Theater review: Lady Day at Emerson's Bar & Grill

                           Karole Foreman as Lady Day
                                                                         (Craig Schwartz Photography)

Holy Toledo. I just saw Karole Foreman as jazz singer Billie Holiday in Cygnet Theatre’s “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill.”

Playwright Lanie Robertson’s script takes us with Billie as she performs her way through a typical show at Emerson’s Bar and Grill (or maybe it was several parts of several shows there).

“Typical” isn’t a term I’d use to describe anything she does other than sing, because Lady Day’s life was atypical, to say the least. But director Wren T. Brown packs a lot of life and many of her problems into Billie’s comments in between songs, so we get a little bio, some history and a lot of song into the whole.

She wanted to sing everywhere, anywhere, but found jobs difficult to find, largely (we assume) because of her race. She was from Philadelphia, and that’s where we see her working. She wanted to broaden her appeal in, say, New York but was never able to get work there.

She had plenty of fame based on her talent, but as time went on, she started using drugs, many of them illegal such as marijuana, opium, cocaine and heroin, making her a target for the federal government’s Bureau of Narcotics. She served almost a year in Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia on a possession of narcotics charge.

Some suspect that she may have been bisexual or omnisexual; she did speak of sleeping with women during her time(s) in prison.

This is the fifth time Foreman is portraying Lady Day in this 1986 musical, and she does it with grace, style and emotion. I’ve never seen anyone else do it, and after seeing Foreman I don’t want to.

This is a show seldom seen onstage. It’s not a cheery topic, nor a happy outcome, but it’s a fine portrayal.

The details

“Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar and Grill” plays through Feb. 18, 2024 at Cygnet Theatre, 4040 Twiggs Street in the Old Town State Historic Park.

Shows at 7 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday; matinees at 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Tickets ($39 and up) at cygnettheatre.com or (619) 337-1525

Theater Review: Intimate Apparel

It’s 1905 in lower Manhattan, where black seamstress Esther (Nedra Snipes) lives in a boarding house for women. We meet her at her sewing machine, where she makes her living creating intimate apparel for women who range from black prostitutes to wealthy white women. 

She buys the fabric from Jewish salesman Mr. Marks (Jonathan Fisher Jr.), which she takes home and fashions into the lovely creations she sells to local ladies.

Esther is an excellent seamstress, but she is undereducated (she can’t read) and lonely and doesn’t have much opportunity to socialize. So she is excited when she starts getting letters from an unknown Caribbean man named George Armstrong. She gets Mayne, a friend, to read and respond to them for her.

Will George turn out to be the man of her dreams? That’s the plot of Lynn Nottage’s play “Intimate Apparel,” now onstage in a lovely production through Feb. 4 at North Coast Repertory Theatre.

Jasmine Bracey directs Nottage’s vividly-written play (which is based on her own great-grandmother) with a sure hand and a good feel for dramatic conflict and human sentiment.

All the actors are fine, but my favorites are Snipes’ Esther and Fisher’s Mr. Marks, both trying to take care of the other and leaving us to wonder what would have happened if….

Kudos to the technical people as well. Marty Burnett’s set is almost magical in the changes made as set reflects drama. Elise Benzoni’s costumes are beautiful, as are the swatches of fabric (I want some of them myself!). 

Peter Herman’s wigs reflect the time beautifully, and Evan Eason’s sound design is excellent.

This is not a cheery play, but “Intimate Apparel” is a rich and vivid portrait of turn-of-the-century New York that will keep you fascinated the whole time.

The details

“Intimate Apparel” runs through Feb. 4, 2024 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive in Solana Beach.

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

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

Theater Review: Outside Mullingar

            Robert Smyth, Deborah Gilmour Smyth, Brian Mackey, Rachael VanWormer

I’ve always thought the Irish a crazy lot. Now playwright John Patrick Shanley illustrates it dramatically in “Outside Mullingar.”

In a dizzying one-act, and with only four actors, Lamb’s Players Theatre shows us how silly– and how self-defeating – tribalism can be.

We’re in a small Irish farming town called Killucan (outside Mullingar), where two clans seem to spend their lives arguing rather than enjoying each other’s company.

The Reillys are represented by elder Tony (played by Robert Smyth) and his son Anthony (Brian Mackey). Tony is determined that Anthony will take over after he dies. Anthony seems a lot less interested in farming and a lot more interested in Rosemary Muldoon (Rachael VanWormer), daughter of Aoife (Deborah Gilmour Smyth).

Uh-oh, a different clan. Can this work?

Maybe, but I’ll never tell. But I am here to tell you the show is hilarious and an absolute joy to watch – and that a big part of that comes in the actions of not just the actors but the production team, as they run in and out helping to change scenery and furniture with the moving actions of the plot.

Robert Smythe’s autocratic Tony alternates between efficient, annoyed, determined and (when he’s being impossible) funny as he tries to keep things on an even keel. But the idea of giving the farm to his son? That’s a big ask.

Brian Mackey’s Anthony, more modern and moderate in outlook, realizes his dad isn’t going to change his mind, but is equally determined to at least try to modernize enough to give the younger generation (and himself) the chance to try a different way of being.

Deborah Gilmore Smyth’s matriarch Aoife Muldoon is just fun to watch (as is always the case with her). But what can she do about her daughter?

And Rachael VanWormer’s Rosemary Muldoon, still mad at Anthony for having pushed her to the ground all those years ago when she was a kid, has every right to cling to her original opinion of him (“I don’t hate you. I just don’t like you”). Will she change her mind? 

VanWormer is one of my favorite players at Lamb’s, though in this show I found her more difficult to understand than usual.

“Outside Mullingar” is a most unusual play, not like anything else I’ve ever seen. Kudos to all involved for this remarkable and delightful production.

Theater Review: The Wiz

 

The famous 1974 all-black musical version of Frank L. Baum’s original story “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” is back in town through Sunday at San Diego Civic Theatre.

This version is no tame kid story, though of course Dorothy is still the star, a little girl fascinated by all things magical who wants to visit the Emerald City in order to meet the famous Wizard.

Nichelle Lewis plays Dorothy excellently in this In this tour version, at first frightened by the death of her mother and the almost dictatorial substitute mothering she gets from her aunt.

But as she gradually comes out of her self-imposed shell and begins to look at the world around her, she meets some pretty intriguing folks and gets them to come along with her. My favorites are the fearsome foursome that ends up traveling together: the cowardly but adorable lion (Kyle Ramar Freeman), the tinman in need of some oil (Phillip Johnson Richardson) and the scarecrow (Avery Wilson) who looks pretty sad until Dorothy figures out how to get him down off the metal thing he’s stuck to.

The show is full of goofy stuff, but contributes some good life lessons as well. The quartet of Wizard-seekers runs into all sorts of problems and obstacles, but also meets people like the good witch Glinda (Deborah Cox), who help her.

The great thing about these touring musical shows is that they spare no expense to give the audience eye-popping visual stimulation with backdrops and costumes. And where there’s music, there’s dance, especially in this show and with this excellent cast, which seems to dance at the drop of a musical note.

Kudos to everyone involved in this show, which runs through Sunday.

“The Wiz” plays through Sunday, Jan. 14 at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Avenue, downtown.

 

Remaining shows are Thursday at 7:30 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 1 and 6:30 p.m.

Prices: $34-535

Tickets: broadwaysd.com or (619) 564-3000

Film Review: Night Swim

 

If you’ve ever pondered the fear of the swimming pool, have I got a film for you.

I once had to be dragged out of one and resuscitated, so pools are on my bad list, though I do still love to be around them.

In “Night Swim,” a nice family with small kids buys a house with a lovely pool in the backyard, figuring this will provide amusement and exercise for the kids as well as a good place to have people over for recreation and barbecues. It will also provide exercise for dad Ray Walter (Wyatt Russell), a former baseball star who had to quit the majors due to injury.

The family loves the new place and the folks who live nearby…until strange things start happening. The pool lights seem unreliable and it even looks like something weird is appearing from the deep water. A ghost? 

But Ray loves the pool and the heavy weights he lifts to keep fit. And the kids Izzy (Amélie Horferle) and Elliot (Gavin Warren) love it too, until…..

You can’t guess the rest of the story, but you can safely assume it’ll just get weirder and weirder until something really unpleasant happens.

This is one of those films that doesn’t require cogitation, but a willingness to go along with a goofy plot that may make you rethink some of those things everybody considers desirable.

Director Bryce McGuire co-wrote this water-soaked 98-minute thriller with Rod Blackhurst, and both setting and cast (including Kerry Condon as mom Eve Walter) are excellent.