Theater Review: Eighty-Sixed

                 

Cast of "Eighty-Sixed"       

San Diego’s Diversionary Theatre was founded in 1986, the at the height of the AIDS crisis, with the intention of giving the gay community a platform to be seen and heard.

The theater has just opened “Eighty-Sixed,” the world premiere of a new musical about the AIDS epidemic, and it is a wonder. It takes place in New York City, that great party town that soon became paralyzed with fear as AIDS started to rage through the community. Based on the novel by David B. Feinberg, Jeremy J. King wrote the book and Sam Salmond the music and lyrics.

The show starts in 1986, by which time the gay community knew that sex could mean death, and moves back and forth in time to demonstrate the community’s response as the epidemic worsens.

Preston Sadleir plays BJ Rosenthal, joyously going to gay bars and gyms where he meets friends and feels at home – until he finds out that ex-lover Bob (Sean Doherty) has contracted AIDS.

The community as a whole tries to keep up a good front, but as time goes on it becomes more evident that behavior changes will be required to avoid the new epidemic, which can’t help but dampen the fun.

As Bob gets worse, we see him in the hospital, visited by friends who try not to make Bob feel worse by showing their shock and sadness.

What do you do when death is breathing down your neck? Someone suggests to BJ that he get tested, but he is reluctant because he’s afraid he’ll be reported to the CDC if he is positive.

“Who am I alone?” BJ asks. “If you give your heart, all it does is break.”

But you can’t live that way, and the play shows how the community banded together to help each other survive, and to demand research and accessible care.

They’re helped by two women, Farah Dinga as Rachel and Kelly Prendergast as Janey, who in my opinion get rather short shrift, but it’s good they are there.

BJ (and the disease) are the protagonists here, so I’ve concentrated on that. But this is a community effort, and this cast, dominated by Equity actors and familiar faces like Frankie Alicea-Ford, Luke H. Jacobs and David McBean, is terrific.

This show will undoubtedly move on. See it while you can.

Theater Review: Hadestown

                        HADESTOWN

Not many musicals have 32 songs. Not many operas have dialogue.

Here we have “Hadestown,” based on Greek mythology, with both, though in truth many more songs than words.

This weekend you can see it for yourself: Broadway San Diego presents “Hadestown”  at San Diego’s Civic Theatre through June 5.

Hermes (Eddie Noel Rodríguez on opening night), the god of trade, wealth, luck, and several other things like thieves and travel, opens the show, and will be seen throughout, slinking around in a shiny silver suit and narrating the story.

On the “Road to Hell,” we’re told, there’s a railroad line with a coffee shop. This is where Orpheus (Chibueze Ihuoma) waits tables. Eurydice (Morgan Siobhan Green) is a hungry waif just looking for something to eat. They meet and….well, you know the rest of the story. He will soon sing “Come Home With Me,” and a romance will be born.

The show combines the doings of Orpheus and Eurydice with the goings-on of Hades, Hermes and Persephone in the Underworld. They are aided by the Fates and a Workers Chorus.

Persephone (Kimberly Marable) is the Goddess of spring and innocence, but cursed to be both the wife of God of the Underworld Hades (who kidnapped her) and the Goddess of the Underworld.

Kevyn Morrow’s Hades runs the Underworld with an eye toward keeping that post his private property. Hades is not especially nice but Morrow is especially effective in that role.

The fun here (aside from all the terrific acting talent) is in the constant action, the fact that the musicians are on the stage (and identified at one point), the sometimes lovely, sometimes wild costumes (by Michael Krass), the sometimes-otherworldly sound and lighting (by Kevin Steinberg, Todd Sickafoose and Bradley King) and those 32 songs that just keep coming.

But there is a serious side to the show. The playwright also makes a social critique or two about the disastrous effects of poverty and climate change that we in the 21st century are becoming all too familiar with for comfort. You also might get a message about how art can save us from ourselves or how hope might be all we have left.

Kudos to all but especially to the four major characters. Rodríguez plays Hermes, the rich guy who narrates the show, with great panache. 

Morgan Siobhan Green is extremely persuasive as the waif Eurydice, who goes from starving for food to seeking love from Orpheus, and learns what that latter item might cost her.

But my favorite was Chibueze Ihuoma, who played Orpheus on opening night, determined to take Eurydice home and singing his heart out to do it. And boy, can this fella sing. With that glorious high tenor voice, I’d happily go to hear him in concert, all by himself. 

Conductor/pianist Nathan Koci and his six musicians add fine sound to the mix, and even get introduced. Now that’s class.

“Hadestown” is an odd bird, probably because it’s undergone so many incarnations. Starting in 2006, it’s been a play, then a concept album, then an off-Broadway show, finally debuting in 2019 on Broadway. But never mind: the Rachel Chavkin-directed version by Anaïs Mitchell you’ll see here in San Diego is terrific, with jaunty songs and sad, dialogue likewise and a gaggle of really fine actors and musicians (onstage) to take you on their journey.

Theater Review: I Hate Hamlet

              Alex Guzman as Hamlet and John DeCarlo as Barrymore 

Playing Hamlet onstage is tough enough, without having John Barrymore watching – especially if you’re a TV actor like Andrew Rally, famous for a TV series in which he played a rookie surgeon.

Alex Guzman plays Rally, whom we meet looking at a New York apartment to rent for the time he really *does* play his first Hamlet at the world-famous Court Theatre. His agent

The place is too fancy for Andrew’s taste – with big furniture and even art on the walls – but real estate agent Felicia Dante (Christine Hewitt) insists that this is the place for him. The reason? The place is haunted by the ghost of the legendary Barrymore. She even offers a séance to call up Barrymore.

Does that give you a clue about Paul Rudnick’s crazy play “I Hate Hamlet,” playing through June 5 at Scripps Ranch Theatre?

It gets nuttier. The reason he stays is girlfriend Deirdre McDavey (Lynnia Shanley), a pretty little thing who’s crazy about Andrew – and can’t wait to see him as Hamlet – but won’t sleep with him until they marry. 

You read it right. And it was written in 1991. Go figure.

Let’s see. Oh yes, Andrew’s agent Lillian Troy (Jill Drexler) is responsible for getting him the part, and she wants him to stay in that apartment because long ago she had her own little tête-a-tête there with the master.

Director Phil Johnson and his stalwart cast play this goofy story for every laugh it offers, and they are plenty. 

Kudos to the set design crew – Alyssa Kane, designer, and Nathan Waits, construction for the set that changes look as often as Deirdre does opinions.

Pam Stompoly’s costumes are as outrageous as Rudnick’s lines, from frilly ladies’ dresses to Barrymore’s all-black outfit with a big leather codpiece and oh, those black tights (which he maintains are the secret to the character.)

Sound and lighting are tricky and well handled by John Fredette and Mitchell Simkovsky, respectively.

Alex Guzman is great as Andrew, who really only wants to play Hamlet for his own selfish reasons. It’s fun to watch him play at business, love and Shakespeare in turn.

John DeCarlo’s Barrymore is exactly right: imperious, funny (especially in that costume) and anxious to finish this job so he can get out of there.

It’s a joy to see SRT’s former artistic director Jill Drexler back onstage as agent Lillian Troy. She’s always good to watch.

Christine Hewitt does an amusing turn as pushy real estate agent Felicia Dante.

Lynnia Shanley has the unenviable task of making Deirdre both adorable and maddening. And she succeeds brilliantly.

Adam Daniel’s TV guy Gary Peter Lefkowitz amuses as he tries to convince Andrew to go back to TV, where he belongs.

If you’re looking for a fun and very funny evening of theater, take a ride out to Scripps Ranch Theatre. You won’t regret it.

“I Hate Hamlet” plays through June 12, 2022 at Scripps Ranch Theatre at the Legler-Benbough Theatre, Alliant International University, 9783 Avenue of Nations.

Shows Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 p.m.

Tickets: (858) 395-0573 or scrsppsranchtheatre.org

COVID policy: Must wear a mask inside the theater.

Theater Review: Turning Off the Morning News

       Eddy Lukovic, Salomón Maya, Carla Navarro, Ray-Anna Young, Jaden Guerrero
 

Christopher Durang doesn’t write nice, simple plays about ordinary folks. He writes outrageous and often absurd works, even winning a Tony for Best Play for 2013’s “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.” 

Now we have “Turning Off the Morning News,” a 2018 play about bipolar disorder, obliviousness, obtuseness and attempted murder, playing at OnStage Theatre.

Durang himself notes that he wrote the first draft about a married couple named Jimmy and Polly and their adopted son Timmy. Jimmy (Salomón Maya) is both bipolar and alcoholic and seems to spend most of his time plotting to kill himself and (preferably) a bunch of people at a mall.

Wife Polly (Carla Navarro), resplendent in a wildly red and white polka-dotted dress, is ditzy and prone to go off on tangents. Her mental state is questionable, but she cares deeply about shy 13-year-old Timmy (Jaden Guerrero), whose schoolmates call him Polly (partly because Polly sometimes calls him Polly, go figure).

Deciding that a whole play about this trio might not work, Durang added a “normal” couple next door: Clifford (Eddy Lukovic) and his friend (not wife) Salena (Ray-Anna Young). Clifford uses classical music to calm him. Salena notes that she found meeting neighbors difficult, so took to hanging out at the bus stop, where she met Rosalind (Heather Warren), who wears a pillowcase on her head for sun protection because she has had basal cell problems (necessitating surgery) on her head.

One day Jimmy tells Polly he’s either going to kill the family or strangers at the mall, and makes her pick which. She picks the strangers. We next see him in a pig’s head mask, going off to the mall.

You get the idea. This play is full of craziness (both clinical and Durang-ish). You’ll need to detach your brain from any need for logic (sometimes even meaning) and take it for what it is: a sometimes funny, sometimes confusing, sometimes horrifying piece intended to make you think about life and death. And laugh along the way.

Director Adam Parker emphasizes the funnier characters and lines, a good plan. Salomón Maya plays Jimmy and acts as projection designer. That second was a job in itself: he had to change the horrifying news images three times before opening, just to keep them timely.

Durang’s earlier pieces have won prizes.  “Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You” won an Obie in 1980;  “Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike” won the Best Play Tony in 2013. 

If “Turning Off the Morning News” isn’t up to that level (and it isn’t), give OnStage’s artistic director James Darvas props for putting an intriguing if oddball play on the stage. That’s what I like best about OnStage: you’ll often see fine productions of plays you’ve never seen before.

“Turning Off the Morning News” runs through June 19 at OnStage Playhouse, 291 Third Avenue, Chula Vista.

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

Tickets ($22-25) at 619-422-7787 or onstage playhouse.org

Masks are required inside the theater.

Film Review: A Taste of Whale

                    

The Faroe Islands

Every year, 700 pilot whales are slaughtered on the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic Ocean between Iceland and the Shetland Islands. It’s called “grindadràp” or the “Grind,” and it turns the fjord’s water blood red every year. It’s also attracted the protests of animal rights activists.

The Faroese don’t kill whales for the fun of it. They eat them. It’s become a ritual: The whales show up in season, and the Faroese catch and eat them. 

Whaling used to be the islanders’ only means of survival in what was once a desolate place. But now the island is a modern, wealthy nation. Still, the Grind continues. It’s almost a fiesta: the hunters bring their children to watch. After all, someday it will be their turn to kill and distribute the whale meat.

We meet Jens and Torik, two especially dedicated Faroese whalers, who defend the Grind as a tradition. We also watch them in action – a particularly hideous sight of which I’ll spare you the details.

Vincent Kelner, writer/director of the documentary “A Taste of Whale,” also gives us some breathtaking shots of the sheer beauty of the islands – a truly green environment, with high rolling hills and water cascading down to the sea – quite a contrast with shots of the Grind.

This year, Sea Shepherd activists (the Greenpeace types) have landed to request an immediate end to the killing. Two members in particular – Lamya and Antoine – are willing to do anything to end the practice.

The local Faroese are hospitable folks, but they are not willing to drop the Grind because somebody asks them to. They point out that the meat is shared communally, and they don’t profit from it because pilot whale meat is considered too polluted for export anyway.

It’s difficult not to feel sorry for those whales, but by extension the film makes us consider what other unnecessary and perhaps environmentally destructive habits we have adopted through time. What about meat eating in general? Environmentalists tell us meat eating – especially beef – is environmentally disastrous. Cows contribute carbon dioxide to the earth’s atmosphere with their farts and excretions. Pigs and sheep likewise, though perhaps not as much. And most chickens have a pretty short and unpleasant life.

A journalist and DOP, Vincent Kelner has worked for several TV productions in France and around the world over the last 20 years. “A Taste of Whale” is the second documentary feature he has written and directed.

Nearly 200 million land animals and seven billion fish are killed daily for human consumption. And we are all responsible.

Paul McCartney once put it this way: “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be vegetarian.”

Think about it. And go see “A Taste of Whale.”

Opens in theaters May 27. 

Theater Review: Mud Row

                          "Mud Row" cast

In Dominique Morisseau’s searing “Mud Row,” two generations of African American women in West Chester, Pa. navigate problems of class, race, love and family.

The play, commissioned as a project of the Pennsylvania-based People’s Light theater company, starts with the premise that “we got to know how we got somewhere so we know how to get somewhere else.”

The show opens when sophisticated Philly-dweller Regine (Marti Gobel) finds out that she’s inherited the old family row house in West Chester from her (unseen) grandmother. That house holds unhappy memories, and Regine figures the best thing to do is put it up for sale. But when she and boyfriend Davin (Rondrell McCormick) arrive to set up the appraisal process previous to sale, they find that two poverty-ridden squatters named Toshi (Rachel Cognata) and Tyriek (Leo Banks) have been living there.

To complicate matters further, Regine and Toshi (a former drug addict) realize that they are sisters and both have many painful childhood memories. Can they heal those wounds and offer forgiveness?

A years-earlier family confrontation takes us to the 1960s, where 20-something Elsie (Andréa Agosto) has decided to marry up in order to get out of the poverty she was born into. But sister Frances (Joy Yvonne Jones), a firebrand civil rights activist, has a wider view. She feels that African Americans’ lot as a whole needs to be improved, and is convinced that the best way to do that is to get out on the picket-line hustings and try to make change happen.

The action moves back and forth in time, problems and arguments come and go, and dispositions sour and improve – just like life. 

Brian Redfern’s set and Regan A. McKay’s costumes add to the time-shifting ambience and look of the piece. Props also to lighting designer Caroline Andrew, and Melanie Cole Chen for the tricky lighting and sound designs.

Delicia Turner Sonnenberg, founding artistic director of Moxie Theatre and one of the best in town, helms this complex, sometimes tricky, occasionally maddening concoction with a steady hand. She is aided by a superb sextet of excellent actors. Every one of them will convince you of whatever they want you to believe.

But can hope, civility and forgiveness survive? If you’re interested in a most unusual exploration of the topic, don’t miss this production.

The details

“Mud Row” plays through June 19, 2022 at Cygnet Theatre, 4040 Twiggs Street in Old Town.

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

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

Theater Review: Come From Away

 

The world is getting more dangerous by the day, but “Come From Away” (playing through the weekend at San Diego Civic Theatre) commemorates a disaster that reminds us how good people can be.

That disaster was 9/11, in which terrorists crashed jetliners into New York’s Twin Towers and other places.

When it happened, all pilots were instructed to land their planes at the nearest airport. This show is based on the story of 38 planes that landed at Gander, Newfoundland, the reception the passengers got and the friendships that developed.

San Diegans call this show a local product, because it was directed by La Jolla Playhouse’s own Christopher Ashley, who workshopped it first, then opened it at the Playhouse where it had a record-breaking run, eventually opening to a successful run on Broadway.

It’s a strange bird of a show, for several reasons. All the actors play multiple characters, for one. The music (by Irene Sankoff and David Hein) is almost constant, an intriguing conglomeration of Celtic and country that uses some instruments you’d expect and some you wouldn’t, such as fiddles, bodhrans, Irish bouzoukis and uilleann pipes. 

But the story here is about taking care of one another. What would you do if your small town had suddenly added 50% more people without 50% more housing or food or anything else?

The residents of Gander figured out a way to take care of the “plane people,” somehow providing shelter, food, consolation and just plain goodheartedness.

Mayor Claude (Kevin Carolina), immediately thinks there’s nothing to do but drink, and finds himself trying to talk the truck drivers’ spokesman into momentarily suspending their strike so they can take the visitors to whatever shelter can be found.

The characters include Beverley (Marika Aubrey), the first female American Airlines pilot; Nick (Chamblee Ferguson), an English oil engineer; Bob (James Earl Jones II, third cousin of the famous actor), afraid he’ll be shot when he’s asked to gather grills from backyards for a big barbecue; and gay couple Kevin T. (Jeremy Woodard) and Kevin J. (Nick Duckart). Duckart also plays Ali, an Egyptian passenger branded “Middle Eastern” and feared by a few.  But the locals soon start inviting passengers to their homes for a shower and a meal.

There’s also Bonnie (Sharone Sayegh), the local animal shelter person, who checks the cargo holds for any animals that may be lost, hungry or scared, and local constable Oz (Harter Clingman).

This is, as I said, a show like no other, with intriguing characters, unusual music, 

and Kelly Devine’s hometown-look choreography that’s snappy and understated.

This show came about because of an event we all wish had never happened, but we can leave with a little more hope for the kindness of strangers.

The details

“Come From Away” plays through Sunday, May 22, 2022 at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., San Diego.

Shows Thursday at 7:30, Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 1 and 6 p.m.

Tickets: Google Broadway San Diego