Theater Review: El Huracán

 

Christopher Cruz, Catalina Maynard, Amalia Alarcón Morris, Sandra Ruiz, Carla Navarro, Manny Fernandes in "El Huracán"

Don’t worry if you get lost in this play. It’s about loss, and magic, and memory and its lack, and aging, and rediscovering things lost and family and forgiveness. And oh, yes, Florida’s Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and its aftermath.

Daniel Jáquez directs the West Coast premiere of the dual-language play “El Huracán” through February 19 at Old Town’s Cygnet Theatre. 

It’s a 135-minute visit to places most people don’t want to go but where many of us will end up – getting older, getting forgetful, beginning to lose track of life experiences – and the ultimate insult, being reminded of them and of other mistakes we’ve made along the way.

This story is about a multi-generational Cuban family living in Miami. Daughter Miranda (Sandra Ruiz) returns home to help her mother Ximena (Catalina Maynard) and a family friend, Fernando (Christopher Cruz) prepare for a Category 5 hurricane. A former circus performer, Abuela Valeria (Amalia Alarcón Morris) comes back from a senior center to be with the family, but she keeps seeing visions of lost husband Alonso (Manny Fernandes) and sister Alicia (Carla Navarro). She may have Alzheimer’s; it’s certainly at least memory loss, and she has trouble recognizing family members. But she delights with a few occasionally-remembered stage tricks from her past life in the circus.

Will the house and/or the family survive the hurricane? Or each other? Everyone has problems, but from an artistic standpoint Yi-Chien Lee’s staging is not one of them. It’s blue-dominated, with a huge circular snake-like I’m-not-sure-what above center stage, where set pieces like a bench or other wooden pieces can be placed on the floor or on a revolving circle in the center.

It’s well designed and nicely lit by Elba Emicente Sanchez, with props designed by Teresa Jove. 

Daniella Toscano’s colorful costumes give the Cuban feel, and Peter Herman’s wigs reflect the early 1990’s time frame.

If you’ve experienced memory loss or other failings of age in yourself or family members, you may find this difficult to watch. But it tells an honest story.

The details

“El Huracán” plays through Feb. 19, 2023 at Old Town’s Cygnet Theatre, 4040 Twiggs Street in old Town.

Shows Wednesday and Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 3 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m.

Tickets: (619) 337-1525 or boxoffice@cygnettheatre.com

Theater Review: Lucky Stiff

                Gamblers in "Lucky Stiff"

Ready for an evening of craziness, goofy songs, loony people and a plot that will keep you guessing?

Have I got a suggestion for you: Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty’s wildly farcical musical “Lucky Stiff,” playing through Feb. 19 at Scripps Ranch Theatre.

This is a co-production with Oceanside Theatre; the show will run there from March 3-19.

It’s been a while since I’ve seen a farce, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a musical farce, but this one will keep you laughing and let you forget about all the awful news we’ve been subjected to lately.

Kathy Brombacher directs the lunacy and eleven outrageously talented actor/singers, while music director Terry O’Donnell keeps the whole thing moving from the piano.

Here’s the plot: Bored shoe salesman Harry gets a cable that his Uncle Anthony has died and left him $6 million on one condition: He must take Uncle Anthony (in a wheelchair) on a gambling trip to Monaco. If he refuses, the money will go to the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn. There’s also a crazy Italian showgirl named Rita La Porta (former lover of Uncle Anthony), who embezzled diamonds from her husband and blamed it on her brother, optometrist Vinnie. Oh, and a committed dog saver named Annabel Glick who works for a local charity. And various other characters who would all like to get their hands on the diamonds Uncle Anthony left.

No, it doesn’t make sense and it doesn’t need to. Just know that they will all end up in Monte Carlo, where many crazy things will happen. Don’t bother trying to figure it out, just enjoy this terrific cast as they cavort before you.

The set is one I’ve seen several times at this theater. It’s extremely malleable, with doors and large pieces that can be swiveled to become something else. The cast does most of the work here, when they’re not singing and dancing up a storm.

This is the best overall singing cast I’ve seen anywhere. All the voices are excellent, and they all seem to be having a whale of a time portraying these wild and crazy characters.

Cody Ingram’s Harry is a delight to watch, as his “oboy, free money” attitude changes with plot developments that make for an experience he doesn’t expect.

Erica Marie Weisz is a gas as the loud (in all ways, including dress) showgirl Rita, and she belts out her songs exactly the way you’d expect her to.

Kelly Deroun plays “Dog lady” Annabel with all the capital-c Commitment you’d expect of a lady who saves dogs. She also sings like an angel. But what will happen when she finds herself attracted to admitted dog hater Harry?

Olivia Pence looks and sounds like you’d expect of Dominique of Monte Carlo: red hair, looking great in a sparkly gold and black dress, and has a wonderful time singing “Speaking French.”

Oh yes, and the real star, of course, is Uncle Anthony, played (wordlessly) and sat (in that wheelchair) by Scripps Ranch favorite Ralph Johnson.

If you’re in the mood for a little escapism (who isn’t?), this is the show for you.

               "Lucky Stiff" cast

The details

“Lucky Stiff” (a co-production with Oceanside Theatre Company) plays through Feb. 19 at Scripps Ranch Theatre, 9783 Avenue of Nations on the Alliant University campus.

Shows Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m. Industry night is Monday, Feb. 6.

Production moves to Oceanside Theatre (217 North Coast Highway) from March 3-19. Schedule Friday and Saturday at 8, Sunday at 2 p.m. Tickets: boxoffice@oceansidetheatre.org 

 

Theater Review: The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

              Cast and set of "The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci"
 

Audience members at author/director Mary Zimmerman’s “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci” are warned of this at the beginning: “This is to be a collection without order.”

Da Vinci, the 15th-16th century polymath perhaps best known as a painter, was also a draftsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor and architect. His mind seemed to work in all those areas, sometimes sequentially and sometimes seemingly all at once. 

Zimmerman’s show reflects all that, in a piece with eight characters (five men and three women) – all named “Leonardo” – and a script that includes dance, acrobatics, hide-and-seek, and props that become swings, or a self-sustaining bridge that can be (and is) climbed on. There are drawers everywhere that become ladders and seats, and rocks tossed around. It’s like nothing you’ve ever seen onstage.

“Leonardo” is, therefore, not a play at all, but the unveiling of a singular mind consumed by curiosity about – well, almost everything. 

The various Leonardos (Adeoye, Christopher Donahue, Kasey Foster, John Gregorio, Anthony Irons, Louise Lamson, Andrea San Miguel and Wai Yim) push, pull, work together, work solo, climb, and create artistic chaos in this one-act piece.

There is talk of perspective, and questions to consider, like why can’t man fly and what is the relationship of the artist to his subject? And comments like “Lightness is born of weight.” And “The eye is the window of the soul.”

Scott Bradley’s set design has everything, but not all at once, just at the right time. Bird cages, staircases, swings, hanging bars appear at just the right moments to serve their purposes. T.J. Gerckens’ lighting designs help to draw the eye to actions at the proper times. And Mara Blumenfeld’s costumes add to the visual experience as well.

Leonardo counsels: “Look at walls or clouds,” and reports that he saw a cloud in Milan that gathered other clouds around it, then became “a storm of wings.” Now that’s imagination.

And finally, “Everything comes from everything and everything can be turned into something else.”

This show is exhausting (though fascinating) to watch, and even more exhausting to consider afterward. But here’s your chance to find out what it must have been like to have a brain like that.

The details

“The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci” plays through Feb. 26 on The Old Globe’s Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage.

Performances 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. 

Exceptions: No performance on Tuesday, Feb. 21 and a 2 p.m. matinee added on Wednesday, Feb. 22.

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

Theater Review: Frozen

                        

                            Caroline Bowman in Disney's "Frozen"

“Frozen” has a history longer than some novels, or so it seemed as I tried to bone up on the history, in preparation for reviewing the newest version. The saga is way too long. Suffice it to say that this is the first live-action stage version since the last animated film version in 2013.

The Disney Theatrical version is onstage at San Diego Civic Theatre through January 29, and it’s worth the wait. For the record, five stagings are running concurrently – in London, Japan, Australia and Hamburg as well as this U.S. national tour.

If you didn’t know better, you’d think this show is just about spectacle. It certainly has a lot – projection screens, LED lights, dry ice-like atmospheric effects, a life-sized moving Sven reindeer, countless Swarovski crystals and enormous set pieces like an icy footbridge.

It’s also got a revolving cast of 15 major roles and a huge ensemble, 20-some songs and a touring orchestra of a dozen players, conducted by Faith Seetoo.

Though you could be forgiven for settling for spectacle, you’d be missing the heart of the story, which involves love and the willingness to give up something really important to you for a greater good.

Two sisters – Elsa, the elder (Caroline Bowman) and the younger Anna (Lauren Nicole Chapman) have a difficult relationship. The reason: Known only to her father, Elsa has been given the powers of ice and snow. Dad counsels her not to tell anyone, which makes relating to sister Anna a bit difficult, especially after Elsa inadvertently injures her sister, which leads to them growing up separated.

But when their parents are killed in a sea accident, Elsa is called back for her coronation, leading to more stresses between her and Anna. Elsa flees to the nearby mountains, where she meets Olaf (puppeteer Jeremy Davis), a reindeer named Sven (Dan Plehal) and Kristoff the ice salesman (Dominic Dorset). Anna has, of course, followed her sister, and romance may be in the air (and complicate lives further (when the handsome Hans (Will Savarese) meets both young women. How can this work out?

Why, magically, of course, and musically, and with the aid of fantastic costumes, scenery, backdrops and these fine singing/dancing actors.

Bowman’s adult Elsa is a wonder. Hers is the more reserved character, but she can (and does) sing and dance up a storm. Chapman’s Anna is more of a spitfire by nature, willing to try anything, especially after she meets Hans and Kristoff. She’s fun to watch.

Everybody involved in this production deserves kudos, from Director Michael Grandage to choreographer Rob Ashford, scenic and costume designer Christopher Oram, lighting designer Natasha Katz, sound designer Peter Hylenski and those responsible for video design (Finn Ross), puppets (Michael Curry), hair design (David Brian Brown and special effects (Jeremy Chernick).

Wait’ll you see that reindeer Sven. 

Posters for the show call it “Simply Magical.”  I’d agree with that.

Dominic Dorset and Dan Plehal

The details

“Frozen” plays through Jan. 29, 2023 at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Avenue, Downtown.

Shows Tuesday and Wednesday at 7 p.m.; Thursday and Friday at 7:30 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m.

Tickets: Civic Theatre box office, Ticketmaster or online at BroadwaySD.com

Theater Review: Blues in the Night

            Anise Ritchie, Elijah Rock, Ciara Stroud, Karole Forman

Ah, those blues in the night. And in the morning, and all those times in between.

If you haven’t heard any blues lately (other than political ones), you can fix that through Feb. 12 at North Coast Repertory Theatre. There, director Yvette Freeman Hartley presents her rewrite of the 1980  “Blues in the Night,” this time featuring four fine singers and a boffo band of five led by conductor/pianist and twice Grammy-nominated Kevin Toney.

NCRT stalwart Karole Foreman is known here as “Woman of the World.” She’s been around a while and knows what’s up, but just wants to know why that man doesn’t treat her right.

Anise Ritchie, another frequent NCRT performer, is “Lady From the Road,” seemingly a bit younger than Woman of the World and just getting tired of being tired and lonely.

New to me is Ciara Stroud as the youngest, known here as Girl with a Date, just beginning to learn what those bad ole men can do to a girl’s dreams.

Elijah Rock, a fine singing actor, plays The Man in the Saloon (aka the bad man causing these women all that misery).

Marty Burnett’s minimalist set design works nicely. We’re in a seedy motel in Chicago in 1938, where nobody seems to think about food (one assumes it’s not the greatest anyway). 

Matthew Novotny’s lighting and Matt Fitzgerald’s sound design (aside from some quickly-fixed opening-night feedback problems up top) are fine.

Big kudos to Regan A. McKay, making her NCRT debut as costumer. Those costumes are great; some (especially for Foreman) downright fabulous. 

Kudos also to the onstage band, who take us through 26 standard blues songs by the likes of Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Between that and Director Yvette Freeman Hartley’s adaptation of the original version of this show (by Sheldon Epps, onetime associate artistic director at The Old Globe) to make some connections between the blues-obsessed women, the show seems a bit overlong. But the talent is definitely there. These folks can sing and play! If you’re blues-deprived, this is the place to be.  

                                              

The details

“Blues in the Night” plays through Feb. 12, 2023 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 and 7 p.m. Matinees also at 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13 and Wednesday, Feb. 1.

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

Film Review: A Man Called Otto

Tom Hanks is starting to get typecast. Last year we saw him as Col. Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s aging, possibly demented manager. Now he goes to another extreme, playing the title character in “A Man Called Otto.”

Adapted from the 2015 Swedish film (which was, itself, adapted from a novel), Hanks plays a grumpy old geezer who has given up on life and just wants to end it. He moves to an apartment building where he intends to do just that, but runs into some obstacles. 

Not the least of the obstacles are his neighbors, notably the friendly, determined-to-be-helpful Marisol (Mariana Treviño). A fine cook, she’s the kind of friend we’d all love to have. But Otto finds her (and everyone else) intrusive.

Otto spends a lot of time yelling at everyone in sight, telling them they’re wrong or stupid or useless. Just the kind of guy everybody wants to avoid.

There are other neighbors as well, like Jimmy (Cameron Britton), built like a Mac truck and often out on the street “getting his exercise). And the black lady Anta (Juanita Jennings), taking care of aged husband Reuben (Peter Lawson Jones), who seems to be in need of a nursing home.

But the real other star of the show is a furry black homeless cat that seems to be everywhere Otto looks. He scowls at the feline too.

But as time goes on, they all get used to each other, and we see in flashbacks what brought Otto to his anti-everything existence. 

Hanks seems to be having a wonderful time in this role, and the structure of the plot will eventually lead viewers to enjoy it as well. If it seems a bit longer than necessary, well, that’s the way Hanks viewed his life at the beginning. 

Theater: Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations

 

                        "Ain't Too Proud" at Civic Theatre

What do you do when you’re a boy child and all you want to do is sing? Especially when you’re in Detroit, not rich and having trouble convincing mom that this is a good idea?

The 1960s and ‘70s saw the rise of many new musical styles and stylists, starting with doo-wop, meandering through the Motown sound, psychedelic soul and adult contemporary.  Along the way, new female groups like the Supremes added to the rich musical output of the time.

San Diego Civic Theatre is hosting “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations” through Sunday.

The story starts with Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams, church choirboys, who added Keil Osborne and Wiley Waller and started a doo-wop group, calling themselves the Cavaliers. These guys accompanied their vocals with dance-like moves and hand motions that had them in constant motion.

By 1964, with what became known as the “classic five” lineup, “The Way You Do The Things You Do” came out and became the Temptations’ first Top 20 hit that April.

Producer Smoke Robinson liked the sound of a newcomer – David Ruffin, with whom the Temptations became international stars. But then Ruffin became demanding and more problems arose.

Are you getting the gist? The Temptations had an up-and-down career, but that isn’t the point.

Why not? Because the group is now the subject of a touring musical-historical show called “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations,” and is onstage at San Diego’s Civic Theatre through Sunday.

The show reflects the group’s chaotic history, which annoys an old fogey like me, who like things a bit more logically presented. But the show itself, taken as it is, offers boundless energy, wonderful singing and unending dance moves that will at least amuse and probably thrill you. 

Don’t even try to keep track of the history. Just enjoy the heck out of the singing and dancing of the likes of actors Michael Andreaus (Otis Williams), E. Clayton Cornelious (Paul Williams). Elijah Ahmad Lewis (David Ruffin) and Jalen Harris (Eddie Kendricks). 

And don’t forget the most excellent Supremes: Amber Mariah Talley (Diana Ross), Mary Wilson (Traci Elaine Lee), Florence Ballard (Shayla Brielle G), who are terrific in their own ways.

Aside from the actors, kudos to Director Des McAnuff for keeping the whole shebang going and to all the behind-the-scenes folks like Robert Brill, who did the scenic design Howell Binkley for the lighting, Steve Canyon Kennedy for the sound, choreographer Sergio Trujillo and the many behind-the-scenes folks who make the show work.

The opening night crowd loved it, and if you remember those decades fondly, you will too. By the way, some of the Temptations are still singing.

The details

“Ain’t Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations” plays through January 8, 2023 at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., Downtown.

Shows Jan. 5 at 7:30 p.m.; Jan. 6 at 8 p.m.; Jan. 7 at 2 and 8 p.m.; Jan. 8 at 1 p.m.

For tickets contact Ticketmaster (https://www.ticketmaster.com/discover/arts-theater)