You need not be well-versed in the work of the venerable Anton Chekhov to appreciate Christopher Durang’s Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike. Even if you don’t know a cherry orchard from a neighborhood playground, you’ll enjoy the madcap antics of Durang’s delightfully dysfunctional characters. So it’s by and large over the top comedy, with sight gags and shameless Chekhov allusions to spare. But it’s easy to see why this show, now on stage at the Old Globe directed by Jessica Stone, was Tony nominated on Broadway. Besides, there’s just enough heart in the script – especially in the case of wallflower Sonia (Marcia DeBonis) – to ensure that the broadly behaving characters are well-rounded ones. Well, maybe not Spike (Tyler Lansing Weaks), who’s supposed to be shallow, but what he does during a striptease with the belt of his trousers makes up for his shallowness.
The story finds brother and adopted sister Vanya (Martin Moran) and Sonia (DeBonis) living contentedly (though they bicker a lot) in the peaceful Bucks County, Pennsylvania home owned by their sister Masha (Candy Buckley), who’s an extremely neurotic actress – and can she ever emote. When Masha and her boytoy, Spike, show up the tirades and recriminations and verbal barbs (all played for laughs) gets ramped up and all peacefulness is gone. The question of whether Masha will sell the house that has been her sibs’ only home is a key plot point, but it’s not really what the play is about. It sounds corny but it is ultimately about family. Stone directs these four (along with Haneefah Wood, who has a blast overplaying the future-forecasting cleaning woman, Cassandra) with a deft hand. Even at the play’s most outrageous moments – and there are many of them – VSM&S never digresses into slapstick. Buckley just about rules the stage as Masha, as she should, and DeBonis brings keen sympathy to Sonia’s lot in life. And Moran’s Act 2 appreciation for the simpler time that was the ‘50s is breathless. It all unfolds on a sumptuous set by David Korins. The house and environs are the kind you wouldn’t mind settling into yourself. Minus the family chaos. Or maybe you’d like the family chaos because it reminds you of your own family.
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The World Goes ‘Round, a two-act musical revue at AVO Playhouse in Vista, is really one extended session of “Kander & Ebb Karaoke”. In it, five fresh-faced singers perform 30 mostly memorable tunes by the estimable Broadway composing team of John Kander and Fred Ebb. They’re backed simply and elegantly by Moonlight Stage Productions Musical Director Elan McMahan on piano and Mark Phelps on bass. This allows Kander & Ebb’s alternately frothy and witty numbers to shine without being overpowered by swooning Broadway-type orchestration.
Some of Kander & Ebb’s best work is included – namely, Chicago, from which we hear “All That Jazz,” “Class,” “Mr. Cellophane” and “Me and My Baby.” They’re reminders why recent stagings of Chicago at both San Diego Musical Theater and the Welk Resort Theatre were so popular. Chicago’s a show that never gets moldy. The same can’t be said for Cabaret, whose “Maybe This Time,” “Money, Money” (from the film) and title tune do sound worn out after all these years. The World Goes ‘Round also taps songs from less remembered Kander & Ebb shows like Rink and The Happy Time, but it does include the hilarious slice of philosophy “The Grass is Always Greener” from 1981’s Woman of the Year. Ensemble members Chelsea Franko and Marlene Montes do that one great justice, just as they do earlier with the salty-mouthed “Class” from Chicago. Other teasing delights are “Arthur in the Afternoon” from The Act and a likably silly tribute to Sara Lee and her baked goodies. These comic moments are a welcome break from the lion’s share of The World Goes ‘Round’s sincere, ballad-heavy repertoire. Franko, a standout in Moonlight Stage Production’s The Who’s Tommy last summer, is also the sparkplug in this five-member cast, completed by Montes, Kristen Lamoureux, Casey Garritano and Benjamin Lopez, all of the latter making their AVO Playhouse debuts. David Engel directs and choreographs this production of The World Goes ‘Round, though the dancing is on the elementary side given the restraints of the set. It, like the few bits played for laughs, takes a back seat to the Kander & Ebb numbers, which follow one after the other jauntily and cleanly as a jukebox in fine working order. History, of both a textbook and a personal nature, define Lionel Goldstein’s new play, Mandate Memories, which is having its world premiere at the North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach under the direction of David Ellenstein. A postcard-pleasant country house in Britain’s Berkshire County, circa 2009, is the setting for these significant history lessons, which have a deep-seated effect on Holocaust survivor Gustav Frolich (Apollo Dukakis) and the unsuspecting (but increasingly wary) Jane Stirling (Rosina Reynolds), owner and lone inhabitant of the house to whom he pays a visit. Before that visit is over, dark secrets are revealed and Gustav’s and Jane’s lives will have changed in a way that will leave your heart in your throat.
The British Mandate for Palestine, which went into effect in 1923, was designed to administer parts of what had once been the Ottoman Empire. What it became was a dividing of Palestine that established a national home for the Jews. The mandate and its consequences are embedded in Gustav’s tortured past, and Jane believes that her father, whom she never knew, died a hero in a fight against terror. But what begins as a tense philosophical confrontation between the pair soon becomes chilling human drama as at an almost achingly deliberate pace Gustav tells Jane the truth behind her father’s death and the role he himself has played in her life ever since. Goldstein and Ellenstein, North Coast Rep’s artistic director, previously worked together on the playwright’s Halpern and Johnson, and the seamlessness of their collaboration is clear in Mandate Memories’ effective shifts in tone and in the development of the complex relationship between Gustav and Jane. Dukakis and Reynolds are stalwart in their performances, the latter especially affecting in her stunned silences and internal torment as Gus shares with Jane some gut-wrenching realities. Ever-present on a table in Jane’s living room, untouched, is the letter Gus has brought to her, one written by her father to her mother. Its contents are not revealed, but by story’s end you know it’s speaking to Jane’s heart, and possibly to ours. If you want to see two actors working their butts off, look no further than the Old Town Theatre, where Francis Gercke and Manny Fernandes are co-starring in Sam Shepard’s brutish drama True West. It’s the grittier, more physical of the two plays comprising Cygnet Theatre’s “Shep Rep,” which presents Shepard’s Fool for Love and True West on alternating nights. Gercke and Fernandes attack each other, virtually destroy every prop on the stage and writhe on the debris-strewn floor throughout Shepard’s unrelenting story of two brothers, the mythology of Hollywood and toast. Toast, you say? Trust me – it plays a supporting role in True West. As for the play itself, Shepard’s been overpraised for this one, which props up two completely unsympathetic characters and asks us to give a damn. Truth is, we don’t.
If you’ve ever taken one of those Learning Annex-type acting classes or even something more ambitious, you know that they can be a helluva lot of fun. You play theater games, leap blindly into improv skits, make primal noises and tumble around a stage like the kid you used to be. Watching other people having all the fun, however, is another story entirely, and that’s the dilemma with New Village Arts’ Circle Mirror Transformation. Annie Baker’s play unfolds over six weeks in a community-center drama class in Shirley, Vermont. (Two of Baker’s other plays, Body Awareness and The Aliens, were also set in this fictitious burg.) Five people – instructor Marty (Dana Case), her husband James (Tom Stephenson), recently divorced Schultz (Eddie Yaroch), teen-aged Lauren (Sophia Richards) and recently broken up masseuse Theresa (Rhianna Basore) – congregate to contort their bodies, play word games and role-play each week. Surprise of surprises, over the course of the six-week class each learns something revelatory about himself or herself, and about the others. As such, Circle Mirror Transformation feels formulaic and offers only one U-turn you don’t see coming.
You can’t help but get caught up in a couple of the students’ narratives. Theresa is such a limber, likable and clearly talented person that you hope she does become a working actress (though the flash-ahead at the end of the play suggests she won’t). Rhianna Basore already has, and her future looks bright. Though it’s not clear why James is in this class, he’s on board with all the stage antics and head games – until one of ‘em messes with his head, and with Marty’s. Tom Stephenson brings tension and restraint to the role. It’s harder to invest oneself in Eddie Yaroch’s Schultz, who is intermittently needy, neurotic and borderline strange. On second thought, maybe Schultz is a viable candidate for a David Lynch film. Circle Mirror Transformation runs 110 minutes and, oddly enough, without an intermission. Don’t know why it couldn’t have paused after “Week 3” of the drama class. As is, it’s a considerable sit in spite of the lightness of the fare. If site-based theater truly is the means of attracting younger audiences to the medium, the way by which the constraints of a traditional stage are exploded, then bravo! Bravo too, to San Diego Rep artist-in-residence Hebert Siguenza’s dystopian adaptation of Shakespeare’s Henry IV, Part One. El Henry, as it is called, is a La Jolla Playhouse Without Walls (WoW) series production, presented in association with the Rep. The latter’s artistic director, Sam Woodhouse, directs the play, which unfolds at the outdoor SILO space at downtown’s Makers Quarter, 15th and F across the street from the former Jerome’s warehouse. Siguenza not only wrote this adventurous work, which mingles The Bard with “Mad Max” imagery and low-rider cars, but portrays a roly-poly Fausto, a wise-ass take on Shakespeare’s beloved comic foil Falstaff. In the roles of opposing barrio warrior princes are the sons of playwright Luis Valdez (Zoot Suit), Lakin and Kinan.
El Henry depicts a San Diego of the year 2045 in which all whites have fled, drinking water is gold and the renamed Aztlan City is inhabited only by Chicanos, Mexicans and Hispanics. The ruling El Hank (John Padilla) is facing imprisonment over a false charge and fears that his barrio kingdom will be usurped by rival El Tomas (Victor C. Contreras) and his blood-thirsty son El Bravo (Kinan Valdez). Hank’s partying son El Henry (Lakin Valdez) wants none of the conflict, preferring to carouse with his drinking and thieving pals, which include Fausto. But an Act 2-opening summit with his father (one that’s too conveniently resolved, frankly), turns El Henry around, setting the stage for a fierce street war that culminates with the warrior princes going mano-a-mano. The El Henry story is only half as riveting as the setting and staging of the production. The audience, seated either in plastic chairs or on hard-on-the-butt bleachers, is immersed in an environment of piled-high crates, TV screens, a broken-down truck, and worn fences. The “floor” is dirt. A huge young cast in warrior armor, masks, even Day of the Dead wear, lights up the SILO space with incredible energy. This is inspired theater that crosses borders and shatters barriers. It’s not too late to catch San Diego Musical Theatre’s fine, likable production of the beloved Annie Get Your Gun. The show runs through Sunday in North Park. As this effort directed by John Todd, with music direction by SDMT’s Don Le Master, reiterates, Annie … is beloved for a reason. Yes, it’s fluff, but it’s also pure Irving Berlin, who wrote some of his most enduring tunes for Annie Get Your Gun. Roll call, please: “There’s No Business Like Show Business,” “They Say It’s Wonderful,” “Anything You Can Do,” “The Girl That I Marry,” “I Got the Sun in the Morning.” Even Annie Oakley’s cornpone “You Can’t Get a Man With a Gun” is hard to resist.
Of course, it takes more than Berlin’s songs, memorable as they are, to propel a show from start to finish, especially one that’s been done a jillion times and is familiar to just about anybody who ever set foot in a theater. You’ve got to have the right Annie for starters. This production does. Beth Malone is a natural comedian, animated of expression and athletic of movement. She’s paired with Steve Blanchard, whom you may have seen doing stellar work as the Grinch at the Old Globe the last couple of holiday seasons. Compared to that cartoonish duty, he’s practically playing straight man to Malone in this show. But he gets to flaunt his comic chops well enough, notably in the “Anything You Can Do” duet near the end of the evening. A character actor’s dream, Annie Get Your Gun also lets John Polhamus have a ball as impresario Buffalo Bill, and Debbie David cracks wise as the pretty but petty Dolly Tate. The less said about the un-P.C. character of Sitting Bull (and that’s no reflection on actor Sean Tamburrino), the better. The story, by the way, of Annie Oakley becoming the star of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show is predictable but entertaining. Naturally, Annie and the previously unchallenged “champeen” shooter on Earth, Frank Butler (Blanchard), fall in love, part on account of a misunderstanding and reunite. Whoops, gave it away. But is there anyone out there who’s never seen Annie Get Your Gun? Well, if you are one of them, you’ve got a few more days to join the Wild West Show. Get a move-on. Cassandra Medley’s Cell kicks off Mo’olelo Performing Arts Company’s new season, the first under new artistic director Lydia Fort. This intense world-premiere play starring Sylvia M’Lafi Thompson, Monique Gaffney, Vimel Sephus and Andrea Agosto is engrossing but overstuffed. It’s a family drama (two sisters and a daughter haunted by the past and by circumstances). It’s a hard-hitting commentary (Cell is set in an immigration detention center, where desperation and exploitation collide). It’s a crime story (a detention center higher-up is sexually assaulting detainees, and there’s a cover-up). There’s even a romantic subplot involving Sephus and Agosto.
Cell is a despairing play, with characters seen and unseen crying out for hope in an unjust, uncompromising world. While beautifully acted and enhanced by inventive rotation of David F. Weiner’s scenic design in Mo’olelo’s limited theater space, it’s a big-time downer. The San Diego Repertory Theatre thrived during the first half of its 38th season last year, staging In the Heights, A Weekend With Pablo Picasso and Venus in Fur, all three outstanding. The Rep launches its second half with the English language world premiere of Caridad Svich’s In the Time of the Butterflies, a play based on the 1994 novel by Julia Alvarez. While faithful to the theater’s season of adventurous material, Butterflies is missing the seamlessness of its predecessors in telling the story of Las Miraposas (the Butterflies), the four daughters of a farmer in the Dominican Republic who defied the brutal Trujillo regime in the mid-20th century.
Associate San Diego Repertory Theatre Artistic Director Todd Salovey and artist-in-residence Herbert Siguenza co-direct a dignified but slowly unfolding production that recounts the tale of the Mirabal sisters simultaneously in real time and in retrospect through the recollection of surviving sister Dede (the other three sisters were assassinated by soldiers of Trujillo). The show might have been better served by bookending the beginning and the end with the older Dede’s storytelling to an American journalist. Catalina Maynard’s tense on-stage witnessing of the sisters’ (her younger self included) transformation into revolutionaries is awkward. As Mirabal sisters Minerva, Patria, Maria Teresa and young Dede, Jacqueline Grace Lopez, Elisa Gonzales, Maritxell Carrero and Sandra Ruiz portray Las Miraposas with genuine conviction, and Lopez and Carrero in particular are touching as sisters bound as much by love as by righteousness. The intermittent presence of a jaunty DJ (Siguenza, who plays multiple roles including that of Trujillo in full military regalia) seems out of place, while screen projections behind the action (something the Rep does so well) are too few here. More of them might have further dramatized the historical scope of Trujillo’s terror and the courage of those who dared to oppose him. A definite sublime touch is the accompanying violin from the rafters, played by Batya MacAdam-Somer, that beautifully accompanies Michael Roth’s soundscape. |
AuthorDavid L. Coddon is a Southern California theater critic. Archives
May 2024
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