Theater Review: Bob Fosse's Dancin'

                         "Bob Fosse's Dancin'"

I confess at the outset that I’m no kind of dancer, so if you’re looking for an intelligent, cogent comment on “Bob Fosse’s Dancin’”, you’d better look elsewhere.

But I was definitely enchanted by what I saw at the Old Globe opening last night: Twenty dancers, who took me out of my world and into another entirely, doing fascinating things, some of which I would call impossible if I weren’t sitting there, watching them do it.

Fosse collected nine Tonys in his well-known career as choreographer and director of dance shows. This show gives us a taste of the provocative steps, percussive music and unusual props that he used.

The first half of the show goes back to the beginning of what I’ll call the Bob Fosse style, dominated by percussion and a particularly intricate tap dance style that features small groups of dancers doing different things onstage at the same time.

It’s this section that took me out of San Diego to someplace I’d never been  –and frankly, I didn’t want to return.

But the second half did rather make me do that, by dragging in politics and other unpleasantries I was hoping to continue to escape.

A rather industrial look does it, with the four movable staircases shoved here and there so that dancers can be placed wherever seems best.

Let’s see, we’ve got an amusing therapist trying to “fix” the girls, who don’t seem interested in being fixed. And politics of the 1940s, wherein it is noted that “America loves black culture but does not love black people.”

Martin Luther King is mentioned, and Susan B. Anthony. Fosse is interviewed on TV, telling us that “working is my way of staying alive.”

A dancer sings “Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries,” and don’t we all  wish that were true. But the final message is this: Remember that you ARE the universe and the universe is you.

The technical and artistic aspects of the show are every bit as astonishing as the dancing. Robert Brill’s malleable (and movable) set design and Reid Bartelme and Harriet Jung’s amazing costumes add a great deal to the look of the show. Lighting and sound (by David Grill and Peter Hylenski, respectively), and Jim Abbott’s orchestrations add a great deal as well. And Wayne Cilantro’s direction and musical staging are phenomenal. 

Bob Fosse changed dance forever. Don’t you forget it, and don’t miss this show.

The details

“Bob Fosse’s Dancin’” plays through May 29, 2022 at The Old Globe’s Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage.

Shows Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.

Tickets: www.TheOldGlobe.org or (619) 234-5623. 

Film Review: The Will To See

                      Bernard-Henri Lévy talks about war 

French writer/philosopher/war reporter Bernard-Henri Lévy probably knows more about war than any writer around. He’s written more than 45 books. He’s also directed five documentaries about war, including “Bosna!” (filmed during the 1993-94 siege of Sarajevo); “The Oath of Tobruk” (his diary on the battlefield of the 3011 Libyan revolution); “Peshmerga,” a road movie about ISIS and the Kurds; and “The Battle of Mosul” (during the combat to “liberate” the city).

Now he’s given us “The Will To See,” a documentary about late 20th and early 21st-century wars of liberation in Nigeria, Kurdistan, Sarajevo, Somalia, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Greek island of Lesbos (“a huge camp lost in the hills,” he reports. “Here they throw journalists’ cameras in the sea. Trash and latrines everywhere, and the innocence of children who don’t know that they are superfluous.”)

In Kabul, he looks for Homa, a female reporter who asks for and gets a salary advance, then buys barbiturates and kills herself.

In Vienna, Lévy awaits a plane to Kurdistan, arriving after an attack on the Jewish quarter. Lévy’s comment: “I remember 20 years ago, we met to say no to fascism. Forty years ago, we were protesting communism. Today all we do is light candles. The Kurds are tired of all this spilled blood.”

Today, we are all weary of newscasts telling us of more death, atrocities and indignities imposed on the Ukrainians by Putin. Lévy says it best: “I dream of writing in a country without death.”

We may never see that, but the wonder of “The Will To See” is Lévy’s personable writing (and speaking) style, that fascinates even when what he’s talking about repulses you. It’s a gift. 

Theater Review: Forbidden Broadway's Greatest Hits

                   Cast of "Forbidden Broadway's Greatest Hits"               

Some actors make a living by making others laugh. The singing actors in “Forbidden Broadway’s Greatest Hits” do it by making fun of other actors.

Now you can see the 25th version of Gerard Alessandrini’s hilarious send-up of Broadway shows at North Coast Repertory Theatre, where four FB veterans have a great time skewering their colleagues.

FB started in 1982 and has been rewritten a dozen times. This version features Elan McMahan on piano. Well known locally, she is usually seen wielding the conductor’s baton at Moonlight Amphitheatre in Vista, but in addition to being a fine musician, she is also terrific as an onstage personality.

The singers are William Selby (who also directs the show), Cathy Barnett, Trisha Rapier and Edward Staudenmayer, and they go through a crazy list of shows including (but not limited to) “Chicago,” Phantom of the Opera,” “Fiddler on the Roof,” “Annie” and “West Side Story.” The show has been seen in more than 200 American cities as well as playing London, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney.

Some of the shows roasted by the group: “Annie,” whose title character (in a bright red Annie-like dress but with a cigarette dangling from her mouth) says she hasn’t gotten a part since she played the waif when she was ten.

“The Lion King” (which returns live to Civic Theatre later this season) shows up, complete with crazily wild costumes and memorialized as “African phony.”

The long-running “Les Misérables,” aptly summed up as “One Tour More,” ran from 1987 to 2003. It gets a good long skewering commensurate with its record, at the time the second-longest running musical in Broadway history. 

And in my favorite, the ladies do a “West Side Story” send-up, competing as Rita Moreno and Chita Rivera for the juicy part of Anita.

Congratulations to everyone involved, including the backstage folks. Marty Burnett does his usual splendid job as set designer. Dustin Cross has designed some fabulous costumes (with help from Elisa Benzoni), and Matt Novotny’s lighting, Aaron Rumley’s sound design and Phillip Korth’s props add to the jollity. 

“Forbidden Broadway’s Greatest Hits” is not like any other show you’re likely to see, except that like a really good comedy, it’s really funny. Get your tickets today. 

The details

“Forbidden Broadway’s Greatest Hits” plays through May 22, 2022 at North Coast Repertory Theatre is located at 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach.

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

For tickets: (858) 481-1055 or boxoffice@northoastrep.org

 

Film Review: Charlotte

Everyone knows about Anne Frank, the 13-year-old whose diary told the world about how she and her family hid from the Nazis in their “secret annex” in the Netherlands for years – until they were discovered.

But not many know about Charlotte Salomon, the only child of a haute-bourgeois German Jewish family, who came of age in Berlin on the eve of World War II.

Charlotte was not a writer like Anne, but a budding young artist who loved drawing more than reading or even going to school. 

Now a new, animated film tells her story in “Charlotte.”  You read that right: this film is animated, and Charlotte is voiced by Keira Knightley.

“Charlotte” mostly covers her teen years living in Berlin with doctor father Albert (Eddie Marsan) and opera-singer stepmother Paula (Helen McCrory). It ends a decade later, when she and her husband Alexander (Sam Clafin) are rounded up by the Gestapo.

Charlotte comes across as a typical, even charming young girl with an inborn need to draw. Her family was a strange and tormented one, and no one in her family seemed to value her work, but that didn’t stop her. She even applied to a local art school – and got accepted, until they found out she was a Jew.

When the Nazis came for Charlotte’s father (to return in ill health later), the family decided to send Charlotte to the Côte d’Azur home of a rich American expat (Sophie Okonedo), where her grandparents were living. Here she meets Alexander Nagler (Sam Claflin), who will become her husband. But soon it becomes clear that this lovely spot won’t be safe for Jews either.

Meanwhile, she produced a sizable collection. Her images are Expressionist and seemingly somewhat elementary, but they often pack  unexpected emotional power.

Her style was unusual: she painted in gouache, using opaque pigments ground in water and thickened with a gluelike substance. It’s like watercolor, only more opaque, described as “essentially acrylic paint with a matte finish.”

By the time she was killed in 1943 at the hands of the Nazis at Auschwitz, she was 26 and had produced 769 gouaches. She named the group “Leben? oder Theater?” (Life? or Theater?). The collection was donated by her family to the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam after her death.

The film is less dramatic than it might be, and seems a bit more cheerful than warranted, given the circumstances. Still, Charlotte is an intriguing character, and her art is surprisingly affecting. 

“Charlotte” isn’t a perfect film, but the story was fascinating enough to keep me involved throughout.

Film Review: The Bad Guys

There are bad guys, and then there are The Bad Guys.

The new animated film by Director Pierre Perifel takes us on a crazy joyride of the latter type, starring the five original Bad Guys from Aaron Blabey’s popular cartoon book series.

The ringleader is Wolf (voiced by Sam Rockwell), who will try anything because he is “so good” at being bad. It’s a bank heist we see first. 

Then there’s Wolf’s good buddy Snake (voice of Marc Maron), willing to go along with just about anything Wolf suggests.

Awkwafina the Tarantula is the break-in artist of the group. Anthony Ramos the Piranha does, well, whatever he’s asked.

Then there’s Craig Robinson the Shark, an art fan who once stole the “Mona Lisa” while pretending to BE Mona Lisa. Now that takes guts.

At one point, Wolf starts to rob a little old lady, but she’s about to fall downstairs and he saves her. When she calls him a “good boy,” he’s surprised but can’t control his wagging tail.

When the gang finds out that the local humans are planning a big party to bestow a “golden dolphin” award (a statue) on the person who has done the most good this year, Wolf and the gang begin to plan how they can steal that statue. First they have to figure out how to blend into what will be a swell-looking crowd.

The party is being planned by the lady Governor Diane Foxington (Zazie Beetz), who turns out to be a reformed “bad guy” herself, formerly called The Crimson Paw.

You can imagine how this goes. I’m here to tell you it’s fun to watch, but of course, as good as they are at being bad, they do get caught and hauled off to jail. They *really* don’t want to sit in jail, and are offered an option: to start being good.

Oh, get serious. How likely is that? But to avoid a jail cell, wouldn’t you be willing to give it a try?

Can bad guys ever turn good? How about this particular group of bad guys?

See the film to find out what happens. Trust me, you’ll be giggling all the way through this crazy film. It opens on April 22.

 

Theater Review: The Taming

It’s easy to skewer America’s partisan politics, and that’s what playwright Lauren Gunderson does in the farcical but frustrating “The Taming.” If you’re thinking the title sounds a bit Shakespearean, you’re right, though the connections with Will are tenuous at best.

The show opens with a glittery, very blonde Miss America contestant from Georgia named Katherine (Kylie Young) doing her damnedest to win the title by talking forever and then singing “America the Beautiful.” 

When they finally get her off the stage, the next scene starts with the rolling down of a double-sized rollaway hotel bed, where we find two women sans phones or pants, wondering how they got there. These are Patricia (Katee Drysdale), aide to a Republican senator and determined to get his jobs bill passed, and liberal activist Bianca (Sutheshna Mani) who wants to stop the bill because it will threaten the environment of a particular species of rodent shrew.

That’s the setup for this show that premiered in 2013. Sounds like farce, right? Well, a lot of it is farcical, but Gunderson plays her comedy less by cleverness than by withholding bits of information, making the reveal the source of the giggles.

There are intimations of romantic interest along with the expected political arguments between liberal Bianca and conservative Patricia that sometimes sound too familiar to be funny, at this stage of the so-called American democracy. Oops, did I fall into the trap myself? Maybe.

You may do that a time or two yourself, but never mind. Don’t look for logic or a consistent through line. Just relax, appreciate the fine tech work done by set designer Alyssa Kane, costumes by Pam Stompoly-Ericson (especially Katherine’s glittery Miss America contestant togs), lighting and sound by Winston G. Limauge and FJ Fucella, respectively.

And get ready for the much more interesting beginning of the second act, which takes us back to the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, where the ladies get to play the Fathers of the Country. Patricia plays James Madison, Katherine is George Washington and (getting right down to that major issue, slavery) Bianca plays South Carolina’s Governor Charles Pinckney, who was willing to abolish the slave trade but opposed emancipation. Thanks to our quick-change artist cast, we also get to meet Dolly Madison and Martha Washington. This section is by far the most interesting.

But finally, we return to the present to learn that our beauty queen Katherine also happens to have a degree in constitutional law, and the original ladies close the show talking about the possibility of working together to make this “the country the founders wanted.”

Kudos to the fine cast and to the production staff, which make this problematic play bearable, often funny and sometimes even fascinating.

The details

“The Taming” plays through May 1, 2022 at Scripps Ranch Theatre on the Alliant University campus, 10755 Scripps Poway Parkway.

Shows Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Tickets: (858) 395-0573

COVID policy: Must show proof of vaccination or a negative test within the past 72 hours. Must wear masks inside theater.

 

Theater Review: Million Dollar Quartet

 

                                Ben Van Diepen, Brett Benowitz, Michael Louis Cusimano, Charles Evans Jr.

Here’s a show for the folks who remember way back when rock and roll was king. And most especially for those who, like me, have missed seeing plays at Coronado’s Lamb’s Players Theatre for lo, these too many Covid years.

Lamb’s makes a smashing return to live theater with “Million Dollar Quartet,” a short-form instruction manual on how to make a living as a record producer. 

Lance Arthur Smith plays Phillips, who doesn’t just want to record singers – he wants to make music history, and seems to have a feel for the kind of songs that would do that.

Phillips founded Sun Records and Sun Studio in Memphis and handled the likes of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Carl Perkins. He’s perhaps best known for discovering Presley, who one day dropped in to record a ballad. Phillips heard the voice and liked the song, but knew instinctively that “if I had released a ballad, I don’t think you would have heard of Elvis Presley.” The rest is history.

Lamb’s has assembled a terrific, all-Equity group of young singing actors to portray the rock and rollers and musicians, including Katie Sapper as Elvis’ girlfriend Dyanne, a singer in her own right who does a fabulous version of “Fever,” among other things.

The wild man in the group is Jerry Lee Lewis, played by Ben Van Diepen with more energy and craziness than I even remember. This guy doesn’t play the piano, he attacks it, jumping all over while hitting those notes on songs like the aptly named “Wild Child” with exhausting but most amusing (to watch) energy. And when he does “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On,” he’s not kidding.

Michael Louis Cusimano brings back that Elvis Presley “king of rock and roll” style on songs like “That’s All Right” and “Hound Dog.” 

Brett Benowitz brings rockabilly singer Carl Perkins to life with some of his big hits like “See Ya Later Alligator.” Perkins won a new Cadillac from Phillips when he was first of the quartet to sell a million records with “Blue Suede Shoes.”

My favorite is Charles Evans, Jr., whose velvety voice brings Johnny Cash to life with songs like “I Walk the Line” and “Ring of  Fire.”

And I can’t forget the terrific backups: Brian Dall as Fluke the drummer and Mackenzie Leighton on the double bass.

Kudos to Jemima Dutra, too, for the terrific costumes, and to Nathan Peirson (lighting designer) and Patrick Duffy (sound design).

“Million Dollar Quartet” is a rockin’ good time in the theater.

The details

“Million Dollar Quartet” plays through June 26 at Lamb’s Players Theatre, 1142 Orange Ave. in Coronado.

Shows Wednesday through Friday at 7 p.m.; Saturday at 4 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.

Tickets: (619) 437-6000 

Film Review: Father Stu

Mark Wahlberg as Father Stu

I don’t pretend to know anything about priests, boxers or anybody in Montana.

But most of us remember a time when we were trying to figure out what to do with our lives.

First-time director/screenwriter Rosalind Ross’ “Father Stu” opens with a boxer (Mark Wahlberg), who seems to be getting the worst of every encounter in the ring. This is Stuart Long, a burly guy who is advised against boxing by a doctor who tells him the infections he’s been getting after fights could lead to something serious.

So he gives that up and announces to his mother (Jacki Weaver) that he’s going to Los Angeles to become an actor. There, instead of making it big in film, he goes for an audition, gets propositioned (haha) and ends up working in a supermarket.

One day he goes to church, where he sees a girl he’d seen before but not managed to talk to. This is Carmen (Teresa Ruiz), and when he finds out she is Catholic and teaches Sunday school at the local church, he volunteers to help. Right, he’ll be a great help.

Stu’s dad Bill (Mel Gibson) shows up from time to time to remind Stu what a disappointment he is. I tend to agree with Bill, and by now I’m disappointed enough to want to escape from the theater, but I decide to stay to see if there’s any scrap of inspiration to be seen.

Stu does finally decide to become Catholic (taking off way more clothes than necessary to be baptized), and then a priest, and then is slowed down and finally killed by the infection we heard about earlier. But we get precious little dedication to anything other than the quick laugh, because Ross’ script wants so badly to be a comedy that any corny joke will do.

I must say it was a pleasure to see Mel Gibson on the screen again. He was terrific, and so was Ruiz as the girlfriend. 

There is a real story here, but I had to look it up after I got home. You will too, and I advise it because the real Father Stu was quite a gem. But don’t expect inspiration from this film.

Theater Review: An Iliad

Richard Baird as The Poet in "An Iliad"

“Every time I sing this song, I hope it’s the last time,” says the exhausted-looking Poet, dragging onto the stage a suitcase that looks as tired as he does.

He is award-winning actor Richard Baird, reprising the role of Greek poet Homer in the solo piece “An Iliad,” playing through April 10 at North Coast Repertory Theatre.

The poet is talking about the Trojan War (the ten-year siege of the city of Troy by a coalition of Greek states), but the topic is universal and that “last time” hasn’t come yet, nor has man managed to erase his addiction to the kind of rage that leads to murder and war. 

This version of the story (by Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare, translated by Robert Fagles) is updated with local references to Solana Beach and Nebraska, among other places. This Homer also has a taste for tequila, which he swigs from time to time. 

The reason for this war? Helen of Troy has been stolen by the Greeks, and they want her back.

“It’s always something, isn’t it?” comments Homer.

Much of the play is taken up with a description of the exploits of three men: Achilles (the Greek) and Hector (the Trojan), best warriors of their respective armies, and Patroclus, who grew up with Achilles after his father gave him to Achilles’ father Peleus.

It’s a long, grueling story. Wars tend not to end well, and this one is no exception.

The telling, however, is extraordinary. The script features occasional music composed and played by a Muse – Amanda Schaar – on the cello. Sometimes it echoes the action. At other times, it seems to spur the Poet on to continue the story. It’s excellently done, and most effective.

Baird holds audience interest with his personable way of delivering lines. And he does it all with three props: a ladder, a ghost light and a bench. My only suggestion would be to use a bit less wattage on that ghost light.

You really do feel he’s talking just to you. Even the recitation of 140-some wars (in order, mind you) down through the centuries – ending with Ukraine – inspires grief rather than boredom, and perhaps the urge to gather some friends together and talk about this.

For a world that can count only 11 years in its entire history when man was not at war, this may be the best we can hope for.

    

    

                 Richard Baird and Amanda Schaar in "An Iliad"

The details

“An Iliad” plays through April 10, 2022 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive in Solana Beach.

Shows: Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Thursday and Friday at 8 p.m,; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m,; Sunday at 2 p.m. 

Tickets: (858) 481-1055 or boxoffice@northcoastrep.org