Film Review: Bobi Wine: The People's President

                         Bobi Wine: The People's President

The next time you’re tempted to complain about the American political process, take a look at “Bobi Wine: The People’s President.”

This epic about the Ugandan opposition leader, activist and musical star of that name who used his music to fight the regime that had been led for 35 years by Yoweri Museveni is at the Digital Gym in downtown San Diego (and available elsewhere on  ???

Museveni took power in 1986 and changed Uganda’s constitution to enable him to run for yet another five-year term. Does that sound familiar?

Bobi Wine, born in 1982 in the Kamwokya slums of Kampala to his mother, a nurse, and father, a veterinarian and farmer, was unhappy with Museveni’s tactics and wanted to improve the lives of his fellow Ugandans. So in 2017 he

enlisted the approval of his wife Barbara Itungo Kyagulanyi (Barbie) and decided to run for a parliamentary seat just vacated.

He campaigned for hospital sanitization, malaria prevention, refugees’ rights and children’s education. His songs focused on the struggles of Uganda’s underprivileged and he called upon the people to get involved and change their country’s destiny.

It was a grueling campaign, and though the people seemed impressed by Bobi, the film is full of grisly actions and awful scenes from the police and the political establishment.

Ultimately, however, Bobi wins his seat.

The film is co-directed by Christopher Sharp and Moses Bwayo. Sharp, born in Uganda, spent his early working life as a film editor in London. He met Bobi and Barbie in 2017 and was inspired by their courage.

Los Angeles-based filmmaker Bwayo, born in the village of Bududa on the slopes of Mount Elgon in eastern Uganda, was introduced to filmmaking by peeking through cracks in the walls of local bootleg movie theaters housed in wooden shacks. 

The two, having shot hundreds of hours of footage, spent two years in the cutting room.

It’s a remarkable cinematic achievement, both inspirational and horrifying. I recommend it highly.

The details

“Bobi Wine: The People’s President” opens Aug. 4 and plays Aug. 11-17, 2023 at Digital Gym Cinema, 1100 Market St., San Diego.

Prices: $12 regular; $10 students & seniors; $9 members 

 

Theater Review: Tina

 (Note: This review was written by my friend Diana Rowell and edited by me)

                      Naomi Rodgers as Tina Turner

Wow! “Tina- The Tina Turner Musical” is in town at Civic Theatre in a 2-hour, 40-minute show that covers her life from a sadly abusive upbringing in Nutbush, Tennessee to the triumphant soul/blues diva she became. Along the way, she sang in the church choir and later worked as a domestic on the way to stardom.

Phyllida Lloyd directs a boffo cast in the touring show. 

Born Anna Mae Bullock, Tina began singing in the church choir, later worked as a domestic and a nurse’s aide. Then she began singing in nightclubs in St. Louis and East St. Louis.

The first song to bring down the house was “Let’s Stay Together,” which was early in the first act and performed by Raymond (Gerard M. Williams) and Tina. 

Never shy, she walked up to Ike Turner one night when his band the Kings of Rhythm were performing, and asked if she could sing with them. She became a featured vocalist with his band, and she began to sing with the “Ikettes.”

Naomi Rodgers played the Queen of soul on opening night, offering 23 songs (not counting encores) to a large crowd of appreciative fans.

The audience was so involved that once, after Ike had abused Tina and wasssinging “She Made My Blood Run Cold,” someone yelled “Tina, get him!”

Ike began to laugh and action stopped for a few seconds.

As time went on, Tina wanted to move from soul and blues to rock and roll.

She eventually met soulmate Erwin Bach (Max Falls) while auditioning in London for a record label.

In Act 2, Tina has difficulty balancing work life and single motherhood while trying to cross over from soul to rock and roll.

The show looks good: Tina has glittery costumes and she wears short dresses (presumably because she thought her legs were her best feature).

Sets and costumes are well designed by Mark Thompson. Two particularly spiffy ones are set in Las Vegas, where Tina performs “Disco Inferno” and in Brazil, featuring nearly blinding spotlights as Tina descends a lighted staircase.

Naomi Rodgers was clearly the favorite in the cast, Mark Lawrence’s Ike was terrific as well. And Kristopher Ward as Tina’s father Richard Bullock also has some energetic songs.

Phyllida Lloyd directs with a sure hand and the Anne Shuttlesworth conducts the fine local six-person band.

“Tina” is a great show. Don’t miss it.

“Tina” plays through Sunday at Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., downtown

Performances Friday and Saturday at 8 pm.; Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m.

Tickets: contact Ticketmaster

Theater Review: Pippin

                 Pippin at North Coast Repertory Theatre

Drifters in search of meaning sing, dance, and cavort and a for connection in Roger O. Hirson’s 1972 “Pippin,” on stage at North Coast Repertory Theatre. It has been extended through August 20.

In an abandoned theater, a mysterious performance troupe converges to tell the story of Pippin (Brendan Dallaire), a young prince in search of meaning and “My Corner of the Sky.” Along for the ride are several other characters, actors, players – or perhaps ghosts – who join in as Pippin sings and dances his way toward connection. Are any of them real or are they figments of our imagination too?

The original run of the show is the 36th longest-running Broadway show, so it’s been around a while.

This production sparkles with talent, humor and dance (by choreographer Roxane Carrasco) and benefits especially from Dallaire’s North Coast Rep debut as the young seeker. Pippin is delighted to find that his father is King Charlemagne (local regular Jason Maddy), and when Dad decides to battle the Visigoths, Pippin begs to be allowed to come along, and is silly enough to chime in out of total lack of knowledge about how to fight this battle.

When Pippin ends up talking to a severed head, he begins to realize the futility of battle. 

Are you getting the idea? The stage is filled with several women as well, who tell him to stop worrying about this future and enjoy the present, and you can guess where that leads (several women are involved, in case you aren’t in tune with the goofiness).

The cast is full of fine actors such as Gracie Moore, James Oblak, Katy Tang, Robert Zelaya and an adorable kid named Spencer Kearns (playing Katy Tang’s son Theo).

Nick DeGruccio directs with a steady a hand as one can. Kudos also to NCRT’s scenic designer Marty Burnett and costumer Zoë Trautmann for making the show look fine (and silly).

The problem with the show is that it goes on a piece too long. The songs after a while sound rather alike, and there are too many of them. And poor Pippin gets downright tiresome with his moaning about finding his place in life.

Then again, don’t we all?

The details

“Pippin” plays through August 20, 2023 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive in Solana Beach.

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

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

Theater Review: La Havana Madrid

                  Cast of "La Havana Madrid" in San Juan Capistrano
 

In the courtyard of the Mission at San Juan Capistrano, a theatrical presentation is about to begin. There will be lively dancing, lots of songs with Spanish lyrics, and a cast of Equity actors to interpret the Hispanic experience in the New World.

The setting is a Chicago nightclub called La Havana Madrid, where a talented cast of Equity actors and a boffo salsa band of five sing, flirt, talk, dance, and toward the end ask for audience participation.

Sandra Delgado, the play’s author, plays the show’s emcee and main character – La Havana Madrid – dressed in a succession of filmy, feminine dresses. 

Much of the script is in Spanish. My Spanish is fairly rudimentary, so I can speak mainly for the look and sound rather than the content of the dialogue.

The other cast members – actors Maria Jimena Gastelum, Eduardo Enrikez, Marlene Martinez, Luis Herrera, Roberto Antonio Martin, Cruz Gonzalez-Cadel and Tristan Turner – play multiple roles, singing, dancing, reminiscing, sometimes smooching and generally having a wonderful time in the club. It’s just nice to watch performers obviously enjoying themselves.

Kudos to choreographer Janey Martinez, who gives the show a definite LatinX look and the dancers seem to be have a great time with her creations.

The band swings and sways with the LatinX beat of musicians Nestor  Gonzalez (percussion), trombonist Carol Macpherson, Bass player Roberto Marin, and keyboardist Carlos Ordiano, who keep that beat going, directed by Music director Roberto “Carpacho” Marin.

Let’s not forget Jeff Polunas and his sterling sound design.

And hey, just before it was all over, we looked up and saw the gorgeous silver slipper of a moon smiling down on us.

How much better could it get?

The details

“La Havana Madrid” runs through August 4, 2023 in the courtyard of the San Juan Capistrano Mission, 26801 Old Mission Road in San Juan Capistrano.

Shows at 7:30 each night. Outside, so bring warm clothes.

For information and tickets: https://www.scr.org/plays/productions/22-23 season/la-havana-madrid/

Theater Review: Urinetown

I was feeling bad because I’d forgotten my notebook when I went to review “Urinetown,” San Diego Musical Theatre’s latest show. But I got over that in a hurry when I realized that this is a show that doesn’t require rigorous thought but rather a relaxed attitude of “let’s have a good time.”

SDMT has several missions, one of which is to support musical theater students and upcoming actors, and this show calls itself “pre-professional” for that reason. These are not Equity folks; they are all young actors between 15 and 20 and moving into the profession.

But don’t let this keep you from this raucous, often hilarious, sometimes even moving and overall wonderfully sung and danced show.

In “Urinetown,” you have to pay to pee. Urinetown isn’t where you live, it’s a terrible place you are sent if you don’t pay and resort to peeing in the street. This is the problem under discussion, because many of the residents are poverty-stricken and have difficulty coming up with the fee.

The public toilets are run by UGC (Urine Good Company), a typical American mega-corporation interested in making a profit and unwilling to listen to complaints from those who can’t fork up the dough. UGC is owned by the Cladwell family and run by Caldwell B. Cladwell (Megan Greer, playing male). She has no sympathy for the town’s poor and oppressed, but is grooming her daughter Hope (Aneesa Ali) to take over one day.

The oppressed masses use the town’s filthiest urinal in town, Public Amenity #9, run by unbudging Penelope Pennywise (Eleni Stavros) and her dashing assistant Bobby Strong (Tyler Sanderlin), and often policed by Officers Lockstock Quinlan King) and Barrel (Carlin Smith).

Well, to make a long story more fun, Hope meets Bobby and love blooms, making life both better and worse for both of them.

When the politicians like Senator Fipp (David Azcona) and the UGC contingent decide to increase the urinal fees, a revolt is in order, and Bobby decides that the only way to get the bad guys to relent is to kidnap Hope and hold her for ransom. Get ready for the second act.

The people revolt, and hole up in a secret hideout (the sewers) where they are holding Hope hostage. How will this end? You’ll have to see this wondrously crazy show to find out. 

Bravi tutti. 

Don’t miss this show.

The details

“Urinetown plays through July 30, 2023 at San Diego Musical Theatre, 4650 Mercury Street in San Diego.

Shows July 23 at 2 p.m.; July 27 at 7 p.m.; July 28 at 7 p.m.; July 29 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; and July 30 at 2 p.m. 

Tickets (starting at $20): (858) 560-5740 or info@sdmt.org

Theater Review: Crime and Punishment, a Comedy

                  A few of the looks of "Crime & Punishment, A Comedy"
 

The world at large seemed to reflect the chaos we’d just left at the end of The Old Globe’s production of Gordon Greenberg and Steve Rosen’s “Crime and Punishment, a Comedy” when we crossed the bridge to our cars at the end of the show.

A beautiful crescent moon that we saw as we started across suddenly disappeared about halfway, and try as we would (and did) to see it again, it never reappeared. I think Dostoevsky would have approved.

The audience certainly approved of the wild and crazy production it had just seen: a 90-minute morality tale performed by five outrageously talented actors playing more than 50 zany characters, riffing on the famous 19th-century masterpiece involving Raskolnikov, an impoverished student who becomes a murderer in order to save his family. No, it’s not the story you read in high school, it’s much crazier and a delight for the eyes if not the memory.

You recall, it’s about the student I’ll call Rasky, who has just completed the course work for his law degree but has not received his diploma just yet. He is anxious to get it, partly because Mom is so, so proud but mainly because the family really needs the money Rasky will now be able to make. Meanwhile, the landlord is yelling for the rent and threatening eviction.

The problem is, how to get his hands on the diploma. When Rasky goes to the university’s bursar to ask, he’s told that he has a long-overdue library book that he’ll have to pay the fine on before he gets it. But of course, he doesn’t have the money. How to get the bursar to release that piece of paper?

Rasky also has a sister named Dunya (played by Juliet Brett), who likes to read Pushkin and feels the need to find (what else?) a husband, in order to take at least some of the pressure of supporting the family off Rasky.

While Rasky is trying to get the bursar to release his diploma so he can get a job, he bumps into the female owner of a bar named Sonya (played by Stephanie Gibson) and is quite infatuated with her. Could this develop into something?

In the course of his efforts, political ideas are floated, Rasky considers donating a kidney to a sick orphan and Rudy Giuliani turns up as a journalist. And of course, the local police will show up.

I told you it was wild and crazy. 

It’s not just the goofy story, it’s the presentation that’ll have you giggling. Wilson Chin’s set design uses stairways and set-level exits for entrances and exits, even the top of one stairway for the appearance of a spirit-like figure. Alejo Vietti’s costumes are a stitch (sorry), especially for the men when they’re switching sexes instantaneously. The women are luckier; they almost always get to look like women. 

Amanda Zieve’s lighting and Lindsay Jones’ sound designs add to the atmosphere as well.

But it’s the script that will have you guffawing. Greenberg and Rosen will be remembered by local audiences as the authors of a show done here annually at the Globe: “Ebenezer Scrooge’s BIG San Diego Christmas Show.”  This show has the same sensibility.

This show is a comic gem. Don’t miss it.

The details

“Crime and Punishment, a Comedy” plays through August 20, 2023 at The Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way in Balboa Park.

Shows Tuesday and 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.

Tickets: (619) 234-5623

Theater Review: Is It Thursday Yet?

                            Jenn Freeman

Jenn Freeman shows us how, at the age of 3-1/2, she found dance and at last had a place she could be happy and learn to live with the disorder that wasn’t diagnosed until she was 33.

By then, she had become a dancer and learned how to express herself without the words that Autism Spectrum Disorder had denied her until then.

La Jolla Playhouse’s Weiss Theatre presents a riveting showcase for her frightening but ultimately hopeful story, “Is It Thursday Yet?”

The title refers to the dance class her mother and grandmother enrolled her in, at last giving her a way to express herself in movement what she could not in words. As we see her learning to arrange her life in the order that makes sense to her (stacking books in certain ways, for example), we can almost see the light going on in her head. 

The piece, created by Jenn and director/choreographer Sonya Tayeh, is presented in the darkness of an unlit theater, where we hear Jenn talking to the disembodied voices of her therapist, mother and grandmother. She is aided in this multimedia piece by an onstage setup with a backdrop including a screen where home movies of Jenn as a little girl are shown.

It’s in these movies that Jenn’s life is foreshadowed, as she struggles to get into a bathing suit or watches anxiously as her world unfolds in unpredictable ways. One of my favorite scenes has her grandmother with a nightshade on her head trying to teach Jenn how to skip.

Jenn is aided both sides of the stage by platforms: composer and musician Holland Andrews (who has a a glorious soprano voice) on one and fine percussionist Price McGuffey on the other.  

It is a graceful, often charming and very personal work, with Jenn dressing in red throughout, her dances going from graceful to intense and sometimes almost angry.

The final scene has clouds, friendly ones, moving overhead, giving the impression of a certain freedom and cooperation with nature.

In this world premiere, Jenn invites the audience to participate by getting us on our feet to dance with her for a couple of minutes. It’s a charming, hopeful moment, one of many.

I must also credit the Rachel Houck’s scenic design, Melanie Chen Cole’s sound design and the lighting and projections of Cha See and Joseph DiGiovanna, respectively.

Jenn dresses in red throughout, from child to adult, whether dancing or lying on the ground in a swimsuit.           

It is safe to say that you have never seen anything like this show before. Don’t miss your chance to see this extraordinary piece.

The details

“Is It Thursday Yet?” plays through August 6, 2023 at La Jolla Playhouse’s Weiss Theatre, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive in La Jolla.

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

Tickets: lajollaplayhouse.org or (858) 550-1010

 

Film Review: Blackberry

                         Blackberry's inventor and CEO

I’m old, and admit that I didn’t jump on cellular devices when they first appeared. I was busy trying to find information for the students I worked with the hard way, in books.

I didn’t buy a Blackberry when they first came out either, or anytime thereafter. I waited around for iPhones.

So Matt Johnson’s new film “Blackberry” is all news to me, and I found it quite fascinating as it shows the world “the story of the meteoric rise and catastrophic demise of the world’s first smartphone.”

It does show something that is still pretty common in business, though: the fraud and greed that can make innovators rush perhaps a bit too fast down the information superhighway.

Do geek inventors need a businessman to run the joint? Inventor Mike (Jay Barushel) doesn’t think so, but then again he doesn’t know how to sell stuff, only how to make it.

So along comes a businessman named Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton), who will do all the boring stuff but insists on being named CEO.

You can probably imagine the rest, especially if you remember the old Blackberry. And if not, you can be amused by the arguments and glitches along the way to success and then failure for this company. 

It’s a good (or bad) old American story.