery.  This talented cast does exactly that to the delight of the audience. “Women Behind Bars,” is chock full of sexual double-entendres, double-takes, and asides to the audience in language that would make a stevedore blush. A word to the uninitiated: there is nudity, and very strong vernacular-of-the-streets language being hurled from the stage. So leave the kiddies and grandma at home.

Adina Lawson as Granny in "Women Behind Bars"

Each cast member brings their special talent and acting gift to the production. They are all a delight to watch and enjoy.  They include are in alphabetical order: Francesca Amari as Ada; Melanie Blue as Guadalupe; Ruth Braun as Louise; Kimberly Cole as Jo-Jo; Loren Freeman as The Matron; Deborah Harmon as Blanche; Adina Lawson as Granny/Warden; Phylicia Mason as Mary-Eleanor; Kam Sisco as Cheri; and Yo Younger as Gloria.

“Women Behind Bars” is a true acting ensemble effort. Individually they’re very talented, but as an acting ensemble unit, they’re a well-oiled, comedy performing machine.

The technical credit for “Women Behind Bars” boasts some of the best techies in the Valley. The Set Design is by Toby Griffin, Lighting Design by Phil Murphy, Sound Design by Jim Strait, Costumes by Jennifer Stowe, and Wigs by Toni Milano.

“Women Behind Bars” is performed without an intermission at Desert Rose Playhouse in Cathedral City, CA. and runs through July 29th.

For reservations and ticket information call 760-202-3000 or go online to desertroseplayhouse.org