Theater Review: The Little Fellow

                        

I wasn’t around in the 1830s, nor have I ever been what some call a strumpet, so my comments about Cygnet Theatre’s latest show “The Little Fellow” can be taken with as many grains of salt as seem reasonable to the reader. I should also confess that I arrived a few minutes after the show started (and was not given a program), so my comments about this particular demimonde may be a bit off.

 

But playwright Kate Hamill’s latest play about this world, now in its world premiere production through Nov. 19 at Cygnet, is decidedly a most unusual play in a world-class production, directed by Cygnet’s Rob Lutfy. 

Most of the action takes place in the world of the strumpet Harriet (sometimes called Julia and played by Keiko Green), one of whose first lines is “Gentlemen always come,” which gives you a taste of what’s to come.

Harriet is attended by the servant girl Mary (Rachael VanWormer) and Sofia Jean Gomez, who plays several other characters as well.

There are also a few gentlemen callers, all played by MJ Sieber in various outfits and attitudes.

But never mind who’s who. Just relax and watch these ladies (and the occasional gentleman) at work and play, as you ponder the world of the wealthy and the not-so wealthy.

It’s easy to get confused (and I did), but it doesn’t really matter, because what we’re discussing here is a world most of us know only from reading or from exposure at a safe distance.

In case you’re wondering, the original “Little Fellow” was a horse, a young colt in a Marguerite Henry book by learns the meaning of jealousy and friendship.

In Hamill’s telling, there are only four actors, playing a variety of male and female roles. But all are excellently done and wondrous fun to watch, and will leave you with lots to talk about on the way home.

Don’t miss this show.

“The Little Fellow” plays through Nov. 19, 2023 at Cygnet Theatre, 4040 Twiggs Street in Old Town. Buy tickets online (cygnet@cygnettheatre.com) or call the box office: 619-337-1525.

Theater Review: Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

                    Andrew Polec as The Grinch

For 26 years, San Diego audiences have watched, laughed, cried and enjoyed Dr. Seuss’ grouchy old green Grinch as he cavorts around Whoville and environs, trying to tell everyone that they’re crazy to be getting together to enjoy the Christmas season, dancing, eating and singing their hearts out.

Fortunately, nobody has paid that much attention to the Grinch’s ugly behavior. Instead, they’ve showed His Greenness just how much fun and joy can be had by being good to each other.

So when Old Max (Steve Gunderson) decides to retire and returns to say goodbye to the Grinch and the rocky hovel they lived in for the last time, he bumps into some young, current Whoville residents who dance up a storm.

Even when Andrew Polec, this year’s green Grinch (for the third time!) tells us how much he hates Christmas, some of the adorable kids in the cast get to him and even he starts to become, um, is human the word?

This year my friend Diana and I were really lucky: we got aisle seats very close to the front, so we got to see the cast cavort up close and personal. It was a terrific show, brilliantly directed by James Vásquez. The book and lyrics are by Timothy Mason, with music by Mel Marvin. Elan McMahan directs the orchestra.

If you’ve never seen this show, or if you’ve seen it numerous times, it’s always a joy, especially with all the young kids (and older kids, even adults) cavorting about onstage. It’s Christmas, for heaven’s sake. Don’t miss it.

Theater Review: Mamma Mia!

“Mamma Mia!,” the world’s longest-running jukebox musical, has just opened to a very appreciative audience at San Diego’s Civic Theatre, where it will run through November 12.

The current form stars Alisa Melendez as Sophie Sheridan, a young woman who lives and cavorts on a Greek isle with her mother and several other people, some related, some not, but all talented singers and dancers and, with music from ABBA, great fun to watch. With a book by Catherine Johnson and music by Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus, “Mamma Mia!” is now the eighth-longest-running show in Broadway history.

Having over the years boasted cast members including the likes of Amanda Seyfried, Christine Baranski, Julie Walters, Meryl Streep, Stellan Skarsgård, Colin Firth and Pierce Brosnan, the show also has a history of all-star casting.

Now celebrating 13 years and over 5,475 performances on Broadway,”Mamma Mia!” is also an international hit, having been seen by over 54 million people in 39 productions in 14 languages in over 400 cities. The original West End production is now in its 16th year in London.

In case you were wondering, yes, another film is in the offing. But in the meantime, you could do a lot worse than spend an evening at Civic, watching the guys and gals cavort through their bits, singing and dancing to everyone’s delight.

The goofy plot has Sophie hosting three men who all claim to be her father, all of whom have arrived on the island hoping to give her to the man she says she will marry.

Well, of course complications ensue, but mostly what this show is about is people trying to communicate and doing it largely by dancing and singing. You can’t get a much better show than that to spend an evening with. 

Phyllida Lloyd directs this effort with a sure hand and a great attitude, and the cast is backed by a huge (and hugely talented) ensemble of some 14. The band of six pounds out songs with titles like “Dancing Queen,” “Knowing Me, Knowing You,” “Money, Money, Money,” “Super Trouper” and “The Winner Takes It All.”

It’s not like any other show you’ve ever seen. But that’s why it’s so great to have it here on our stages. Don’t miss this show.

Ticket prices start at $39 and availability is limited.  Performances are Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m; Nov. 10 at 8 p.m.; Nov. 11 at 2 and 8 p.m.; None. 12 at 1 and 6:30 p.m. Tickets available on TicketMaster.com.

Theater Review: The 39 Steps

                The four stars of "The 39 Steps"

Scripps Ranch Theatre does some interesting – if not downright weird –productions. I think this latest is the weirdest yet.

With only four actors, Patrick Barlow has rewritten a 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film script into a lickety-split theatrical action thriller that features more than 50 roles. You read that right, four actors, 50-plus roles and settings from London to Edinburgh to the Scottish moors and even the London Palladium. And all within a two-hour show with one intermission.

Directed by Phil Johnson and featuring many of SRT’s regulars on the production team, the show rocks and rolls through one craziness after another and just makes you wonder what could be coming next.

Does any of it make sense? What difference does it make? It’ll make you giggle and wonder what’s next, and isn’t that good enough?

Sure it is. Trust me.

Bravi to the four actors: clowns Katelyn Slater (of huge eyes and a bigger smile) and Chris Braden and two actual characters, one handsome guy played by Marley Bauer and three very different women played by Melanie Mino.

Bravi also to the production team, especially set designer Yi-Chien Lee, lighting by Michelle Miles, costumes by Caprice Shirley, props by Justin Magallanes and sound design by Patrick J Duffy.

“The 39 Steps” is perhaps a bit longer than necessary, but it never lacks for jokes, observable silliness or downright fun, and there’s a lot to be said for that.

 

Theater Review: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

                 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Wow, here’s a story to keep you guessing. Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella about those strange guys working in that lab and what does and doesn’t happen to them just keeps the suspense and excitement mounting until finally all hell breaks loose. Or maybe doesn’t, but you’ll be riveted the whole way.

Especially by one particular woman named Elizabeth Jelkes, played by Ciara Stroud and fascinating to all. Who is she really?

Director Shana Wride keeps the science and curiosity mounting, and NCRT’s resident set designer Marty Burnett keeps everyone’s interest with a succession of red doors here and there, another source of curiosity.

Never mind what does and doesn’t happen in the plot. Is Jekyll the problem, or is it his brother Hyde? Or neither? You can be the judge, and it won’t even matter whether you’re right or wrong. It’s getting there that’s all the fun.

The sterling cast includes Jacob Bruce*, Katie MacNichol*, Conner Marx*, Ciara Stroud*, Bruce Turk* and Christopher M. Williams*.

So sit back, relax and prepare for one of the most fascinating journeys of your theatrical lifetime.

The details

“Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” has been extended and now plays through November 19, 2023 at North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Dr. in Solana Beach. 

Shows Wednesday and Thursday at 7 p.m.; Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m; Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m. Seven new shows have been added on Wed., Nov. 15 at 2 and 7 p.m.; Thurs. Nov. 15 at 7 p.m.; Friday Nov. 17 at 8 p.m.; Saturday Nov. 18 at 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday, Nov. 19 at 2 p.m.

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

Theater Review: The Turn of the Screw

                     The Turn of the Screw

There’s Henry James. There’s Jeffrey Hatcher. There’s a play called “The Turn of the Screw.” 

Then there’s the Chalk Circle Collective, a group that at the moment is all and none of these things at the same time. 

Chalk Circle Collective  is currently performing at Hillcrest’s Diversionary Theatre in its version of Hatcher and James’ versions of the well-known play “The Turn of the Screw.”

But this is theater like no other you or I have ever seen. Rather than well-rehearsed lines, it rather emphasizes noises and sounds made on instruments well known for what we used to call music. Or simply made by the human voice in ways unfamiliar to most of us.

There’s a plot of sorts. The two characters are a governess (played by Megan Carmitchel) and “The Man,” unidentified by name but brilliantly (and sometimes scarily) performed by Michael Cusimano.

The governess appears to be younger than The Man, and she seems to be interested in him as a potential friend or even closer. He, on the other hand, appears to be in a different universe, and not a human one.

There is no adequate way to write a traditional review of this piece, and I’m not even going to try. Suffice it to say that the piece is fascinating, scary, sometimes funny and utterly absorbing in ways I never thought possible.

                            DOUBT

New Village Arts couldn’t have picked a better time to do this play than right now, when suspicion, distrust and downright hatred seem to be at their peak internationally.

Playwright John Patrick Shanley’s “Doubt” takes place in a Catholic school in the Bronx where a new acolyte - a teacher named Sister James (Juliana Scheding) - begins to question the senior nun, the by-the-book Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Kym Pappas).

Also in the cast is beloved Father Brendan Flynn (Dr. AJ Knox), who has the nerve to request three spoonfuls of sugar in his tea and to note that “it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas” and even to suggest that “people should see us as members of the family rather than emissaries from Rome.”

Comments like those are distasteful to Sister Aloysius, who would like to find a way to remove him from her parish.

A new young student, Donald Muller, the parish’s first African-American, has been seen tasting the sacred wine at the altar. Sister Aloysius blames Father Flynn for this and demands he request a transfer to another parish. 

When Mrs. Muller (Sherrell M. Tyler) is told that Flynn may have touched her boy inappropriately, her response is simple: “His father don’t like him, and I bring him here, and you don’t like him.”

How can anyone survive in an environment like this? Will Sister Aloysius get her way or will saner heads prevail?

Playwright Shanley has fashioned a fascinating one-act play that seems to come and go in a flash, leaving playgoers with lots to talk about on the way home.

Kristianne Kurner has directed this fine cast impeccably, and the sets (Christopher Scott Murillo), costumes (Kevin La’Marr Coleman), lighting (Shelby Thach), sound design (Marcus Rio) and props (Sofia Cassidy) are excellent.

Do not miss this play. It runs through October 22.