Theater Review: Don't Dress for Dinner

“Don’t Dress for Dinner” sounds like a vulgar invitation to spend the night chomping nakedly with someone, or maybe on someone, or perhaps even on and/or with more than one someone.

But fear not, it’s just the title of a hilariously funny play onstage through August 18 at North Coast Repertory Theatre. 

“DDforD” is a farce, which the director Chris Williams tells us is the Old French word for “stuffing,” which is what Medieval performers did while doing religious dramas – they stuffed improvisational bits into the text.

But never mind the history. Just grab a friend, call and get as many tickets as you will bring people and get up there to see this show. If you need a little more persuasion, just know that this show (set in 1990) is more frequently requested by audiences than any play North Coast has ever done.

It’s too complicated to explain. Six actors play an uncounted number of characters who run in and out, fool around and of course enjoy a gourmet dinner in a French country house.

The cast consists of Brian Robert Burns, Kim Morgan Dean, Veronica Dunne, Brandon J. Pierce, Katy Tang and Jared Van Heel, who collectively play, let’s call it several roles each.  

Never mind the rest. Just get up to North Coast Rep and see this show. 

Theater Review: Duel Reality

 

For most shows, a theater critic can just sit down and describe what was seen, because there’s a “normal” way theater is written.

Not so with the acrobatic circus performers known as “The 7 Fingers,” working their wild and crazy, often scary and utterly fascinating magic in a show called “Duel Reality” through Aug. 4 at The Old Globe Theatre.

This company from Montreal was here last year in a much tamer show called “Passengers,” about going somewhere.

When you enter the theater today, you are given a piece of fabric that is either red or blue, depending on which group you are to root for (that’s the “duel” part).

“Duel Reality” isn’t just a cute little story. It’s based on Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” and Director Shana Carroll tells the familiar story of two bitterly feuding families as something like a sporting event, with 12 acrobats jumping, leaping and flying around, illustrating the story in non-stop feats that frequently had me gasping for breath.

Through it all, our Romeo (Gerardo Gutiérrez) and Juliet (Michelle Hernandez) work on their relationship (which happens to extend to offstage time), trying to survive the ugliness surrounding them. They were lucky enough to have played the lovers in the original cruise show version as well.

Runtime for the Old Globe show is 75 minutes, with no intermission. It will fly by (in more ways than one). Don’t miss it.

Film Review: Fly Me To The Moon

                        Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum
 

Remember those wonderful days back in 1962 when JFK decided America would send a man to the moon? 

That was a fabulous (if maybe lunatic) idea, though he was probably just trying to take our minds off a few less pleasant things that happened that year: the Cuban missile crisis, civil rights activists fighting (and winning a few victories) in the American South, and the U.S. increasing its involvement in Vietnam. 

But consider that in 1962 the pager, cordless phone and computer were invented. Also, the Beatles, Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys released their first records and the Rolling Stones played their first shows.

With that as backdrop, director Greg Berlanti thought a film about sending a manned mission to the moon would be cool. So together with writers Keenan Flynn, Rose Gilroy and Bill Kirstein, the script of “Fly Me To The Moon” was written and produced.

In this rom-com, marketing executive Kelly Jones (Scarlett Johansson) hears of the planned moon shot, and hightails it to Cape Canaveral to sell her skills to Channing Tatum, who plays Cole Davis, picked to prepare the scientists for the space trip.

Davis’ orders are to succeed in the moon landing, or to fake it so it looks as though it happened. Davis, of course, isn’t used to faking anything, but Johansson manages to convince him that what he needs most is to make it *look* like the launch happens.

Getting the idea? Yeah, it’s crazy, but Johansson is convincing enough to make Davis believe that she knows whereof she speaks. She is aided by her loyal assistant Ruby (Anna Garcia), who probably figures a job’s a job.

The plot goes on and on, with help from other characters such as Woody Harrelson, who plays Moe Berkus, described as “a shady, fedora-wearing government operative who recruits her to help NASA persuade people that going to the moon is a good idea.”

If you’re thinking that it gets goofier as it continues, you’re right, and if that’s sufficiently off-putting, don’t see the film. Me, I found Johansson such fun to watch that I didn’t care about the silliness of it.

The whole cast is fun (or horrifying, depending on….you know what), and by the time we saw the “landing” I didn’t even care how phony it looked. Or was.

Make your own decision. 

Theater Review: tick, tick....BOOM!

I’m a choir singer, not a composer or soloist, so I’ve never had the skittish feelings we hear in Jonathan Larson’s paean to writing music known as “tick, tick…BOOM!”

The music I sing has all been written by someone else, so I can always just sing along and blame the person who picked the music if the piece isn’t well received.

But Cygnet Theatre gives us the lowdown on the fears of writing music “good enough” through August 4 in Jonathan Larson’s “tick, tick…BOOM!” 

The main character here is Jon (well played by AJ Rafael), who wants to answer the big question: How much time do we have, and what are we meant to do with it? He is about to turn 30, and figures it’s time he wrote the piece that will make him famous. He wants to write something worthy of Broadway, maybe even one Stephen Sondheim would like.

Jon has two friends: his sort-of-girlfriend Susan (played by Emma Nossal)and his friend Michael (played by Leo Ebanks). They, of course, have their own ideas of what to do with their lives, which may or may not involve Jon. 

This show takes us through Jon’s coming to terms with his friends’ plans. Will Susan stay or leave for “her world” in the Northamptons?

To further his profession, Jon gets an official agent named Rosa who sets up a meeting for him to “meet people.”

Life goes on. Other things happen, and Jon adjusts as he must.

The show is well produced, with 13 songs and the quartet of musicians (Dr. Randi Rudolph, conductor and keyboard; Danny Chavarin on drums and percussion, guitarist PJ Bovee and bassist Christian Reeves) contributing as needed.

In case you didn’t know, the real Larson never got to see his most famous work, “Rent,” because he died the day before it opened in New York.

Theater Review: The Color Purple

                  Nio Russell and Hadiyyah Noelle in "The Color Purple"
                    photo by Jason Sullivan/Dupla Photography

The last version I saw of the musical “The Color Purple” was the one Whoopi Goldberg did on film (I saw it on TV). She was great, but I loved that one mainly because we San Diegans like to claim Whoopi as a native because she acted here for several years before she moved to the Big City.

The show has been around since the 1985 film production. Since then, it went to Broadway, where it got eleven Tony nominations. Last year, the musical adaptation was made as a film. It’s been a while since I saw it onstage.

Now you can see it in a sparkling live production at New Village Arts in Carlsbad, wonderfully directed by Kandace Crystal and choreographed by Alyssa “Ajay” Junious. Leigh Scarritt handled the musical direction and Janet Pitcher contributed the often-amazing costume design.

You remember the plot. It’s about Celie (Nio Russell), a young black girl in Georgia in 1909, who is given by her dad Pa (Kevin La’Marr Coleman) to a mean s.o.b. called here “Mister” and played at my performance by Zack King. 

Celie isn’t just mistreated and alone; she also loses track of her sister Nettie (played at my performance by Kiara Hudlin), so Celie must truly learn to fend for herself.

It’s a sad story, but a wonderful show with excellent songs, brilliantly played and sung by all involved. The terrific score is by Brenda Russell, Allee Willis and Stephen Bray.

The show starts with Celie and Nettie just before all the mess, singing about “Blueberry Pie,” followed by the whole company singing a lovely piece about (God moving in) “Mysterious Ways.”

Then the girls are separated, and I began to wonder whether their faces will be the “color purple” after all the mistreatment they will endure.

But they will meet others (like the delightful singer “Shug” (played by Hadiyyah Noelle), and the song titles include these: “Big Dog,” “Hell No!” and “Too Beautiful For Words.”

And NVA has added a terrific singing-and-dancing piece at the top of Act 2 called “African Homeland,” which features African costumes and dances.

As the producer’s note puts it: “The Color Purple” is about forgiveness, acceptance, sisterhood, strong-ass women and finding God in everything.” 

What more can you ask?

The details

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Select Wednesdays at 2 p.m. Through July 21. 

Where: New Village Arts, 2787 State St., Carlsbad

Tickets:  $33 and up

Phone: (760) 433-3245

Online: newvillagearts.org

Theater Review: Beauty Queen of Leenane

                    Jessica John and Deborah Gilmour Smyth

Oh, those Irish really know how to tell a story. Playwright Martin McDonagh is one of those, and his fascinating, horrifying, like-no-other play “The Beauty Queen of Leenane” is onstage now through July 13 at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center, thanks to Backyard Renaissance Theatre Company.

Francis Gercke directs “Beauty Queen,” which brings us four characters in a small town in Connemara, county Galway. Be ready for accents you may not be familiar with, a script described as “art to the gut” and a dysfunctional family that is anything but loving. This will be an emotionally wrenching evening of theater.

Deborah Gilmour Smyth is smashing (sometimes literally) as 70-year-old matriarch Mag Folan, who mostly sits in the big rocking chair, loudly complaining about something or someone. Mag is likely slipping into dementia, but she expects constant nursemaid care from her 40-year-old spinster daughter Maureen (Jessica John).

Maureen has never had a boyfriend or even the hint of affection, it seems, and it shows in her dead-eyed expression.

The framed photo of John F. Kennedy and the crucifix on the wall remind us of a world that doesn’t exist in this tortured household, and Maureen of a world she wants desperately to escape to.

The entrance of two other characters, the Dooley brothers Ray (Nick Daugherty) and his older brother Pato (MJ Sieber), gives the audience a hope of at least momentary escape from the desperate misery of Mag and Maureen.

Pato is returning from a trip to England, giving Maureen at least someone different to talk to. Maureen is desperate to experience and to give love, something she has never had. Can/will Pato offer that?

Or will McDonagh’s less-than-subtle clues of violence such as a poker and a heavy-looking frying pan continue the atmosphere of dread?

Director Gercke gets the most out of his skilled cast, and from Tony Cucuzzella’s set.

“Beauty Queen of Leenane” is an experience like no other. It is haunting and often downright depressing. But if you’re up to it, be assured that you’ll never forget it.

The details

“Beauty Queen of Leenane” plays through July 13, 2024 at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center, 930 Tenth Avenue, downtown San Diego.

Schedule: Tuesday through Saturday at 7:30 p.m.; Sunday at 3 p.m.

Special industry performance: Monday, July 8 @ 7 p.m.

Ticket prices: $18 previews, $32-40 for show run

Get tickets here: https://backyardrenaisssance.com/tickets/beautyqueen/