Maybe the Los Angeles Stage Alliance, which until last year was Theatre LA, should consider another name change—say, to something like Greater Southland Theatres Who Are Members. Not very catchy, is it? But then neither is the garbled message sent by this year’s Ovation Awards: Among the big winners were the Rubicon Theatre of Ventura and Performance Riverside of, well, Riverside. Earth to the Los Angeles Stage Alliance: These no doubt fine companies are not even in Los Angeles County, let alone the city of Los Angeles.
I don’t begrudge these artists a single award for their apparently killer productions of All My Sons and 1776, respectively, which clearly a quorum of Ovation voters felt were more than worth the drive. But if one of the goals of the Ovation Awards is to promote a more coherent picture of theatre in Los Angeles—which already sprawls from Pasadena to the South Bay and all points in between, and is already hard to even conceptualize as one community—then how exactly is that mission served by extending the boundaries beyond any reasonable geographical definition of what can be called Los Angeles? While they’re at it, why not add Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Costa Mesa? Or Lost Hills, where I drove on a hot day this past summer to see the beautiful culminating production in Cornerstone’s first rural residency in more than decade?
Monday night’s Ovations show was full of such puzzles and contradictions. For there, at one point, was Cornerstone, receiving not an award for Waking Up in Lost Hills but instead collecting a long overdue special Community Outreach Award. Presenting was South Central resident Guillermo Aviles, who injected a bracing reminder of the real impact of theatre into the otherwise lightweight proceedings: “I’m here because Cornerstone saved my life.” Aviles had signed on during the troupe’s 18-month Watts residency with the play Los Faustinos, offering him the “life preserver of theatre” in a community in which, according to Aviles, the only hope for young people is “the military or sports, because the education system is moribund.” Cornerstone’s work, Aviles averred, is “a testament to how much can be accomplished when you empower people to live up to their full potential.” Founding artistic director Bill Rauch, who has spent a good part of this year directing projects outside of Cornerstone (at Yale Rep, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and South Coast Rep), then offered, in a form all the more powerful for its brevity, an encapsulation of the mission statement that makes Cornerstone such an inspiration to artists who may have lost track of why the heck they get up on a stage in the first place: “We believe that everyone is an artist… We believe that every work of art has the power to change the world, and theatre is the best rehearsal we know for that change.” (Somehow that sounds a little loftier than presenter Garry Marshall’s terse sum-up of Cornerstone’s work: “They go from town to town using the local people.”)
Other contradictions: The Buffalo Nights’ zippy production was among the most consistently fun awards show in memory, with the irrepressible Matt Walker appearing as the Ovation itself, in a white leotard, and a gaggle of old men—well, young men in bad bald wigs and makeup—chasing him across the stage in wheelchairs. Later, Eric Anderson from Performance Riverside’s Rocky Horror Show and David Engel from South Bay CLO’s La Cage Aux Folles trotted out in extravagant drag, flounced through a rendition of “Sisters,” and then managed to plant indelible drag-queen lipstick kisses on all the costume designers to whom they presented awards. A waggish, slightly mad tone pervaded the evening—a very welcome antidote to the unavoidable awards-show pall. And David O’s tight band was a treat, witty and smoking.
But somehow the evening felt a little sad, with a recurring theme of resignation—both in the literal and the emotional sense. Steve Glaudini, whose Performance Riverside production of 1776 swept the musical, larger theatre category, recently resigned from the helm of the company he’s run for five years; he’s now an agent as Kazarian Spencer Associates. Derek Livingston, who accepted the small-theatre musical award for the Celebration Theatre’s smash production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, is leaving the artistic directorship of that theatre, too.
And perhaps the evening’s defining award presentation—the one that typified all that’s most distinctive, and most threatened, in L.A. theatre—was the James A. Doolittle Award for Leadership in Theatre. The L.A. Stage Alliance Board saw fit to honor Paula Holt, whose Tiffany Theatres shuttered two years ago. A more worthy candidate for this kind of career recognition you couldn’t find (and I’m relieved that the Ovations did a much classier job of paying her tribute than our Back Stage West Garlands did back in 2002, in a pitifully under-attended show at the Alex). But what does it say about the state of leadership in L.A. theatre that the Ovations would honor a woman who hasn’t produced a play in years? Presenter Susie Dietz tried to muster as much enthusiasm as possible for such current examples of Paula’s “leadership” as, “She continues to sit on that board,” and, “She’s developing a huge Broadway musical with Amanda McBroom,” but there remained in this tribute to a bygone era a whiff of the pathetic.
Maybe it was just post-election gloom. Indeed, Holt herself made a few such references in her acceptance speech: “If there’s anything we’ve learned in this post-election era,” she said (in an ominous turn of phrase, as if there won’t be any more elections), “it’s that there’s not only a culture that prevails, but there’s a very powerful counter-culture, as well. And you’re all part of that.” And, taking up the sort of theme that former LASA executive director Lee Wochner used to like to repeat, “California, this wonderful blue state, ranks dead last in arts funding per capita: It’s 3 cents a person. That’s lower than Mississippi.” (Am I the only one who found this presumptively pejorative invoking of a Deep Southern state to be a little, well, blue-statist?) She closed with the rather puzzling but crowd-pleasing, “I am grateful for all my years in the theatre, and for not being a Republican.”
Similarly worthy but considerably sunnier was Betty Garrett, who accepted a Life Achievement Award. She’s a classy old-school dame whose recording of “There’s a Small Hotel,” from the Rodgers & Hart anthology musical Words and Music. is a particular favorite of mine. She also trotted out an easy applause line, though more self-consciously: “My son says I should tell people my age: I’m 85.” The audience erupted in cheers, and Garrett deadpanned: “He was right—he said it would get me applause.”
Since we’re getting down to the quotes, herewith follows a sampling of some of the best, the worst, and the weirdest highlights of the evening:
Specificity is everything: “Have they suffered? You haven’t suffered until you’ve done a play at the Complex.” --Harry Harrison (Morgan Rusler), the Mr. Potter-esque geezer who busted in to give advice to the kids of A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant at the show’s opening
And the children shall lead us: The opening number from A Very Merry Unauthorized Children’s Scientology Pageant wasn’t the only example of youngsters winning our hearts. A group of kids from the La Bohème ensemble were about to be ushered dutifully off the stage when presenter Joanne Worley insisted, “Let the children say thank you!” They decorously marched forward and said polite thank-yous, but the priceless closer was a little girl who oozed attitude as she said, “Thank you Mom and Dad and Alice for actually coming.”
Nice image: “I did this show because I needed to let my heart sing. Live theatre lets your heart sing.”
--Yvette Freeman, accepting for Dinah Was
Nice rationale: “This is for all of us but it’s going to stay at my house ’cause it’s so pretty.”
--Freeman again
Garry Marshallisms:
“They sat Gordon Davidson up there in the back. A guy retires and they send him straight to the back of the balcony.”
“There were 378 registered shows, and amazingly enough, 361 with only one person in them.”
About Carolyn Hennesy’s lovely, revealing dress: “Some dresses are slow-walking dresses. That’s a slow-walking dress.”
One actor to another: Morlan Higgins, accepting for his stunning lead performance in Athol Fugard’s Exits and Entrances, thanked his co-star William Dennis Hurley, “whose performance is an acting lesson every night.”
Odes to the Ovation:
“She’s a juicy piece of glass.”
--Harry Harrison, in an opening number set to Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish”
“This is much more beautiful than any other award. I thought I was going to get a certificate or a plaque. (Kissing the statuette) I love you!”
--Betty Garrett, accepting a Life Achievement Award
Are there that many to go around?: Presenter Joanne Worley walked onstage with a red balloon and released it with the wish, “May you all win many, many Ovations.”
That cheeky announcer: Introducing presenter Julia Sweeney: “She’s the former SNL cast member who has made us laugh at androgyny and cancer.”
Random religiosity: Carolyn Hennesy, accepting a featured actress award for The Fan Maroo, “As Kiff (Scholl, the director) told me: Thank the baby Jesus.”
Milk it: “It’s hard to do this quickly, because you want this moment to last forever.”
--Gigi Bermingham, accepting a solo show award for Non-Vital Organs (redux)
Fly the freak flag high: Accepting the lighting design award for the Black Dahlia’s Nocturne, Mike Durst hopped up onstage in an oversized white suit, black sunglasses, and a sculpted Mohawk. His extremely brief acceptance speech began with a murmured question about whether the award would count for some drink tickets.
Philosophy of the theatre: “Playwrights are poets who got lonely.” --The Hope Davis-like Joy Gregory, accepting the world premiere musical award for The Shaggs, quoting a fellow playwright, Leon Martell
Props for the old rag: “This is totally unexpected—I read the Back Stage West article, didn’t you?”
--Gigi Bermingham, accepting a solo show award for Non-Vital Organs (redux); BSW’s Les Spindle had predicted Clinton Leupp’s Miss Coco Peru Is Undaunted “by a landslide”
Gaffe of the night: Presenting sound design awards, Paul Dooley announced the Boston Court’s Romeo and Juliet as the small-theatre winner. Then, after co-presenter Granville Van Dusen announced La Bohème for the larger theatre award, Dooley came back to the podium and said, “I forgot to announce a tie.” And then he promptly re-read the names of the sound designers from Romeo and Juliet and stood back as the band blared and the audience sat in mortified embarrassment until somebody called out, “Read the other one!” Dooley, chastened, obliged, and bestowed the second Ovation on Steve Goodie for Cold/Tender. Goodie ran to the stage and looked around, bewildered, and spoke for all of us: “What the hell just happened?”
Most puzzling attempt at a joke (we think): Dean Mora, music director of Amanda McBroom’s solo show Lady Macbeth Sings the Blues, quipped, “You have no idea how hard it was to teach Amanda the harmonies.”
Candor award: “I’m sorry, my buzz wore off before I got my award.”
--Alex Jaeger, accepting for costume design of Romeo & Juliet
First and only F word of the night: “Sandra Tsing Loh is such a fucking amazing inspiration!”
--Gigi Bermingham, about a fellow solo show nominee
Musical commentary: David O had some fun coming up with these, and we had fun identifying them. For sound design winners, the band played “Do You Hear What I Hear?” For the lead musical actress award, which went to Jill Van Velzer for 1776: “The Lady Is a Tramp.” For the lead musical actor award, which went to 1776’s Steve Glaudini: “Someday My Prince Will Come.” For Cornerstone’s Community award: “What a Wonderful World.”
All about me: Derek Livingston, accepting the small-theater award for the Celebration’s Hedwig and the Angry Inch: “I would thank my producer—which would be me. I would thank my artistic director—which would be me. I would thank my box-office staff—which would be me. I was washing fishnet stockings every week, and I’d be asking myself, Does Gordon Davidson do this?”
Thanks, I’ll be here all week: “I think the Diebold people are still in the back counting the votes, so I’m not sure I really won.”
--Martin Carrillo, sound designer for the Boston Court’s Romeo & Juliet
A sense of proportion: “I’d like to thank director Jessica Kubzansky, who on the way over said the traffic on Olympic was tragic—and then said that if a bomb were to fall on this building, it would be sad.”
--Jeff Goodie, accepting a sound design award Cold/Tender
Marty’s world: Marty Ingalls, co-presenting with his wife Shirley Jones, was a font of… a kind of humor. Like: “I’m a little hyper, I’m tripolar.” Or: “You know, there’s not one Jew on this list [of nominees]. That’s a violation in some states.” Or: “And the winneress is…”
Impromptu pop culture reference: Davis Gaines, co-presenting with Marissa Janet Winokur and Susan Egan, simply gestured to all three and proposed, “Three’s Company, the musical?” Susan piped in to clarify her part: “Joyce Dewitt.” Marissa chimed in: “They’d recast me.” And Davis shook his head: “Oh, Chrissy.”
Eternal mysteries: What was George Furth saying to the ASL interpreters before the show? Who is Morlan Higgins’ tailor? And why was Simon Levy, producing director of the Fountain, dressed in a morning coat and cravat?
Are we bitter?: Giving out a musical actress award, presenter Jason Graae went off script to quip: “Oh my God, it’s a write-in: David Engel won again!” And then, offering a self-critique: “That’s so inside it gives me gas.”
Drollery #1: “You may remember me, I went under the screen name of Irene Dunne.”
--Presenter Orson Bean
Drollery #2: “I only use these for reading. And walking.”
--presenter Paul Dooley, referring to his glasses
Drollery #3: “What hasn’t been said about sound?”
--Cold/Tender sound designer Jeff Goodie
Drollery #4: Presenter Marissa Janet Winokur, reading off the nominees for touring productions, all at the Ahmanson Theatre: First there was the Little Shop of Horrors, then Phantom of the Opera, “produced by the same people and some others.” And then Thoroughly Modern Millie, produced “by the same people and a few different people… Whoever wins, I’m sure these people will be very happy.”
Complaint as joke: A cast member of Caught in the Net at International City Theatre referred to the Long Beach company “as the Carpool Rep Company.”
Overstated absurdity watch: The offstage announcer made a little too much of the strangeness of juxtaposing lighting designer Jeremy Pivnick, Geffen Theatre artistic director Randall Arney, and Laugh-In nutjob Joanne Worley. Yeah… and?
The man with the power over time and space: John Ballinger, who wielded a mean triangle when speeches went too long.
Nov 19, 2004
Nov 18, 2004
It Was Either Him or Joel Schumacher
So the director of Mrs. Doubtfire has landed the coveted task of bringing Jonathan Larsen's so-so boho ode Rent to a multiplex near you. Is anyone else thinking what I'm thinking for the role of filmmaker Mark? (Anthony Rapp--who coincidentally appeared in the directorial debut of the same auteur--will reprise his Broadway performance for the film.) God, I just hope it lives up to Columbus' lofty aesthetic standards.
Nov 17, 2004
Just the Facts
I haven't had a chance yet to post my thoughts on the Ovations, but I can at least deliver this news: a complete list of the winners. (You can also go here.)
WORLD PREMIERE PLAY: Exits and Entrances, Athol Fugard, Fountain Theatre
WORLD PREMIERE MUSICAL: The Shaggs: The Philosophy of the World, Joy Gregory and Gunnar Madsen, Powerhouse Theatre Company at Inside the Ford, with Andrew Barrett-Weiss and Tess Skorczewski
PRODUCTION FROM A TOURING COMPANY: The Phantom of the Opera, Center Theatre Group: Ahmanson Theatre, Cameron Mackintosh, and Really Useful Theatre Company, Inc.
PLAY (SMALLER THEATRE): Master Class, Fountain Theatre
PLAY (LARGER THEATRE): All My Sons, Rubicon Theatre Company
FRANKLIN R. LEVY MEMORIAL AWARD FOR MUSICAL IN A SMALLER THEATRE: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Celebration Theatre
MUSICAL (LARGER THEATRE): 1776, Performance Riverside
DIRECTOR OF A PLAY (three-way tie): Ray Cooney, Caught in the Net, International City Theatre; Stephen Sachs, Exits and Entrances, Fountain Theatre; Daniel Sullivan, Intimate Apparel, Center Theatre Group: Mark Taper Forum and The Roundabout Theatre Company
DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL: Nick DeGruccio, 1776, Performance Riverside
CHOREOGRAPHY: Dana Solimando, Swing!, Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities
MUSICAL DIRECTION: Dean Mora, Lady Macbeth Sings the Blues, Rubicon Theatre Company
LEAD ACTRESS IN A PLAY: Viola Davis, Intimate Apparel, Center Theatre Group: Mark Taper Forum and The Roundabout Theatre Company
LEAD ACTOR IN A PLAY: Morlan Higgins, Exits and Entrances, Fountain Theatre
LEAD ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL: Yvette Freeman, Dinah Was, International City Theatre
LEAD ACTOR IN A MUSICAL: Steve Glaudini, 1776, Performance Riverside
FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY: Carolyn Hennesy, The Fan Maroo, Theatre of NOTE
FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY: Joseph Fuqua, All My Sons, Rubicon Theatre Company
FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL: Jill Van Velzer, 1776, Performance Riverside
FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL: Nils Anderson, 1776, Performance Riverside
RAY STRICKLYN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR SOLO PERFORMANCE: Gigi Bermingham, Non-Vital Organs (redux), Odyssey Theatre Ensemble
ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE (tie): The cast of La Bohème,, Center Theatre Group: Ahmanson Theatre AND the cast of Caught in the Net, International City Theatre
SET DESIGN (SMALLER THEATRE): Joel Daavid, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, RKA Productions in association with Sam Pink's Red Cat Jazz Cafe and Elephant Stageworks
SET DESIGN (LARGER THEATRE): Catherine Martin, La Bohème, Center Theatre Group: Ahmanson Theatre
LIGHTING DESIGN (SMALLER THEATRE): Mike Durst, Nocturne, Black Dahlia Theatre
LIGHTING DESIGN (LARGER THEATRE): Nigel Levings, La Bohème, Center Theatre Group: Ahmanson Theatre
SOUND DESIGN (SMALLER THEATRE) (tie): Steve Goodie, Cold/Tender, The Theatre @ Boston Court AND Julie Ferrin, Martin Carrillo, Paul Hepker, Romeo and Juliet: Antebellum New Orleans, 1836, The Theatre @ Boston Court
SOUND DESIGN (LARGER THEATRE): Acme Sound Partners, La Bohème, Center Theatre Group: Ahmanson Theatre
COSTUME DESIGN (SMALLER THEATRE) (tie): Alex Jaeger, Romeo & Juliet: Antebellum New Orleans, 1836, the Theatre @ Boston Court AND A. Jeffrey Schoenberg, The Devils, Open Fist Theatre Company
COSTUME DESIGN (LARGER THEATRE): Catherine Zuber, Intimate Apparel, Center Theatre Group: Mark Taper Forum and The Roundabout Theatre Company
James A. Doolittle Award for Leadership in the Theatre: Paula Holt
The Career Achievement Award: Betty Garrett
Community Outreach Award: Cornerstone Theater Company
WORLD PREMIERE PLAY: Exits and Entrances, Athol Fugard, Fountain Theatre
WORLD PREMIERE MUSICAL: The Shaggs: The Philosophy of the World, Joy Gregory and Gunnar Madsen, Powerhouse Theatre Company at Inside the Ford, with Andrew Barrett-Weiss and Tess Skorczewski
PRODUCTION FROM A TOURING COMPANY: The Phantom of the Opera, Center Theatre Group: Ahmanson Theatre, Cameron Mackintosh, and Really Useful Theatre Company, Inc.
PLAY (SMALLER THEATRE): Master Class, Fountain Theatre
PLAY (LARGER THEATRE): All My Sons, Rubicon Theatre Company
FRANKLIN R. LEVY MEMORIAL AWARD FOR MUSICAL IN A SMALLER THEATRE: Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Celebration Theatre
MUSICAL (LARGER THEATRE): 1776, Performance Riverside
DIRECTOR OF A PLAY (three-way tie): Ray Cooney, Caught in the Net, International City Theatre; Stephen Sachs, Exits and Entrances, Fountain Theatre; Daniel Sullivan, Intimate Apparel, Center Theatre Group: Mark Taper Forum and The Roundabout Theatre Company
DIRECTOR OF A MUSICAL: Nick DeGruccio, 1776, Performance Riverside
CHOREOGRAPHY: Dana Solimando, Swing!, Civic Light Opera of South Bay Cities
MUSICAL DIRECTION: Dean Mora, Lady Macbeth Sings the Blues, Rubicon Theatre Company
LEAD ACTRESS IN A PLAY: Viola Davis, Intimate Apparel, Center Theatre Group: Mark Taper Forum and The Roundabout Theatre Company
LEAD ACTOR IN A PLAY: Morlan Higgins, Exits and Entrances, Fountain Theatre
LEAD ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL: Yvette Freeman, Dinah Was, International City Theatre
LEAD ACTOR IN A MUSICAL: Steve Glaudini, 1776, Performance Riverside
FEATURED ACTRESS IN A PLAY: Carolyn Hennesy, The Fan Maroo, Theatre of NOTE
FEATURED ACTOR IN A PLAY: Joseph Fuqua, All My Sons, Rubicon Theatre Company
FEATURED ACTRESS IN A MUSICAL: Jill Van Velzer, 1776, Performance Riverside
FEATURED ACTOR IN A MUSICAL: Nils Anderson, 1776, Performance Riverside
RAY STRICKLYN MEMORIAL AWARD FOR SOLO PERFORMANCE: Gigi Bermingham, Non-Vital Organs (redux), Odyssey Theatre Ensemble
ENSEMBLE PERFORMANCE (tie): The cast of La Bohème,, Center Theatre Group: Ahmanson Theatre AND the cast of Caught in the Net, International City Theatre
SET DESIGN (SMALLER THEATRE): Joel Daavid, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, RKA Productions in association with Sam Pink's Red Cat Jazz Cafe and Elephant Stageworks
SET DESIGN (LARGER THEATRE): Catherine Martin, La Bohème, Center Theatre Group: Ahmanson Theatre
LIGHTING DESIGN (SMALLER THEATRE): Mike Durst, Nocturne, Black Dahlia Theatre
LIGHTING DESIGN (LARGER THEATRE): Nigel Levings, La Bohème, Center Theatre Group: Ahmanson Theatre
SOUND DESIGN (SMALLER THEATRE) (tie): Steve Goodie, Cold/Tender, The Theatre @ Boston Court AND Julie Ferrin, Martin Carrillo, Paul Hepker, Romeo and Juliet: Antebellum New Orleans, 1836, The Theatre @ Boston Court
SOUND DESIGN (LARGER THEATRE): Acme Sound Partners, La Bohème, Center Theatre Group: Ahmanson Theatre
COSTUME DESIGN (SMALLER THEATRE) (tie): Alex Jaeger, Romeo & Juliet: Antebellum New Orleans, 1836, the Theatre @ Boston Court AND A. Jeffrey Schoenberg, The Devils, Open Fist Theatre Company
COSTUME DESIGN (LARGER THEATRE): Catherine Zuber, Intimate Apparel, Center Theatre Group: Mark Taper Forum and The Roundabout Theatre Company
James A. Doolittle Award for Leadership in the Theatre: Paula Holt
The Career Achievement Award: Betty Garrett
Community Outreach Award: Cornerstone Theater Company
Nov 16, 2004
Sweet "Caroline"
Further proof, if proof were needed, that Broadway is a musty museum: When I saw the vibrant, stirring musical Caroline, or Change there last spring, it seemed out of place. Indeed, it seemed to come off a little pretentious, a little tenuous, as if book writer Tony Kushner and composer Jeanine Tesori were tweaking musical theatre orthodoxy out of a mix of snobbery and ignorance. It felt as if they were saying: We don’t know how this is done but we don’t care because we have important things to say with our musical. I admit that I had a mixed reaction to it, personally—I was alternately moved and reserved about its mix of anger and ebullience. But solidifying the impression that this was dangerous musical theatre heresy was a loudmouth show queen in an adjoining seat, who popped up after the show and announced to a friend, and everyone in earshot, that it was the worst musical he’d seen in years. “Give me a tune, anything!” he said, and said again and again, in various ways, on the slow shuffle out the door.
What is affirmed on second viewing, in the new production at the Ahmanson Theatre (which apart from some youngsters is the same show, with an identical cast, as in New York), is that, freed from the straitjacket of Broadway expectations, Caroline, or Change is a serious contender in the Great American Musical sweepstakes. It's the best new American musical since Ragtime, at least, and perhaps not coincidentally it also addresses the terrible American legacy of racism, but with the kind of complicated, soulful blend of provocation and pleasure that is the signature of playwright Tony Kushner. I'll consider Homebody/Kabul a forgiveable transgression—a noble attempt that no one close to Kushner apparently had the heart or the stones to edit or challenge—and point to Caroline, or Change as a hopeful sign that Kushner remains one of our essential storytellers.
And if the experience of my plus-one for the show is any indication, this is also a musical for people who don't usually like musicals. Let the Broadway babies have their way. Caroline is here to stay.
3,000 Words
If a picture's worth a thousand of 'em, here are 3 early reports from tonight's Ovation Awards, which favored Hollywood's Fountain Theatre--and Performance Riverside, in the 909. Hmmm...
So sue me, it's a cheap camera phone.
Did the hallucinogenic fresnels or whatever you call them.
Fine eating establishments abound nearby.
Coming soon... a full post on what one awards show clown described as "three hours of my life I'll never get back."
So sue me, it's a cheap camera phone.
Did the hallucinogenic fresnels or whatever you call them.
Fine eating establishments abound nearby.
Coming soon... a full post on what one awards show clown described as "three hours of my life I'll never get back."
Nov 15, 2004
Standing on Ceremony
The Kirk Douglas Theatre is a jewel in the crowd—a real destination in the midst of the fairly bustling and benign Culver City. I used to drive by that old Culver moviehouse when I had a job running errands around there, and it’s heartening for the preservation-minded that it’s retained that giant vertical “CULVER” signage on top. And it’s truly lovely inside, with a cozy, intent proscenium layout and a pleasingly vast stage that seems as deep as it is tall and wide. I would almost recommend seeing the show that’s opened there just to get a glimpse of it.
Or maybe not. The play that inaugurates the space is Chuck Mee’s A PERFECT WEDDING, and on so many levels it’s a bold, encouraging, ambitious choice. The huge cast is like a cross section of L.A. theatre talent from some of the town’s best ensemble companies, as well regional theatre familiars and semi-names. Bart DeLorenzo of the Evidence Room is the only other impresario in town I can think of who would have the taste and pull to put together such a cast—and, not coincidentally, many in the cast are ER alumni (and two, John Fleck and Leo Marks, are veterans of Mee plays there; Marks points out in his bio that this is his third, and Fleck of course was the morally ambidextrous Heiner Müller in ER’s triumphant THE BERLIN CIRCLE in 2000). And the play is a hearteningly multi-culti celebration of all the good things we value in these blue states: love, community, tolerance, sexual freedom.
Unfortunately in this case the designation “play” is generous. Mee’s way of making plays is always eclectic, demotic, and engaging; at his best he wears his questing intelligence lightly and retains a gift for playful effrontery. He has real wit not just as a wordsmith but as a theatrical writer—which is not the same as saying he has a particularly sturdy dramaturgical craft. His best works--Berlin Circle, Big Love--are high-wire acts that on the page “shouldn’t” work at all (a paradox that’s also often true of two 20th century writers Mee evokes, Chekhov and Brecht). The downside of this approach, especially at the rate Mee has been turning out plays, is that if he doesn’t keep all these balls in the air, the showmanship starts to look like shtick. That’s the case with too much of Wedding, which trots out a grab bag of Mee tricks—references and appropriations to classic texts, open and often provocative philosophizing, musical numbers, unexpected jokes buried in the darkest drama and vice versa, startling shifts in tone, passionate frenzy. These are all present in his best work (the aforementioned two), his good work (the underrated Summertime, at the Boston Court earlier this year), and his mediocrities (Imperialists at the Club Cave Canem, which despite its lively production at the Evidence Room is just a series of dialogues, not a play, or his adaptations of The Oresteia and The Trojan Women, cobbled together into an ungainly evening of torture by mad hatter Matt Wilder at the Open Fist under the title Songs of Joy and Destitution in early 2003).
A Perfect Wedding is regrettably in the latter category. There are some lovely scenes and monologues here, and some pleasingly cheesy twists, but there are too many duds: a pitiful duet for two gravediggers, a series of full-cast scenes in which everyone pitches in their two cents, unbidden, in a sort of round-robin forum, and too many forced extremes in both directions, zany and somber. This is what my colleague Evan Henerson at The Daily News, in a review that refreshingly dissents from the generally positive consensus so far, aptly refers to as “anarchy on autopilot.” It reminds me of the way Robert Altman, a great American artist with a similarly chaotic, shoot-from-the-hip aesthetic, seems equally capable of masterpieces and utter dreck; it would seem to be an occupational hazard of working this way.
I was actually relieved when, about 20 minutes into a faltering second act, Mee just gave up on the play and delivered the wedding party the cast, and we, all came for. The climax and highlight is a vibrant dance number featuring Fleck and Jim Anzide as romantic leads lip-synching to “Chunari Chunari” from Monsoon Wedding while the cast does an engaging half-time-show version of a Bollywood dance number. (My familiarity with the song only made this sweeter, as I anticipated the entrance of the male voice, play-acted pricelessly by Anzide, after delighting in Fleck’s mincing take on the female part.) And I was moved by Leo Marks’ turn as the loser in the Midsummer-inspired lovers’ exchange—as much by his vulnerable performance as by his mere presence in these proceedings.
Indeed, just about everything about this kick-off production is inspiring in terms of where this new theatre’s aesthetic heart is. As someone who’s witnessed with a fair degree of heartbreak the hit-and-miss efforts at the Mark Taper Forum over the years, and after following many of the Taper’s more adventurous non-mainstage spinoffs—the New Works Festival and Taper, Too—I can’t overstate how significant this is. It means the Center Theatre Group gets it; it means that when Gordon Davidson’s often sluggish organization is freed a bit from the huge responsibility of programming at the Taper and the Ahmanson, the company is really going to go for it and program a real alternative on its second stage.
This sense of christening, of sending the good ship Douglas off on the right journey, is finally about all Perfect Wedding has to offer. A play about ceremonies that mark our lives, it’s ultimately a ceremonial offering itself. That’s not nothing, but it might not be worth a $40 ticket.
Or maybe not. The play that inaugurates the space is Chuck Mee’s A PERFECT WEDDING, and on so many levels it’s a bold, encouraging, ambitious choice. The huge cast is like a cross section of L.A. theatre talent from some of the town’s best ensemble companies, as well regional theatre familiars and semi-names. Bart DeLorenzo of the Evidence Room is the only other impresario in town I can think of who would have the taste and pull to put together such a cast—and, not coincidentally, many in the cast are ER alumni (and two, John Fleck and Leo Marks, are veterans of Mee plays there; Marks points out in his bio that this is his third, and Fleck of course was the morally ambidextrous Heiner Müller in ER’s triumphant THE BERLIN CIRCLE in 2000). And the play is a hearteningly multi-culti celebration of all the good things we value in these blue states: love, community, tolerance, sexual freedom.
Unfortunately in this case the designation “play” is generous. Mee’s way of making plays is always eclectic, demotic, and engaging; at his best he wears his questing intelligence lightly and retains a gift for playful effrontery. He has real wit not just as a wordsmith but as a theatrical writer—which is not the same as saying he has a particularly sturdy dramaturgical craft. His best works--Berlin Circle, Big Love--are high-wire acts that on the page “shouldn’t” work at all (a paradox that’s also often true of two 20th century writers Mee evokes, Chekhov and Brecht). The downside of this approach, especially at the rate Mee has been turning out plays, is that if he doesn’t keep all these balls in the air, the showmanship starts to look like shtick. That’s the case with too much of Wedding, which trots out a grab bag of Mee tricks—references and appropriations to classic texts, open and often provocative philosophizing, musical numbers, unexpected jokes buried in the darkest drama and vice versa, startling shifts in tone, passionate frenzy. These are all present in his best work (the aforementioned two), his good work (the underrated Summertime, at the Boston Court earlier this year), and his mediocrities (Imperialists at the Club Cave Canem, which despite its lively production at the Evidence Room is just a series of dialogues, not a play, or his adaptations of The Oresteia and The Trojan Women, cobbled together into an ungainly evening of torture by mad hatter Matt Wilder at the Open Fist under the title Songs of Joy and Destitution in early 2003).
A Perfect Wedding is regrettably in the latter category. There are some lovely scenes and monologues here, and some pleasingly cheesy twists, but there are too many duds: a pitiful duet for two gravediggers, a series of full-cast scenes in which everyone pitches in their two cents, unbidden, in a sort of round-robin forum, and too many forced extremes in both directions, zany and somber. This is what my colleague Evan Henerson at The Daily News, in a review that refreshingly dissents from the generally positive consensus so far, aptly refers to as “anarchy on autopilot.” It reminds me of the way Robert Altman, a great American artist with a similarly chaotic, shoot-from-the-hip aesthetic, seems equally capable of masterpieces and utter dreck; it would seem to be an occupational hazard of working this way.
I was actually relieved when, about 20 minutes into a faltering second act, Mee just gave up on the play and delivered the wedding party the cast, and we, all came for. The climax and highlight is a vibrant dance number featuring Fleck and Jim Anzide as romantic leads lip-synching to “Chunari Chunari” from Monsoon Wedding while the cast does an engaging half-time-show version of a Bollywood dance number. (My familiarity with the song only made this sweeter, as I anticipated the entrance of the male voice, play-acted pricelessly by Anzide, after delighting in Fleck’s mincing take on the female part.) And I was moved by Leo Marks’ turn as the loser in the Midsummer-inspired lovers’ exchange—as much by his vulnerable performance as by his mere presence in these proceedings.
Indeed, just about everything about this kick-off production is inspiring in terms of where this new theatre’s aesthetic heart is. As someone who’s witnessed with a fair degree of heartbreak the hit-and-miss efforts at the Mark Taper Forum over the years, and after following many of the Taper’s more adventurous non-mainstage spinoffs—the New Works Festival and Taper, Too—I can’t overstate how significant this is. It means the Center Theatre Group gets it; it means that when Gordon Davidson’s often sluggish organization is freed a bit from the huge responsibility of programming at the Taper and the Ahmanson, the company is really going to go for it and program a real alternative on its second stage.
This sense of christening, of sending the good ship Douglas off on the right journey, is finally about all Perfect Wedding has to offer. A play about ceremonies that mark our lives, it’s ultimately a ceremonial offering itself. That’s not nothing, but it might not be worth a $40 ticket.
Review of Reviews Catch-Up
It strikes me that I’d get much further ahead of the ball if I did these round-ups in pieces, a few shows at a time, then republish the entire list on, say, a Wednesday or Thursday before a given weekend, as a sort of guide for the weekend. But then, I know that only critics plan their review schedule for a given weekend a few days before it hits—at the Times, we stringers do, at least.
However I slice it, I hope it’s helpful. Here are a few reviews I wasn’t able to get to until now.
Adding another mixed-positive review to the consensus about the world premiere of Jean Claude Van Itallie’s LIGHT at Pasadena’s Theatre @ Boston Court was Back Stage West’s Hoyt Hilsman, who agreed with his peers that it’s “engaging and evocative, if somewhat overwritten,” singling out a “climactic moment of emotional power and intellectual truth” and praising the “deft direction of Jessica Kubzansky and the nuanced performances of a talented cast.”
Early 20th-century African-American activist Ida B. Wells is the subject of Tazewell Thompson’s “play with music” CONSTANT STAR at the Laguna Playhouse. Critics were generally impressed and informed, with some reservations. Back Stage West’s Melinda Schupmann called it “culturally enriching and… beautifully performed” and called the performances “often riveting,” but found the “patchwork nature of the script” too “scattershot.” The Times’ Don Shirley didn’t disagree, writing that “Thompson is less interested in a methodical biography than he is in evoking the passions that motivated Wells' activism,” but felt that the a cappella spirituals that link the scenes “are the play's salvation… unfailingly moving and performed to perfection.”
A new production of Sophie Treadwell’s cautionary 1928 drama MACHINAL at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Center in West Hollywood impressed the two critics who have weighed in, though they varied in their enthusiasm. At the Times, Daryl H. Miller marvelled that this “strange and wonderful piece of Expressionistic theater… seems of-the-moment all over again,” noting the way the show’s aperture-like design “conveys a powerful sense of claustrophobia.” He did wonder if perhaps the show was “a bit too concept-heavy for its own good,” though he mused that this may make it “ready-made for an experimental showcase such as CalArts' REDCAT space,” adding that most of the participants in the young Blank-the-Dog theatre company are CalArts grads. Steven Leigh Morris at the Weekly quibbled that “not much effort was made to get the ensemble’s hair and wardrobe right, and the furniture is from various decades,” but conceded that director Nataki Garrett’s “riveting staging” and the “intense performance” of lead actress Amanda Maria Lorca, “help us forget about the anachronistic production elements.”
Shishir Kurup’s lavish adaptation of the Ramayana, AS VISHNU DREAMS at Little Tokyo’s East West Players, resonated strongly with the Times’ Don Shirley, who called it “a gripping interpretation” with “thoughtful, funny, and finally poignant dimensions.” His closer summed it up unequivocally: “[Director Juliette] Carrillo’s blending of the story’s far-flung elements is masterful. The cast has no weak links. As Vishnu Dreams is wide-awake theater.” In my review for the Downtown News, I was more equivocal about this co-production with Cornerstone Theater Company as part of its “faith-based” cycle of plays: I thought Kurup hammers the Iraq analogies “a little too insistently,” and that while his humanization of the story’s villain, Ravana, does lend the tale complicated tragic dimensions “reminiscent of the Greeks or Shakespeare,” he hasn’t allowed the story’s hero, Rama, commensurate depth. I found the show’s second act a “drawn-out roundelay of flash-forward, exposition and speechifying confrontation.” I enjoyed Lynn Jeffries’ spectacular shadow puppetry and Chris Acebo’s gorgeous, elemental set. But I had to wonder what this “hectoring and heterodox” take on a founding text of Hinduism has to do with Cornerstone’s ostensible community-building mission.
I’ll confess that I’d never seen a production of Harnick and Bock’s SHE LOVES ME, the 1963 musical based on the same Hungarian play that inspired one of the great films of all time, The Shop Around the Corner. I admire Bock and Harnick—particularly Fiddler and Fiorello--but this quaint confection left me cold. In my Times review of Musical Theatre West’s new production at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach, I found it “remarkably resistible” even if director Jamie Rocco’s production is “faultless” and “well-cast.” Perhaps, though, I should defer to my colleague Les Spindle, an aficionado of the show, who raved in Back Stage West that the show’s “durable virtues are quite evident” in this “greatly satisfying” revival, “despite some glitches,” which he pegged mainly as a slightly “sluggish” pace in the first act. He raved about leads John Bisom and Teri Bibb and closed rosily: “This holiday-themed confection is like finding a heart-shaped box of scrumptious bon-bons under your Christmas tree.” (Maybe that’s the problem: I always preferred those Dutch butter cookies.) For her part, Long Beach Press-Telegram's Alessandra Djurklou admitted that in the wrong hands, this "charmingly old-fashioned... fluffy and sweet" show "could pretty much become dreck," but that the MTW folks "do it justice." (I will add here that my trip to the Carpenter Center was greatly enhanced by the Karen-and-Richard retrospective in the lobby. They’ve even got Karen’s Ludwig drum set on display!)
Reviving the critical divide over NoHo Arts Center’s musical DORIAN were two reviews I came across recently. In the plus column was Jay Reiner’s at the The Hollywood Reporter, which found it “exciting,” with an “outstanding cast,” and though he conceded that the adaptation is “admirable for its refusal to compromise the dark story and complex themes… the writing feels a bit awkward and overstated in the latter stages.” With some retouching, Reiner thinks this portrait of Dorian “could be on its way to an eternal life of its own.” Offering a wildly dissenting opinion was the Daily News’ Katherine Karlin, who wrote that James J. Mellon’s psychologizing of the Oscar Wilde novel amounted to “Dorian Gray as told by Dr. Phil.” She found much of the story implausible and the “stock Creole” characters offensive, though she wrote that among “a large, talented cast [struggling] gamely… only Armelia McQueen manages to rise above the material.”
Back Stage West’s Dink O’Neal chimed into the negative chorus dissing R.S. Call’s story about a pedophile priest, DAMAGES at the Hudson Mainstage in Hollywood. O’Neal called it a “long-winded liturgical mishmash” with “almost universally sophomoric acting,” save James Storm’s “deviously intervening monsignor.” The Catholic church has a lot to answer for—its abuse scandal has spawned mostly terrible plays (though my colleagues have raved about Dakin Matthews’ PRINCE OF L.A and theatre maven Ravi Narasimhan points to Celtic Arts Center’s LEPERS OF BAILE BASTE, which ran in the fall of 2003, as the “best by far in the church abuse sweepstakes”).
However I slice it, I hope it’s helpful. Here are a few reviews I wasn’t able to get to until now.
Adding another mixed-positive review to the consensus about the world premiere of Jean Claude Van Itallie’s LIGHT at Pasadena’s Theatre @ Boston Court was Back Stage West’s Hoyt Hilsman, who agreed with his peers that it’s “engaging and evocative, if somewhat overwritten,” singling out a “climactic moment of emotional power and intellectual truth” and praising the “deft direction of Jessica Kubzansky and the nuanced performances of a talented cast.”
Early 20th-century African-American activist Ida B. Wells is the subject of Tazewell Thompson’s “play with music” CONSTANT STAR at the Laguna Playhouse. Critics were generally impressed and informed, with some reservations. Back Stage West’s Melinda Schupmann called it “culturally enriching and… beautifully performed” and called the performances “often riveting,” but found the “patchwork nature of the script” too “scattershot.” The Times’ Don Shirley didn’t disagree, writing that “Thompson is less interested in a methodical biography than he is in evoking the passions that motivated Wells' activism,” but felt that the a cappella spirituals that link the scenes “are the play's salvation… unfailingly moving and performed to perfection.”
A new production of Sophie Treadwell’s cautionary 1928 drama MACHINAL at the Lee Strasberg Theatre Center in West Hollywood impressed the two critics who have weighed in, though they varied in their enthusiasm. At the Times, Daryl H. Miller marvelled that this “strange and wonderful piece of Expressionistic theater… seems of-the-moment all over again,” noting the way the show’s aperture-like design “conveys a powerful sense of claustrophobia.” He did wonder if perhaps the show was “a bit too concept-heavy for its own good,” though he mused that this may make it “ready-made for an experimental showcase such as CalArts' REDCAT space,” adding that most of the participants in the young Blank-the-Dog theatre company are CalArts grads. Steven Leigh Morris at the Weekly quibbled that “not much effort was made to get the ensemble’s hair and wardrobe right, and the furniture is from various decades,” but conceded that director Nataki Garrett’s “riveting staging” and the “intense performance” of lead actress Amanda Maria Lorca, “help us forget about the anachronistic production elements.”
Shishir Kurup’s lavish adaptation of the Ramayana, AS VISHNU DREAMS at Little Tokyo’s East West Players, resonated strongly with the Times’ Don Shirley, who called it “a gripping interpretation” with “thoughtful, funny, and finally poignant dimensions.” His closer summed it up unequivocally: “[Director Juliette] Carrillo’s blending of the story’s far-flung elements is masterful. The cast has no weak links. As Vishnu Dreams is wide-awake theater.” In my review for the Downtown News, I was more equivocal about this co-production with Cornerstone Theater Company as part of its “faith-based” cycle of plays: I thought Kurup hammers the Iraq analogies “a little too insistently,” and that while his humanization of the story’s villain, Ravana, does lend the tale complicated tragic dimensions “reminiscent of the Greeks or Shakespeare,” he hasn’t allowed the story’s hero, Rama, commensurate depth. I found the show’s second act a “drawn-out roundelay of flash-forward, exposition and speechifying confrontation.” I enjoyed Lynn Jeffries’ spectacular shadow puppetry and Chris Acebo’s gorgeous, elemental set. But I had to wonder what this “hectoring and heterodox” take on a founding text of Hinduism has to do with Cornerstone’s ostensible community-building mission.
I’ll confess that I’d never seen a production of Harnick and Bock’s SHE LOVES ME, the 1963 musical based on the same Hungarian play that inspired one of the great films of all time, The Shop Around the Corner. I admire Bock and Harnick—particularly Fiddler and Fiorello--but this quaint confection left me cold. In my Times review of Musical Theatre West’s new production at the Carpenter Center for the Performing Arts in Long Beach, I found it “remarkably resistible” even if director Jamie Rocco’s production is “faultless” and “well-cast.” Perhaps, though, I should defer to my colleague Les Spindle, an aficionado of the show, who raved in Back Stage West that the show’s “durable virtues are quite evident” in this “greatly satisfying” revival, “despite some glitches,” which he pegged mainly as a slightly “sluggish” pace in the first act. He raved about leads John Bisom and Teri Bibb and closed rosily: “This holiday-themed confection is like finding a heart-shaped box of scrumptious bon-bons under your Christmas tree.” (Maybe that’s the problem: I always preferred those Dutch butter cookies.) For her part, Long Beach Press-Telegram's Alessandra Djurklou admitted that in the wrong hands, this "charmingly old-fashioned... fluffy and sweet" show "could pretty much become dreck," but that the MTW folks "do it justice." (I will add here that my trip to the Carpenter Center was greatly enhanced by the Karen-and-Richard retrospective in the lobby. They’ve even got Karen’s Ludwig drum set on display!)
Reviving the critical divide over NoHo Arts Center’s musical DORIAN were two reviews I came across recently. In the plus column was Jay Reiner’s at the The Hollywood Reporter, which found it “exciting,” with an “outstanding cast,” and though he conceded that the adaptation is “admirable for its refusal to compromise the dark story and complex themes… the writing feels a bit awkward and overstated in the latter stages.” With some retouching, Reiner thinks this portrait of Dorian “could be on its way to an eternal life of its own.” Offering a wildly dissenting opinion was the Daily News’ Katherine Karlin, who wrote that James J. Mellon’s psychologizing of the Oscar Wilde novel amounted to “Dorian Gray as told by Dr. Phil.” She found much of the story implausible and the “stock Creole” characters offensive, though she wrote that among “a large, talented cast [struggling] gamely… only Armelia McQueen manages to rise above the material.”
Back Stage West’s Dink O’Neal chimed into the negative chorus dissing R.S. Call’s story about a pedophile priest, DAMAGES at the Hudson Mainstage in Hollywood. O’Neal called it a “long-winded liturgical mishmash” with “almost universally sophomoric acting,” save James Storm’s “deviously intervening monsignor.” The Catholic church has a lot to answer for—its abuse scandal has spawned mostly terrible plays (though my colleagues have raved about Dakin Matthews’ PRINCE OF L.A and theatre maven Ravi Narasimhan points to Celtic Arts Center’s LEPERS OF BAILE BASTE, which ran in the fall of 2003, as the “best by far in the church abuse sweepstakes”).
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