Theater Review: Destiny of Desire

There’s nothing quite like a Mexican telenovela (soap opera), and I’m sure nothing anywhere in the world quite like “Destiny of Desire,” a lengthy, crazy, confusing, but most amusing telenovela written for the stage by Karen Zacarías and playing through June 25 on The Old Globe’s Shiley Stage.

Before the plot starts, we see the large cast working out and getting ready for the play. We’re in Bellarica, Mexico.

“You are our live audience, so be ALIVE!” we are advised by a woman who also notifies us that “we are here to change the social order.” Hmm. What could that mean?

We move to a hospital setting, where on a stormy night two women are about to give birth. One will be the child of Armando Castillo (Al Rodrigo), a wealthy casino owner, and his wife Fabiola (Bianca Marroquín). The other will be born into poverty, but because this is a telenovela, the babies will be switched at birth.

The dual-level set is the spot for a series of crazy consequences, full of Iive music (with the musicians on the second level), and wild choreography (by Lorna Ventura) on ground level.

Years go by, and changes are noted in titles given to each episode (such as “Secrets and Lies” “Servants, Sisters and Poets” and “A Surprising Turn of Events”.

Director (and former Tony winner) Ruben Santiago-Hudson keeps the action moving and the laughs unavoidable as the craziness and sometimes ill-fated liaisons play out.

My favorites were handsome James Olives, who plays Armando Castillo’s son Sebastián and Mandy Gonzalez, who plays Hortencia del Rio and sings like an angel.

Don’t go expecting anything to make sense, just listen for the “facts” often cited, like “68% of women say they would have an affair if they knew they would never get caught.” And “In the U.S., 70% of girls have kissed another girl and liked it.”

For my part, I could have lived with a shorter play. This one runs 2 hours, 40 minutes, with one intermission. That’s a pretty long piece of telenovela (or maybe not; I’m no expert on the genre).

But this is an amusing night of theater, there’s no question there.

The details

“Destiny of Desire” plays through June 25, 2023 on the Old Globe Theatre’s Shiley Stage, 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.

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

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

Theater Review: Singin' in the Rain

                
                            Xavier T. Bush, Emma Nossal and Anthony Michael Vacio

Isn’t “Singin’ in the Rain” on everybody’s favorite film list? Of course it is – on mine, at least.

Now New Village Arts Theatre presents a staged version of the well-known 1952 film that follows actors in that fateful transition from silent films to “talkies.”

Sounds simple, right? You just get your actors to talk, and tape them in the process. 

Unless Lina Lamont (Audrey Ward), your leading lady, has a ghastly, nasal delivery that makes everybody want to take cover rather than hang on every word.

But even that can be fixed, if another singing actress named Kathy Selden (Emma Nossal) happens to show up.

Director AJ Knox has assembled a fine cast of six principals and enough ensemble members to shove the furniture around, change the scenery, sing the songs, do some terrific dancing, make this crazy show work and send everybody home with a smile.

Lina Lamont’s partner in silent films is Don Lockwood (Anthony Michael Vacio), a tall, handsome guy who can sing, dance and act. Don’s best buddy is Cosmo Brown (Xavier J. Bush), who can do everything better than anybody else in this cast. Bush is a find.

Trying to keep the ship afloat is film producer RF Simpson (Kiara Hudlin), who now has to figure out what to do with Lina. And what will her job be now?

There are other amusing bits, like Nick Siljander’s attempt as director Roscoe Dexter to get Lina to talk like a human being, and the final scene, where Lockwood is, well, singing and dancing in the rain, what else?

This show took a lot of work besides acting. Kudos to Nina Gilbert and Korrie Yamaoka for music direction, Katie Banville and Jenna Ingrassia-Knox for choreography, Amanda Quivey for costume design, Missy Bradstreet for wig and makeup design, Ethan Eldred for projections design and co-sound design with Marcus Rico (who was also the sound engineer), and Kristianne Kurner for the set design. 

If you’re in the mood for a show you can hum along with, and looking for some great singing and acting, give NVA’s “Singin’ in the Rain” a try.

The details

"Singin' in the Rain" plays through July2, 2023 at New Village Arts, 6986 El Camino Real in Carlsbad.

Shows

Tickets: (760) 602-7190

Theater Review: Jesus Christ Superstar

It’s been 30 years since Moonlight Stage Productions last presented Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1971 “Jesus Christ Superstar.” 

I didn’t see that incarnation, but I’m here to tell you the one that’s onstage through May 27 is a must-see, even though it’s about a most unpleasant topic – the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. 

This post-hippie interpretation questions not only the identity of this Galilean visitor, but also what he has come to do. He doesn’t talk much, but there’s something compelling about him.

Some of the gang he meets really want to be his disciples, while others find him a curiosity intriguing to watch, but suspect that he may be an imposter after all.

When Jesus meets Mary Magdalene (wonderfully played by Monika Peña), she falls for him in a rather too human way. The elders are not happy about this stranger, either. And and when Judas (well played by Brian Justin Crum) – who will ultimately betray him – begins to hatch his plot, the ending gradually becomes more and more unavoidable. 

 

This version boasts brilliant production values, including many fine actor/singers and dancers and an excellent orchestra conduced by Lyndon Pugeda. Credit Jimmy Locust for the fine choreography.

Kevin Depinet’s fine dual-level set, Jennifer Edwards’ fine lighting design and Brandon Boomizad’s sound design add to the atmosphere. Renetta Lloyd’s costumes and Peter Herman’s hair and wig designs contribute the hippie-hippie look this show needs.

The show stands or falls on the person of Jesus, and Moonlight favorite Richard Bermudez brings exactly the right, rather sad portrayal of the man who knows how this will end.

Whether or not you’ve seen this show before, Moonlight gives us a splendid production. Don’t miss it. 

Theater Review: The Chronicles of Kalki

 

                Desirée Clarke, new artistic director of Moxie Theatre

It’s tough to get through school, no matter where it is or who your classmates are.

Moxie Theatre, ever in search of the new, offers the local premiere of a Hindu take on the school experience with playwright Aditi Brennan Kapil’s “The Chronicles of Kalki,” playing through July 4.

Hindus? You mean with gurus, karma, endless creation and dissolution cycles and all that stuff? Yep, and this version offers three very different female characters to tell the story to a cop (played by Javier Guerrero) who keeps asking questions.

Two high school-age friends, anonymously named Girl 1 (played by Kailey Agpaoa) and Girl 2 (played by Mikaela Macias), seem relatively “normal,” whatever that may mean in this environment, tiptoeing up to adulthood and the new experiences that may bring.

But they are both fascinated and confused by Kalki, a whirlwind of a character not constrained by school who evidences a devil-may-care attitude about life that fascinates the girls.

Kalki, it seems, represents the Hindu character Vishnu the Sustainer, though doesn’t seem interested in sustaining anything except power.

The numbered girls are frequently interrogated by the cop, who hopes they will tell him more about Kalki (played by Farah Dinga), who seems threatened by Kalki. Or maybe he’s just trying to figure her out too.

It’s impossible to describe this piece adequately, but don’t let that bother you. The acting is fine all around. Just go, enjoy what you see, and try to figure it out later.

“Kalki” is important for one other reason, too: this play marks the turnover of Moxie Theatre’s leadership from the original group that included Delicia Turner Sonnenberg and Jennifer Eve Thorn to Moxie’s new artistic director, Desirée Clarke Miller. Miller directs this piece.

It’s a new day and hopes are high that the new leadership will live up to the years of wonderful theater we’ve come to expect.

The details

“The Chronicles of Kalki” plays through June 4, 2023 at Moxie Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd.

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

Box office: (858) 598-7620

Theater Review: 1776

 

Creating a new nation is no easy chore, as anyone who’s read about the writing of the U.S. Declaration of Independence can attest. 

Founding father John Adams (from Massachusetts) was determined to see it passed, but the delegates also included southerners who wanted to keep their slaves, others who weren’t sure about this or that way of saying things, and some who weren’t convinced about anything. The notion that the Declaration was written quickly and voted on promptly is fiction, as Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone’s crazy musical “1776” shows. 

The Tony Award-winning Best Musical of 1969 was made into a film and later revived on Broadway in 1997. It was revived again in 2022 with a cast made of people who identify as female, trans, non-binary and gender nonconforming. It’s this version that plays through May 14 at San Diego Civic Theatre.

The real star of the show is, of course, the never-give-up Adams, played wonderfully by Gisela Adisa. She is aided by many others, but principally two women: Adams’ wife Abigail (Tieisha Thomas) and Thomas Jefferson’s wife Martha (Connor Lyon).

The directors (Jeffrey L. Page and Diane Paulus) are anxious to bring the ideas up-to-date, to which end they’ve added lines like Abigail’s words “All men would be tyrants if they could,” and characters like Robert Hemings, the slave who waited on Jefferson as he wrote “all men are created equal.”

In the second act, the group focuses on doing the job of actually writing the document. By the time they’ve finished, two and a half hours have passed.

Subtle this show is not, but it certainly is colorful (pun intended) with costumes, sometimes clever songs, nifty dance routines and many spectacular voices. The problem this old critic found is that it’s difficult to understand the songs and even some of the dialogue. I found myself too often wondering what was being said or sung. The theater’s sound system could be at least in part responsible, but I hope they can fix it so that all those words will be understood.

If you’re in the mood for a little history, try “1776.”