Theater review: La Cage Aux Folles

“La Cage Aux Folles” has a venerable history. Based on the 1973 French play by Jean Poiret, it hit Broadway (in English) in 1984, where it won six of the nine Tonys it was nominated for. Two succeeding productions each won a Tony for best revival of a musical. It also broke barriers as the first hit Broadway musical to be centered on a homosexual relationship. It has since played with great success around the world.

Cygnet Theatre has also had success with the show, and has brought it back. It opened a few days ago and has already been extended through Nov. 7.

La Cage Aux Folles is a drag club in the tony French town of St. Tropez, run by longtime gay lovers Georges (Lance Arthur Smith) and Albin (David McBean). Georges handles the business end of the club.

Albin is the star of the show, playing Zaza, with outrageous costumes, tons of mascara and attitude. But, as one of the main songs puts it, “We Are What We Are,” and this show argues for acceptance from a society that at the time was not willing to grant it.

The plot centers around young Jean-Michel (Jake Bradford), Georges’ son by a previous short liaison with a woman. Jean-Michel has been brought up by Georges and Albin. One day Jean-Michel comes to tell his dads that he’s found a girl named Anne (Megan McCarty) he wants to marry, and that her parents want to meet them.

The problem? Anne’s dad is a rightwing conservative nut who will never understand Georges and Albin or approve of La Cage. Jean-Michel begs Georges to pretend normality for one night – and to get Albin out of the house for the meeting.

Of course, Albin won’t stand for this, and even Georges’ request that he come but look “more like John Wayne and less like Brigitte Bardot” is insulting, but it does set up an amusing interfamily meeting replete with hurt feelings, hilarity and eventual reconciliation.

Director Sean Murray knows how to make this show work. He also knows how to find the right cast, and some really good songs by Jerry Herman don’t hurt. 

McBean’s Albin is a gas, and his swishy Zaza is absolutely hilarious. Kudos also to Jennifer Brawn Gittings for his, and all the other funny costumes.

Smith is excellent as Georges, just trying to keep things humming. He has a couple of lovely songs, too. My favorites are “Song on the Sand,” which he sings to placate Albin, and “Look Over There,” in which he suggests to Jean-Michel that he has another “dad” on his side.

Megan McCarthy is charming as Anne, Jean-Michel’s fiancé, and the six Cagelles are a kick. And they can kick.

To me, this show seems outdated, probably because I’ve seen it too many times. I’d like to say we’ve outgrown our fear of this particular “other,” but that’s demonstrably not true.

If you’ve never seen it, or haven’t seen it for a while, get down to Cygnet. 

“La Cage Aux Folles” plays through November 7, 2021 at Cygnet Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St. in Old Town.

For tickets: (619 337-1525 or boxoffice@cygnettheatre.com

Theater review: The Gardens of Anuncia

                     

The Old Globe-commissioned musical “The Gardens of Anuncia” is a lovely, often funny, frequently charming portrait of the life of a dancer in 1940s Argentina, during the reign of fascist dictator Juan Perón.

The dancer in question is Buenos Aires-born Graciela Daniele, who was captivated by dance at a very young age and began lessons at the age of seven. Her career is legendary; she ended up on Broadway and in 2005 was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame.

But this most unusual piece by Michael John LaChiusa isn’t about her career. Though Daniele herself directs the show (which she also co-choreographed), “Gardens” is more a combination of biography, theater, magical realism and gardening, and concentrates on her relationships with her family.

The stage of the Shiley is hung with Mark Wendland’s scenic design featuring shimmering fiber optic vines, and a lovely lighting design by Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer lend a magical look to the stage and allow for the dreamlike sequences to play out in ways not necessarily related to reality.

The central figure is Anuncia (played by Carmen Roman as the older Anuncia and Kalyn West as a young girl). We first meet Older Anuncia tending her garden in the U.S. and asking the irises why they are growing “ten feet away from where I planted you last year?”

Ah, everything changes. The other major characters are all women: Mamí, Anuncia’s mother (also called Carmen and played by Eden Espinosa), her aunt Lucía, called Tía and played by Andréa Burns), and peppery grandmother Granmama, also known as Magdalena and played by Mary Testa.

Anuncia’s father left her mother when the child was six, at which point Tía and Granmama moved in to help out so that Mamí could go to work. When he is seen again, he will be called That Man. Do I detect a little attitude?

Enrique Acevedo plays four of the male characters including one called Moustache Brother. Tally Sessions plays the other Moustache Brother as well as the most enigmatic character, The Deer. In an attempt to understand this character, I looked up the significance and found that a male deer signifies territorial dominance and social order. Unfortunately, that did not help much.

LaChiusa’s lovely 15-song score (played by an offstage orchestra) has plenty of percussion and brass and a properly Latin sound. It also plays into the strengths of the singers like Espinosa, who can really belt it out, and Testa, whose Granmama gets all the great comic lines and makes the most of them.

“Gardens” is lovely to look at if a bit enigmatic as to purpose. The strong cast keeps the audience’s interest, but I still wonder what that deer is about (though he does have a great line: “Live while you can, love while you can, dance while you can”) and why so little is mentioned about Daniele’s storied achievements in the world of dance.

“The Gardens of Anuncia” plays through October 17, 2021 at The Old Globe’s Shiley Theatre. For tickets and other information, go to www.theoldglobe.org.

Theater Review: On Your Feet!

                          "On Your Feet!" cast

Some people are born to sing, dance and entertain. Gloria Estefan is one of those people. 

Now her story, which was in town on tour a few years ago, has been licensed for local theaters to produce. First in line is Vista’s Moonlight Stage Productions, which presents “On Your Feet!” at its outdoor theater through October 2. James Vásquez directs a huge cast that lists 38 characters and an ensemble of 18.

This salsa-laden songfest is a toe-tapper that boasts a fine 10-member orchestra (conducted by Lyndon Pugeda) to keep the music coming while relating the story of Estefan’s rise from a little girl in Cuba to one of the most-awarded pop singers in the world.

Gloria (Ariella Kvashny) loved to sing, but was busy studying psychology in college when her grandma Consuelo (Catalina Maynard) pushed her to audition for a band she knows in Miami. There she meets Emilio (Eduardo Enrikez) and the rest is history.

But of course, it didn’t just happen. It took energy, even pushiness to finally get a record producer to notice them. They make it big in the Latin market, but when Emilio tells his producer he wants to move into other markets – even record in English – the answer is “no” (actually, “hell no” is more like it).

So they take another tack, offering to perform free if a club or radio show will play their song just once. That leads to a gig at a Shriners convention in Vegas (they are quite a sight with those distinctive red caps).

But Emilio’s pushiness works, and finally they get well enough known that they can name their dates, places and prices.

Kvashny and Enrikez are likable, even cute together as Gloria and Emilio, and they know how to belt out those songs. It does seem, though, that Kvashny is overmiked to the extent that when she starts belting those really high notes, it sounds a bit screechy.

Crissy Guerrero and Catalina Maynard are fun to watch as Gloria’s mom Gloria Fajardo and grandmother Consuelo.

Vásquez does an excellent job of keeping the show moving (and grooving). Kudos also go to Carlos Mendoza for the fine, athletic choreography. Some of those dance scenes are reminiscent of Moonlight’s excellent recently-produced “A Chorus Line.”

Blake McCarty does a fine job with often-needed projections for this show, as locales and atmosphere frequently change. The rented sets, costumes and wigs are also fine.

If you’re in the mood to shake a leg (they do invite you to dance, a little difficult under these circumstances, but a charming idea), take in Moonlight’s “On Your Feet!”

“On Your Feet!” runs through October 2, 2021 at Moonlight Amphitheatre.

 

Theater review: Dancing Lessons

                     

               Christopher M. Williams and Leilani Smith in "Dancing Lessons"

Can people change? Is it true that most people are broken, only in different ways? Playwright Mark St. Germain explores these possibilities in the touching, often funny one-act play “Dancing Lessons,” playing through October 10 at North Coast Repertory Theatre.

We first meet 40-something dancer Senga Quinn (Leilani Smith) stretched out on her couch and sporting a huge knee brace from a serious injury that she fears may end her career. She has essentially sentenced herself to house arrest for fear that being seen in that condition by anyone in the dance world will definitely mean her career is over.

One day the doorbell rings. She doesn’t even want to answer it, especially when she finds out it is downstairs neighbor Ever Montgomery (Christopher M. Williams), a jittery but bright young geoscientist trapped in his own Asperger’s cage. Ever has won an award and has come to offer her an outrageous amount of money (he’s done his research and knows what she makes) for one dance lesson that can loosen him up just enough to dance a bit and not ruin the award ceremony.

“How old is the crowd?” she asks.

“From 20s to pre-extinction.”

It’s fun to watch the naturally outgoing Senga try to draw out the touch-phobic scientist, even only conversationally. It’s interesting (though a bit scary) to witness his responses to the idea (let alone the reality) of touch.

But they do manage an uneasy verbal relationship, and he surprises her when he offers to hook her up with a doctor he knows who will be able to explain her options.

Williams’ Ever, always clumsy, has come to see life as transactional – just wins and losses. Smith’s Senga lives in a different world. He offers her reality. She brings imagination.

Will she be able to to calm him down enough to perform on the dance floor in time? Will she ever dance onstage again?

I quite like this show, though I’ll agree that it is not St. Germain’s best script. It wanders off in scientific explanations from time to time, leaving the audience wondering. But the story of this awkward relationship is enough to keep this audience member happy.

Director Richard Baird manages to minimize the less dramatic elements and keep the audience’s mind on the problems to be solved. 

Smith is a wonder as the outgoing Senga, who finds herself tasked with a job she never asked for but trying to figure out how to give Ever what he needs to get his job done.

Williams is so realistic as Ever that I almost found myself jumping a bit when Senga tried to get too close. 

“Dancing Lessons” is the first live show at the theater since the pandemic sidelined all such activities in February, 2020. That’s reason enough to celebrate.

“Dancing Lessons” has been extended through October 10, 2021 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive in Solana Beach.

Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Thursday through Saturday at  8 p.m.; matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. 

                                                                

Film Review: Storm Lake

 

In the tiny Iowa farming town of Storm Lake, Art Cullen has put out the biweekly “Storm Lake Times” for the past 40 years. He and his family – wife Mary, son Tom and sister-in-law Dolores – make up 50% of the paper’s staff. They’ve never really made any money. As Cullen puts it, “We’ve always operated on the break-even point.” 

But farming has changed over the decades, and so has communication. The pandemic didn’t help, either. Even in 2019 – the one year they did make a $2900 profit – it was canceled out by increased health insurance costs.

In “Storm Lake,” directors Beth Levison and Jerry Risius give us a riveting profile  of the life of this small-town newspaper, threatened not only by the usual problem of not enough advertisers but by the incursion of agribusiness. Here, it’s Tyson’s pig and turkey packing plant that supplanted many smaller farms.

Tyson sends the Iowa Pork Producers’ “Pork Queen,” an elementary-level student, who brings a baby pig to a second-grade class to tell the students, “Pigs eat all day so they grow fast. It’s really important for us to make sure the pigs have everything they need so they can grow fast and efficiently – that’s what the pork industry is all about.” Ah, BigAg, ain’t it great?

Early in 2019, Art and his staff cover the Democratic election hopefuls who show up. We see several, including Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Julian Castro, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang. But as Art notes, “People care more about whether the trash gets picked up than that Elizabeth Warren is in town.”

Art is approached by a fellow editor Lorena Lopez of the Spanish-language “La Prensa,” who suggests they might both benefit by sharing stories. At that point Art is busily trying to figure out whether to close the paper for good. But after 40 years in the business, he doesn’t want to do that, so he succumbs to the electronic age and sets up a GoFundMe page.

“Storm Lake” is a beautifully shot and fascinating profile of a profession I hope we never lose. Kudos to all involved.

“Storm Lake” will be released on tour Sept 17. The national TV & streaming debut will be on PBS Independent Lens on Nov. 15.

Theater Review: The Drowning Girls

Aside from this play’s unusual title, it seems bland enough when you enter the theater and pass a collection of white wedding dresses. 

The set is the first shock: three somewhat smudged bathtubs (with water), which will be used by Alice (Emily Candia), Bessie (Carla Navarro) and Margaret (Sandra Ruiz) in various stages of late 19th and early 20th-century garb. They will dress, undress and splash around for about an hour while they discuss the status of women in the pre-World War I West.

It’s sad (and all too familiar) to hear these single “girls” in their 20s and 30s trying to talk themselves into marriage and seriously attempting to hook up with a handsome dude, or a rich one, or even just “one who asks you.” They even tell each other that “it will be the happiest day of your life.”

What’s with the bathtubs and the title? The play is based on the real case of a British man convicted and hanged in 1915 for the serial murders of his brides, and considers the plight of middle-class women of the time. Each of these brides of the bathtub is past the blush of youth and (by society’s standard) in need of a husband.

Ah, manipulation was so easy back then. And this (unseen) guy apparently had the pattern down pat. You will hear all about it.

The playwrights –  Beth Graham (Nova Scotia), Daniela Vlaskalic & Charlie Tomlinson met as university students and wrote this play for the Edmonton Fringe Festival in 1999. 

                                Carla Navarro, Emily Candia, Sandra Ruiz

                                    photo by Daren Scott

The three ladies are phenomenal as they charge from one scene to another and climb in and out of those tubs like pros (I can just see me slipping all over the place).

The script has a nice feel for lyrical – and often amusing – language. Hsi-an Chen’s gauzy, almost cloudlike backdrops are complimented nicely by Kevin “Blax” Burroughs’ lighting and MaeAnn Ross’ sound design to lend an ethereal quality to the not-so-ethereal goings-on.

How much has changed between men and women? That’s for an after-the-show discussion over coffee or a nice chianti. 

If you’re looking for a fascinatingly different theatrical experience, get thee to OnStage Playhouse.

“The Drowning Girls” plays through September 26, 2021 at OnStage Playhouse, 292 Third Street in Chula Vista.

For tickets: https://www.onstageplayhouse.org/2021-2022-season

Film review: The Capote Tapes

 

Truman Capote

“I’m an alcoholic, I’m a drug addict, I’m a homosexual, I’m a genius.”

— Truman Capote

Very few of us would say this out loud, even if it were true, but then nobody else is or ever will be quite the character that writer Truman Capote was.

Here was a man equally comfortable in a crowded, sleazy dive bar or in the swellest neighborhood party in New York City – and he would somehow relate with ease to denizens in both spots. 

Probably best known as the writer of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s,” his 1958 portrait of a woman for hire (which starred Audrey Hepburn in its film incarnation), the little 5’3” gnomic Capote would say or do anything to get the attention he craved.

He loved the spotlight, and would happily talk to anybody, especially on camera.  It was a bit more difficult to do back in the ’50s and early ’60s. There was no reality TV or 24-hour news cycle, and gays by and large were closeted. But he made a point of declaring his gay status and daring people not to accept him. He had a coterie of beautiful women whom he called his “Swans,” who put up with his strangeness because he was, let’s face it, a fascinating character.

Several films have been made about Capote (I’ve reviewed two others myself), 

but for this one director Ebs Burnough got hold of the never-before-heard audio archives and interviews with Capote’s famous friends and enemies. 

Capote made another big literary splash with his 1966 true-crime novel “In Cold Blood,” about the murder of four members of a family in a small Kansas farming community. When he also got rich, after the publication of the book and release of the film, Capote finally got to do what he’d wanted to: throw a huge party for all the fancy people he’d met and befriended. More than 500 people were invited to The Ball at the Plaza, which holds the distinction of being the only one held in the 20th century.

This was the beginning of his downfall. Buoyed by the success of the party, he went back to a project he’d been working on. It was another book, to be called “Answered Prayers,” which was to be an exposé of the lives of the rich. In 1975, one chapter was published in “Esquire,” and in it he spilled the juiciest gossip the Swans had ever shared with him. 

One of them committed suicide after reading it. Marriages were damaged, and Capote was barred from the ranks of the rich and descended into alcoholism and drug abuse.

I’ll leave it to you to decide whether this is tragedy or just desserts. Just know that “The Capote Tapes” gives us a fascinating exposé of a life like no other.

In theaters Sept. 10, 2021 and TVOD/EST & DVD on Oct. 26