Theater Review: Frozen

                        

                            Caroline Bowman in Disney's "Frozen"

“Frozen” has a history longer than some novels, or so it seemed as I tried to bone up on the history, in preparation for reviewing the newest version. The saga is way too long. Suffice it to say that this is the first live-action stage version since the last animated film version in 2013.

The Disney Theatrical version is onstage at San Diego Civic Theatre through January 29, and it’s worth the wait. For the record, five stagings are running concurrently – in London, Japan, Australia and Hamburg as well as this U.S. national tour.

If you didn’t know better, you’d think this show is just about spectacle. It certainly has a lot – projection screens, LED lights, dry ice-like atmospheric effects, a life-sized moving Sven reindeer, countless Swarovski crystals and enormous set pieces like an icy footbridge.

It’s also got a revolving cast of 15 major roles and a huge ensemble, 20-some songs and a touring orchestra of a dozen players, conducted by Faith Seetoo.

Though you could be forgiven for settling for spectacle, you’d be missing the heart of the story, which involves love and the willingness to give up something really important to you for a greater good.

Two sisters – Elsa, the elder (Caroline Bowman) and the younger Anna (Lauren Nicole Chapman) have a difficult relationship. The reason: Known only to her father, Elsa has been given the powers of ice and snow. Dad counsels her not to tell anyone, which makes relating to sister Anna a bit difficult, especially after Elsa inadvertently injures her sister, which leads to them growing up separated.

But when their parents are killed in a sea accident, Elsa is called back for her coronation, leading to more stresses between her and Anna. Elsa flees to the nearby mountains, where she meets Olaf (puppeteer Jeremy Davis), a reindeer named Sven (Dan Plehal) and Kristoff the ice salesman (Dominic Dorset). Anna has, of course, followed her sister, and romance may be in the air (and complicate lives further (when the handsome Hans (Will Savarese) meets both young women. How can this work out?

Why, magically, of course, and musically, and with the aid of fantastic costumes, scenery, backdrops and these fine singing/dancing actors.

Bowman’s adult Elsa is a wonder. Hers is the more reserved character, but she can (and does) sing and dance up a storm. Chapman’s Anna is more of a spitfire by nature, willing to try anything, especially after she meets Hans and Kristoff. She’s fun to watch.

Everybody involved in this production deserves kudos, from Director Michael Grandage to choreographer Rob Ashford, scenic and costume designer Christopher Oram, lighting designer Natasha Katz, sound designer Peter Hylenski and those responsible for video design (Finn Ross), puppets (Michael Curry), hair design (David Brian Brown and special effects (Jeremy Chernick).

Wait’ll you see that reindeer Sven. 

Posters for the show call it “Simply Magical.”  I’d agree with that.

Dominic Dorset and Dan Plehal

The details

“Frozen” plays through Jan. 29, 2023 at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Avenue, Downtown.

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

Tickets: Civic Theatre box office, Ticketmaster or online at BroadwaySD.com

Theater Review: Blues in the Night

            Anise Ritchie, Elijah Rock, Ciara Stroud, Karole Forman

Ah, those blues in the night. And in the morning, and all those times in between.

If you haven’t heard any blues lately (other than political ones), you can fix that through Feb. 12 at North Coast Repertory Theatre. There, director Yvette Freeman Hartley presents her rewrite of the 1980  “Blues in the Night,” this time featuring four fine singers and a boffo band of five led by conductor/pianist and twice Grammy-nominated Kevin Toney.

NCRT stalwart Karole Foreman is known here as “Woman of the World.” She’s been around a while and knows what’s up, but just wants to know why that man doesn’t treat her right.

Anise Ritchie, another frequent NCRT performer, is “Lady From the Road,” seemingly a bit younger than Woman of the World and just getting tired of being tired and lonely.

New to me is Ciara Stroud as the youngest, known here as Girl with a Date, just beginning to learn what those bad ole men can do to a girl’s dreams.

Elijah Rock, a fine singing actor, plays The Man in the Saloon (aka the bad man causing these women all that misery).

Marty Burnett’s minimalist set design works nicely. We’re in a seedy motel in Chicago in 1938, where nobody seems to think about food (one assumes it’s not the greatest anyway). 

Matthew Novotny’s lighting and Matt Fitzgerald’s sound design (aside from some quickly-fixed opening-night feedback problems up top) are fine.

Big kudos to Regan A. McKay, making her NCRT debut as costumer. Those costumes are great; some (especially for Foreman) downright fabulous. 

Kudos also to the onstage band, who take us through 26 standard blues songs by the likes of Bessie Smith, Duke Ellington, Harold Arlen and Johnny Mercer. Between that and Director Yvette Freeman Hartley’s adaptation of the original version of this show (by Sheldon Epps, onetime associate artistic director at The Old Globe) to make some connections between the blues-obsessed women, the show seems a bit overlong. But the talent is definitely there. These folks can sing and play! If you’re blues-deprived, this is the place to be.  

                                              

The details

“Blues in the Night” plays through Feb. 12, 2023 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive in Solana Beach.

Shows 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. Matinees also at 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 13 and Wednesday, Feb. 1.

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

Film Review: A Man Called Otto

Tom Hanks is starting to get typecast. Last year we saw him as Col. Tom Parker, Elvis Presley’s aging, possibly demented manager. Now he goes to another extreme, playing the title character in “A Man Called Otto.”

Adapted from the 2015 Swedish film (which was, itself, adapted from a novel), Hanks plays a grumpy old geezer who has given up on life and just wants to end it. He moves to an apartment building where he intends to do just that, but runs into some obstacles. 

Not the least of the obstacles are his neighbors, notably the friendly, determined-to-be-helpful Marisol (Mariana Treviño). A fine cook, she’s the kind of friend we’d all love to have. But Otto finds her (and everyone else) intrusive.

Otto spends a lot of time yelling at everyone in sight, telling them they’re wrong or stupid or useless. Just the kind of guy everybody wants to avoid.

There are other neighbors as well, like Jimmy (Cameron Britton), built like a Mac truck and often out on the street “getting his exercise). And the black lady Anta (Juanita Jennings), taking care of aged husband Reuben (Peter Lawson Jones), who seems to be in need of a nursing home.

But the real other star of the show is a furry black homeless cat that seems to be everywhere Otto looks. He scowls at the feline too.

But as time goes on, they all get used to each other, and we see in flashbacks what brought Otto to his anti-everything existence. 

Hanks seems to be having a wonderful time in this role, and the structure of the plot will eventually lead viewers to enjoy it as well. If it seems a bit longer than necessary, well, that’s the way Hanks viewed his life at the beginning. 

Theater: Ain't Too Proud: The Life and Times of the Temptations

 

                        "Ain't Too Proud" at Civic Theatre

What do you do when you’re a boy child and all you want to do is sing? Especially when you’re in Detroit, not rich and having trouble convincing mom that this is a good idea?

The 1960s and ‘70s saw the rise of many new musical styles and stylists, starting with doo-wop, meandering through the Motown sound, psychedelic soul and adult contemporary.  Along the way, new female groups like the Supremes added to the rich musical output of the time.

San Diego Civic Theatre is hosting “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations” through Sunday.

The story starts with Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams, church choirboys, who added Keil Osborne and Wiley Waller and started a doo-wop group, calling themselves the Cavaliers. These guys accompanied their vocals with dance-like moves and hand motions that had them in constant motion.

By 1964, with what became known as the “classic five” lineup, “The Way You Do The Things You Do” came out and became the Temptations’ first Top 20 hit that April.

Producer Smoke Robinson liked the sound of a newcomer – David Ruffin, with whom the Temptations became international stars. But then Ruffin became demanding and more problems arose.

Are you getting the gist? The Temptations had an up-and-down career, but that isn’t the point.

Why not? Because the group is now the subject of a touring musical-historical show called “Ain’t Too Proud: The Life and Times of The Temptations,” and is onstage at San Diego’s Civic Theatre through Sunday.

The show reflects the group’s chaotic history, which annoys an old fogey like me, who like things a bit more logically presented. But the show itself, taken as it is, offers boundless energy, wonderful singing and unending dance moves that will at least amuse and probably thrill you. 

Don’t even try to keep track of the history. Just enjoy the heck out of the singing and dancing of the likes of actors Michael Andreaus (Otis Williams), E. Clayton Cornelious (Paul Williams). Elijah Ahmad Lewis (David Ruffin) and Jalen Harris (Eddie Kendricks). 

And don’t forget the most excellent Supremes: Amber Mariah Talley (Diana Ross), Mary Wilson (Traci Elaine Lee), Florence Ballard (Shayla Brielle G), who are terrific in their own ways.

Aside from the actors, kudos to Director Des McAnuff for keeping the whole shebang going and to all the behind-the-scenes folks like Robert Brill, who did the scenic design Howell Binkley for the lighting, Steve Canyon Kennedy for the sound, choreographer Sergio Trujillo and the many behind-the-scenes folks who make the show work.

The opening night crowd loved it, and if you remember those decades fondly, you will too. By the way, some of the Temptations are still singing.

The details

“Ain’t Too Proud - The Life and Times of the Temptations” plays through January 8, 2023 at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., Downtown.

Shows Jan. 5 at 7:30 p.m.; Jan. 6 at 8 p.m.; Jan. 7 at 2 and 8 p.m.; Jan. 8 at 1 p.m.

For tickets contact Ticketmaster (https://www.ticketmaster.com/discover/arts-theater)

Lamb's "A Christmas Carol"

                        Cast of "A Christmas Carol"

Lamb’s Players Theatre has been presenting “A Christmas Carol” for something like 44 years.

This year is a particularly wonderful show, thanks to a terrific cast (each playing multiple characters) and a musical score consisting of great musical medleys arranged by Deborah Smyth, Vanda Eggington, Ian Brandon and Mary Kidd. The show is adapted and directed by Kerry Meads.

Brian Mackey plays the old goat Scrooge, whose life choices have led him to pinch pennies rather than donating them to the needy, to say mean things to nearly everyone and to act in a way that results in the almost visible shrinking of his spirit.

It’s Christmas Eve at the start of the play, and Scrooge’s clerk Bob Cratchit (Geno Carr) asks to leave early. You remember the volcano that erupts at that request, but finally Scrooge lets him go, with strict orders to come in early the next day.

With nothing else to do, Scrooge goes home to be visited by ghosts of his past, (including his recently-deceased partner Marley) so he gets to view all the dreadful things he’s done. Some people have to learn the hard way.

Meanwhile, the townspeople are getting ready to celebrate the Christmastide with feasting, joy, and helping the poor, like regular people. The Cratchits are not rich (thanks largely to Scrooge’s penury), but they are a happy family, despite the fact that Tiny Tim is crippled. But they eat, celebrate, love each other and are glad to be alive.

The other characters – Old Joe, Fred and others – are also having a wonderful, musical time, singing one or another of the 13 beautiful medleys arranged by talented musicians Deborah Smyth, Vanya Eggington, Ian Brandon and Mary Kidd. This music is a particularly delightful aspect of the play.

The technical aspects of the play are also excellent. Michael McKeon’s sets and especially projection designs are particularly fine. Jeanne Reith does her dependable magic with the costumes, Nathan Pierson does wonders with the lighting and Patrick Duffy’s sound design is just right, and so are Rachel Hengst’s props.

Christmas is coming. Do yourself a favor and get over to Lamb’s to see this amusing, uplifting and musically magic show.

The details

Lamb’s Players “A Christmas Carol” plays through Dec. 24, 2022 at Lamb’s Players Theatre, 1142 Orange Avenue in Coronado.

Shows  Tuesday through Saturday at 7 p.m.; matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m.; Friday, Dec. 24 shows at noon and 4 p.m.

Tickets: lambs players.org or 1-619-437-6000 

Theater Review: Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird

 

                           Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird"

It’s easy to tut-tut about the horrifyingly uncivilized events in “To Kill a Mockingbird” until you listen to the daily news. It makes you wonder how much we’ve learned about fairness. 

You recall the story: Writer Harper Lee grew up in the Depression-era South (in Monroeville, Alabama), when black people were slaves or farmhands and not allowed to be much more. Her 1960 novel “To Kill a Mockingbird” is loosely based on the trial of a black man wrongly arrested for the rape of a white woman. Lee was ten at the time.

The book won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was made into an Oscar-winning film. It has since become a play, and is in fact the highest-grossing in Broadway history.

The latest version, a rewrite by Aaron Sorkin (of “A Few Good Men” and “West Wing” fame), won Tonys on Broadway and is now on a multi-year national tour. It is at San Diego Civic Theatre through December 4.

Emmy-winner Richard Thomas plays Atticus Finch, the attorney assigned to defend Tom Robinson (Yaegel T. Welch), a black man accused by the bigoted Bob Ewell (Joey Collins), who claims that Tom raped his teenage daughter Mayella (Arianna Gayle Stucki). Mayella seems to cower in the corner the whole time.

Directed by Bartlett Sher, the background story is largely told by three teens: Finch’s mouthy tomboy daughter Scout (Melanie Moore), typical teen son Jem (Justin Mark) and visiting friend Dill Harris (Steven Lee Johnson), who is extraordinarily interested in a reclusive neighbor named Boo Radley (Travis Jones). Time jumps back and forth, and set pieces roll in and out at a brisk pace as the story is told and the trial proceeds.

Though it’s clear to Atticus from the start that his client Tom is not guilty, he’s up against entrenched racism and bigotry – and an all-white jury definitely not of Tom’s peers who are determined to convict him.

Judge Taylor (Richard Poe) is white but interested in the truth, though it’s likely he knows what the all-white jury will find regardless of the truth.

Maycomb’s ideas about fairness may even be said to be reflected in Miriam Buether’s weathered set for the courtroom and the Finch front porch.

But in this version, Atticus’ motherly black housekeeper Calpurnia (Jacqueline Williams) plays a larger part, as she calls him on his privilege and they plot to try to fix it together.

Atticus puts it this way: “We have to heal this wound or we will never stop bleeding. We can’t go on like this.” 

Atticus seems to believe things will change for the better, noting that “Our darkest days are always followed by our best hours.”

Let’s hope he will prove right.

The details

“To Kill a Mockingbird” plays through Dec. 4, 2022 at San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave. at B Street in downtown San Diego.

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

Tickets: https://www.broadwaysd.com/upcoming-events/to-kill-a-mockingbird/

Theater Review: The October Night of Johnny Zero

Things are a little weird in the ’burbs of Delaware Valley on the eastern seaboard. There we find the Pinnolinis – Franky and his mom Barbara – living about as apart as people can be when they share a house.

Franky (Geoffrey Ulysses Geissinger) is a high schooler, seemingly unusually diffident, even reticent. Barbara (Jessica John) is a disturbed person who talks a lot and drinks more. It’s 1981 and dad is not to be seen. Maybe. Franky and his mom seem to communicate mostly by shouting between floors: Barbara is often upstairs. Franky seems to hang out in the kitchen.

This is a three-story place, with an apparently spooky downstairs that holds (among other things) the fridge and a freezer where mom stashes the milk (you read that right) and other things normally defrosted before consumed.

Franky’s classmate Johnny (Marcel Ferrin) comes over to ask for help with a book report so he can be done with it and get to the basketball game tonight. (He wears a Celtics t-shirt, so we assume he’s on the team.) His mom forgot to pick him up, and unfortunately Franky’s phone isn’t working. So Johnny’s stuck with these strange folks for a while.

Franky wants to type something, but can’t find the typewriter. That’s because mom has put it in a cupboard in the kitchen. Go figure.

Where’s Franky’s dad? He might be the hulking presence that shows up every now and then in the darkness. Or he might just be out of the picture entirely.

Franky seems to have had a brother named Danny, who it seems chose to live in the cellar under the staircase. What happened to him is not explained.

John seems to be having a wonderful time with her disturbed character, and she is always, to be sure, a joy to watch. She gets the smart-alecky comments that make the show occasionally fun to watch.

Geissinger and Ferrin play well off each other, even seem to need each other, the more intellectual Franky complementing the less brainy athlete. Both are excellent actors I’d be happy to see onstage again.

Yi-Chien Lee’s set works well, and the occasionally spooky sounds and lighting are well handled by Kate Rose Reynolds and Kevin Anthenill. 

But the script itself needs work. The playwright calls it “magical,” but it doesn’t seem so to this viewer. It seems to become more and more abusive, both to Franky and the audience. And the final scene (I’ll spare you a description), is inexcusably grim and seemingly pointless, sending the audience home depressed. 

The details

“The October Night of Johnny Zero” plays through Dec. 10, 2022 at Backyard Renaissance Theatre at the Tenth Avenue Arts Center, 930 Tenth Ave. in San Diego.

Plays Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 7 p.m.

Tickets: (960) 975-7189 or online at backyardrenaissance.com