Author Archive
THE KING AND I
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
When you’ve seen a musical theater classic like Rodgers and Hammerstein’s The King And I as many times as I have, the excitement of each new production (besides the pleasure of revisiting an old favorite) is seeing new performers, directors, choreographers, musical directors, and designers put their own stamp on it.
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MARRY ME A LITTLE/THE LAST FIVE YEARS
Tuesday, May 12th, 2009
My favorite East West Players shows are their productions of well-known plays and musicals which offer Asian-American actors the opportunity to tackle roles for which they might not normally be considered. Whether dramatic fare, like Proof or Equus, or musicals like Little Shop Of Horrors or pretty much all of the Sondheim oeuvre, or a play with music like Master Class, these are the productions which have left the strongest, best impressions on me.
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THE REHEARSAL
Sunday, May 10th, 2009RECOMMENDED
The French, They Are A Funny Race, or so goes the title of a 1955 Preston Sturges comedy. Not having seen that film, I’m not quite sure which “funny” its title refers to—“funny-amusing” or “funny-peculiar.” In Jean Anouilh’s The Rehearsal, it’s quite clearly a good deal of both.
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THE LITTLE DOG LAUGHED
Saturday, May 9th, 2009
Diversionary Theatre’s production of The Little Dog Laughed makes several things perfectly clear. First, that despite the out, proud, and successful-as-ever Neil Patrick Harrises and T.R. Knights et al, the closet is alive and well in Hollywood. Second, that Douglas Carter Beane’s comedy may be the funniest Broadway show yet about gay movie stars, lesbian agents, and bisexual hustlers. Third, and the best news of all for San Diego audiences, Diversionary’s cast of four locally-based actors stands up very nicely to their Broadway counterparts, thank you very much.
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BIG THE MUSICAL
Friday, May 8th, 2009
Following its award-winning productions of Zanna, Don’t and Assassins, West Coast Ensemble continues its winning streak of musical hits with a sensational intimate staging of Big The Musical.
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FORBIDDEN BROADWAY
Thursday, May 7th, 2009
For the past 27 years, New York City audiences have been treated to Forbidden Broadway, a series of ten or so revues spoofing The Great White Way’s latest hits (and flops). Since 1982, a revolving quartet of supertalented performers backed by a piano—and the master-satirizer that is writer/creator Gerard Alessandrini—have lampooned Broadway legends like Carol Channing and Liza Minnelli, current hit shows a la Jersey Boys and Mary Poppins, and musical theater classics such as Man Of La Mancha and Gypsy. Coming up with a new revue every two or three years, Alessandrini and company have created their own special franchise—which now gets its first original L.A. regional theater staging at Long Beach’s Musical Theatre West. Dubbed Forbidden Broadway Greatest Hits, Volume One, the resulting concoction makes for one of the funniest CLO shows you’re likely to see this year.
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INCORRUPTIBLE
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009
Can you imagine anything more improbable than a screwball comedy set in a monastery in 13th Century Europe? Wacky, zany, and madcap are not adjectives one would normally use to describe what Wikipedia refers to as “a period of cultural decline or societal collapse that took place in Western Europe between the fall of Rome and the eventual recovery of learning.” And yet Michael Hollinger’s Incorruptible is indeed a wacky, zany, madcap romp which takes place in 1250 France. I saw Incorruptible at the Colony Theatre in 2001—and loved it—and I am delighted to report that Theatre 40 has put together an equally rib-tickling production—now available for your delectation.
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THE CRUCIBLE
Sunday, May 3rd, 2009NOT RECOMMENDED
Arthur Miller’s The Crucible holds a special place in my heart. It gave me my very first experience as a stage actor at the age of 16, and though I later watched the 1996 film on video, it wasn’t until December 2007 that I saw The Crucible staged for the very first time, decades after high school, in a production that left me devastated, as the playwright certainly intended.
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