The longer you’ve lived in Los Angeles, the more Bruce Kimmel’s L.A. Now And Then is likely to resonate with you, but even if names like Sheriff John and Engineer Bill don’t ring a bell, you’ll likely find much to enjoy in this musical love letter to the City of Angels, now playing at the Group Rep Theatre in North Hollywood.

SoCal stage vets Lisa Dyson and Jeffrey Rockwell head a multitalented cast of thirteen, most of them new to the Group Rep, who perform with utmost exuberance under Kimmel’s snappy direction.

Rockwell opens the show Dragnet-style with “This Is The City,” just one of over two dozen songs by Michele Brourman, Grant Geissman, Kimmel, Shelly Markham, Amanda McBroom, Wayne Moore, Adryan Russ, Richard M. Sherman, and Robert B. Sherman.

Rockwell later recalls in song the sadly shuttered Hollywood Blvd. landmark “C.C. Brown’s” and reminisces about Walt Disney’s “Whimsey Works,” once located “at the corner of Dopey Drive and Mickey Avenue.”

Liz Grannis, Lottie Arnold, and Dyson wax nostalgic about fresh-baked bread delivered straight to your door in “The Helms Man,” and Dyson later stops the show with a powerhouse “Sunset Strip 1965.”

The divine Miss D also recalls in spoken word the much-lamented Pan Pacific Auditorium, and Rockwell recites a moving monolog about a gay Brit who arrived in L.A. when men of his nature had to hide in the shadows, then lived to see pride parades in WeHo and same-sex marriage become reality.

Red-headed stunner Danika Masi shows off the evening’s most gorgeous pipes in “Midnight At The Roxy” (a look at L.A.’s answer to Studio 54) and “An L.A. Love Song,” an outrageously funny tribute to Los Angeles rush-hour traffic.

Arnold sizzles as “The Black Dahlia,” a 1960s-garbed Grannis sings about “A Home In Laurel Canyon,” and the distaff duo duet a melodious “Ode To NoHo” because what would L.A. be without the San Fernando Valley?

Tamir Yardenne gets the joint jumping in the appropriately titled “L.A. Is,” an engagingly Hi-NRG Marcel Licera raps out a salute to the multitude of street and L.A.-adjacent city names that out-of-towners mispronounce in “Straight Outta L.A.,” Hisato Masuyama recalls in his resonant baritone those “Weekday Heroes” that any kid growing in Los Angeles in the 1950s is sure to recall (see my opening paragraph), and curly-topped charmer Alec Reusch does his best Tony Manero to the disco beats of “Born Too Late.”

Comedy skits (by Bill Fitzhugh, Doug Haverty, Kimmel, and Daniel Wechter) compare L.A. life as it used to be and as it is lived today, whether examining family manners round the dinner table, or offering up a behind-closed-doors look at how different it would be for a couple of writers to pitch the film noir classic Double Indemnity in 1940 and in 2022.

Along the way, Harrison Fahn, Haruna Kajino, Alariza Nevárez, Margaret Staedler provide vocal/dance support in group numbers.

Fahn joins Reusch in a rapid-fire-spoken “The Crypto Space” (revealing just how much technology, smart phones, and social media have changed our lives), and Fahn and Masuyama strip down to their wrestling shorts to recall how “Every Wednesday Night” spectators gathered at the Olympic Auditorium for the 1950s version of WWE.

Choreographer Cheryl Baxter has the cast doing their best frugs, watusis, swims, and other assorted ‘60s dance moves in “Hullabaloo,” and musical director Richard Allen not only elicits terrific individual vocals but plenty of tight full-cast harmonies in group numbers like “Santa Monica” and “Christmas In L.A.”

Scenic designers Tesshi Nakagawa and Pawena Sriha provide a nifty platform for musical numbers and skits, vibrantly lit by Douglas Gabrielle, while allowing Nakagawa’s projections to offer audiences a visual reminder of people and places past and present, and costume designer Michael Mullen outdoes himself with dozens upon dozens of outfits taking us from the Eisenhower ‘50s to today.

Finally, musical director Allen conducts and plays keyboards in the production’s six-piece band*, who perform Lanny Meyer’s orchestrations to perfection.

L.A. Now And Then is produced for The Group Rep by Kathleen Delaney and Haverty. Delaney is assistant director. Bita Arefnia is stage manager. Kajino is dance captain. Nora Feldman is publicist.

Both a tuneful memory jogger for Baby Boomers and a history lesson for Millennials and Gen Zers, L.A. Now And Then delivers plenty to delight at The Group Rep.

*Allen, Matt Havesh, Bob O’Donnell, Ed Smith, Brandon Wilkins, Ken Zambello

The Group Rep, Lonny Chapman Theatre, 10900 Burbank Boulevard, North Hollywood.
www.thegrouprep.com

–Steven Stanley
April 1, 2022
Photos: Doug Engalla

Tags: Bruce Kimmel, Los Angeles Theater Review, The Group Rep