We had a big week at the theater. Last Tuesday, we went to Clue at the Ahmanson. Super cast. It was a masterclass in timing. Mark Price, playing Wadsworth, stopped the show with choreographed recitation. The whole show was carefully choreographed and the cast worked with it seamlessly. I suppose I should point out specific performances, but they were all wonderful. If you’re looking for an action-packed, comedic who-dunnit, this is your show. It runs for an hour and a half without intermission so pee before you go. What a relief to laugh again…
Wednesday night we saw Company at the Pantages. The twist on this version is: Bobby is a girl! And the character change isn’t labored; it actually works. Bobby enters with balloons celebrating her 35th birthday-accompanied by the sound of a ticking clock. This Bobby has a biological clock to motivate her to make some decisions in her life. Briitney Coleman is a charming Bobby. She’s a wonderful comedic actress with a terrific voice. I really enjoyed her performance. Another change is, it’s no longer Amy, it’s Jamie. And gay men are just as nervous about getting married as straights. Matt Rodin plays a manic Jamie and does the patter song brilliantly. Very funny. I enjoyed the three guys who sang You Could Drive a Person Crazy. The song was changed from an Andrew Sisters sound, which would have been strange with men, to more of a chorus boy sound. It worked but I wonder what it would have sounded like if they’d reworked it into a doowop thing. Hmm. Anyway, the whole cast was great, as was the staging. I enjoyed it. So did the rest of the audience. It got a standing ‘O’. Of course, you get a standing ‘O’ in Los Angeles if you don’t fall off the stage, audiences aren’t very discerning, but this show earned it. Lots of fun. Go see it.
We haven’t been out much so it was a pleasant change to have a musical and a concert to attend. We went to Funny Girl at the Ahmanson last Tuesday. It was opening night, I think, and the crowd was enthusiastic. I was a little hesitant about the whole thing. I remember reading that the show got so-so reviews when it came out in the 60s. Streisand saved it, I think, and it made her a star. And I’ve seen the movie a hundred times so I had Streisand’s interpretation firmly fixed in my mind. I felt sorry for any actress trying to make the part her own. Well, I was surprised. The book must have been re-written because it made more sense than the movie did. Nicky Arnstein became a fleshed-out character with motivation instead of just a handsome man in a ruffled shirt. Katerina McCrimmon played Fanny Brice and made the part her own. I could hear echoes of Streisand when she sang the famous songs (People, for instance) but she gave it her own spin. And I think she’s probably a better actress than Streisand. She played it broadly–well, Fanny was a broad, after all–but she was human and funny. She really brought the audience in. Melissa Manchester played Mrs. Brice. I hadn’t seen her since we attended a concert at the Greek Theater years ago. I didn’t know she could act. Well, she can. And she can sing too. The audience loved her. Actually, the whole cast was great. The tap dancers brought the house down. People still like tap dancers. The staging was interesting and the lighting was great. Lots of fun. And there were no politics! I didn’t get pissed off about anything! Wow. Glad to see it. I got so tired of being scolded and shamed and ridiculed I quit the Taper Theater. Who needs to pay for that crap? I’m reading that theaters are closing all over. Maybe if they provided entertainment instead of agi-prop…Okay, rant’s over. But go see it. It’s a good show.
Last Thursday we went to Disney Hall. Simone Young conducted Arvo Part’s Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, an Elgar cello concerto, and Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 8. I didn’t know any of the pieces, so it was an evening of discovery for me. Gautier Capucon was the cellist for the Elgar piece. I thought he started out a little pitchy. Maybe he was nervous. Or maybe it was me; I always think cellos…celli…whatever, are a little pitchy. Anyway, he finished big. The audience went nuts so he did an encore which I thought was better than the Elgar. It was a pleasant evening. Nobody talked during the music, nobody flashed their phone in my face; I had nothing to be mad about. And that’s a good night in Los Angeles. Oh, I forgot to say anything about Young. She seemed competent enough. Can’t really compare the pieces because they were new to me. I found her gauze tunic and pants a little informal but really, what’s she supposed to wear? Maybe a designer should come up with something specific to women that doesn’t look like it came out of a bazaar. Just a thought.
Both pleasant evenings. Good night to be in Los Angeles.
I just read a review in the L.A. Times that I completely disagree with, so I had to write something. The reviewer objected because it wasn’t “serious” theater. I guess you only have “serious theater” when the audience being lectured and scolded and proselytized about Far Left politics. Apparently, you can’t laugh or enjoy yourself in “serious theater”. Bull****. I enjoyed Peter Pan Goes Wrong tremendously–as did most of the audience. We all laughed and booed Captain Hook which the reviewer thought was terrible because they didn’t share in the humor. IMO, we need more plays like this instead of the crap previously produced at the Music Center theaters–which probably is the reason the Taper is dark for the foreseeable future. I cancelled our subscription because I couldn’t stand the name-calling and abuse of anyone who didn’t share the Left’s extreme worldview. I wasn’t the only one. You want to kill a regional theater? Turn it into a political hobbyhorse. The Left apparently doesn’t buy tickets. And the result is a dark theater. Good job, political extremists.
Anyway, back to Peter Pan Goes Wrong. It’s about an amateur theater group trying to produce Peter Pan. Anyone who’s ever been involved in amateur theatrics can identify with everything that goes wrong. I remember being in The Effect of Gamma Rays in Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds when I was in college. Someone went over my props after I’d checked and moved everything (God knows why). My opening scene started with a phone call and the phone fell off the ledge. Things went downhill from there. The head tech guy didn’t show up. He claimed that he informed everyone that he’d miss the show but nobody remembered him telling anyone. So all the light and sound cues were wrong. Car horns blared in strange places; none of the special spotlights worked, the actors wandered around the stage, hoping for the best. The final miscue was at the end; an atom was supposed to be super-imposed on the actress’s face. There was a corn stalk instead. The director spent the show in the lobby, pulling his hair out. We did our best and the audience was kind. I remember one friend afterward asking me the significance of the cornstalk. I had no good answer. We stayed until one in the morning to train the tech crew on the cues and went on to triumph. I also remember when the girl playing Frumasera in Fiddler on the Roof panicked when one of the lines broke as she flew around ten feet off the stage. She kept waiting for the other line to break but she didn’t lose a beat. Amateur actors are tough. I guess they have to be. But I identified completely with the shenanigans the Peter Pan actors were dealing with. This is an industry town so I know wasn’t alone. It was FUN! I hope the new Director of the Music Center focusses on entertainment instead of pushing his political views. He’ll probably be out of a job if he doesn’t. All the good shows go to the Pantages these days. And the audience pays to see them.
We’ve been royally entertained lately. Last week we went to Into the Woods at the Ahmanson. Wonderful production. It was a touring company, so the sets were fragmented but that worked better than productions I’ve seen with huge sets. When you’re dealing with storybook characters, why not let the imagination run wild? No point in dragging everybody down to earth–unless you’re a giant, then it’s a plot point. Four of the cast members were from the original Broadway cast that won Best Revival (I think). The baker and his wife were a real-life married couple, and they worked wonderfully together. The young man who played the Wolf and Prince Charming was delightful. The Sondheim score is demanding but the cast had no problem with it–and they were all superb comic actors. It’s the best production of Into the Woods I’ve seen (haven’t seen that many but still…). It might be enough to save the Music Center. The Taper is being closed for the near future due to lack of money. The last program director spent all the money on political shows. We finally cancelled our subscription to the Taper because we couldn’t stand the hatred and politicization anymore. I remember a play, starring Mary Louise Parker, that was written by an Englishman. Midpoint in the play, apropos to nothing, Parker screams out, “I hate Republicans!” Don’t think it was in the script, she just adlibbed but that sort of thing became common. In What the Constitution Means to Me, the actor/writer declaims that the electoral college should be abolished because it interferes with Democracy. I guess she never read US history. The rural states would never have ratified the Constitution without the electoral college. They wanted to be protected from the populated states. If the Left is allowed to destroy the electoral college the Red states will have no choice but to seceded for their own protection. But if you believe that you’re bigot or a racist…some sort of ‘ot’ or ‘ist’. When we went for a glass of wine at the Plaza before the show last Wednesday, the signs were blaring that the last four performances of Transparency the Musical had tickets available. I didn’t see a soul around the theater. It looked dead. I guess they couldn’t give tickets away. And when you can’t paper a theater, you have a real problem. Anyway, the new director is searching for money…and plays people want to see, presumably. They’ll have a hard time getting me back. Once bitten, twice shy. I’m tired of paying to be called names and patronized. I’d rather watch I Love Lucy reruns. They’re more entertaining and a lot cheaper.
Last night we saw Tina at the Pantages. It’s a juke box musical about Tina Turner so they used her famous songs. The book was okay, but I liked the movie better. All the singers were great. Either Naomi Rogers or Zurin Villanueva, not sure which, did a nice turn as Tina (turn, get it?). The program lists two women in the part. Maybe they take turns just to save their voices. That would make sense. But whichever woman I saw had a great voice. She belted for two hours. I liked what she did, but I saw Tina perform live. And there’s only one Tina. I imagine the actress will develop her own style–if she hasn’t already. Anyway, it was a pleasant way to spend an evening. I think the show is moving on in a week because we have Beetlejuice tickets next week. So much fun….
We went to 1776 at the Ahmanson last night. I was dreading it. After that awful version of Oklahoma I was sure this was going to be some anti-American butchering of what was once a wonderful musical (“It’s all white men! It’s evil! It must destroyed!”). I was at the point where I wanted to cancel our Ahmanson subscription. They can do any horrible thing they want to; I just won’t pay for it. Gordon talked me into giving them one more chance even though they’d move us back a row (I suspect because we gave them an honest opinion about Oklahoma; bad, bad, bad).
Well, the cast was all women but they didn’t trash the country. They didn’t change the dialogue or any of the music, they made the point that even though history just names the white men, all sorts of people were involved in our Revolution. The cast included a transexual, lots of black women, and a Native American woman (she had a great voice too). They added one line that I appreciated said by Abigail Adams, “Don’t forget the women, John.” And something to the effect that men would be tyrants if allowed. I thought they’d go nuts over the slavery issue which is a big part of the play but the woman who played Ben Franklin (black woman, by the way) pointed out that if the slavery clause wasn’t removed, the South would leave. And it was more important to start a new country even if the start wasn’t perfect. History proved that the slavery issue was finally resolved 90 years later–at tremendous cost to the country.
What I’ve always appreciated about this show is the pragmatism. We had to start somewhere and it proves the old saying, “The perfect is the enemy of the good.” This country has never been perfect. But the miracle of the United States is that we keep trying. Nothing is etched in stone. It took a while but the slaves were freed. 160 years later women were allowed to vote. We’ll probably never be perfect but we bumble along, doing our best. That’s why I get so disgusted with so much of the rhetoric these days. My God, in very few places in the world is change even possible. The USA is one of them and we lead the way in many issues. This version of 1776 respected that position. And I appreciate that.
The sets were fragmented, of course; you have to be nimble with a traveling show. The voices were incredible. Tiesha Thomas who played Abigail Adams, and Connor Lyon, who played Martha Jefferson, really stood out for me. But the showstopper was “Molasses to Rum” sung by Kassandra Haddock. It’s a compelling, terrible song which points out the sins on both sides. Haddock was compelling yet wonderful in her interpretation and she was backed by interesting choreography. Also liked Joanna Glushak who played Rutlidge. Oh, they were all wonderful. One problem I had was the lack of characterization. The movement was stylized so all the actors were constrained within those limits. The woman who played Ben Franklin broke loose every now and again but it’s hard not to play that part broadly. Took some of the fun out of the show.
This was an interesting take on a beloved musical. I noticed a lot of empty seats after intermission. Have no idea why. But I didn’t walk out. And considering how I felt going in, that says a lot. I read in the paper that a new director of the Music Center has been appointed. His says his main goal is to get butts in the seats (paraphrasing). The theaters are going broke. Even the LA Times commented on the figurative tumbleweeds blowing in the plaza. If they didn’t paper the theaters there’d be no audience at all. They might consider commissioning plays that people will actually pay to see. Quit proselytizing and try entertaining for a change.
Gordon and I left early for the Ahmanson Theater last night. We presented our vaccination and booster cards and photo ID to get our wristband first so we could tour the plaza and enjoy a glass of wine before the show. All the restaurants that used to be on the plaza had closed for the pandemic. Even the hotdog stand on Grand Ave. The wine bar sold sandwiches but we just got drinks. The video screens on the plaza showed people coming up the escalator for the theaters. It was good to be back. Hope more restaurants open up soon.
The Lehman Trilogy started at 7:30 because it had a 3 1/2 hour running time. I was dreading it. I can manage 2 hours of whining and Leftist political propagandizing (seems to be what’s produced these days), but 3 1/2 hours? Thank God, I was wrong. The play is adapted from a novel by an Italian, Stefano Massini, and is about the founding of Lehman Brothers Financial Institution. It wasn’t a denunciation of capitalism; it was an admiring account of immigrant success in the United States. I didn’t think that was allowed anymore. According to this account, the Lehman brothers contributed to the creation of most of the financial institutions we know today. Some of the family even became the politicians who placed regulations in place to stop of the worst excesses of those institutions. This German-Jewish family had an enormous impact on the development of the United States. The play starts with the Lehman brothers emigrating from Germany and starting out in Alabama in the 1840s. They first opened a store that sold fabric and became cotton factors. They survive the Civil War and create financial institutions to resurrect Alabama–all while making a profit, of course. Nobody works for free, do they? They end up in New York because that’s where big finance is. We watch their financial rise and family interactions over the decades. By the time the business went bankrupt in 2008, no Lehmans were involved in it. So, the bankruptcy was just a footnote. But the story was fascinating. The adaption by Ben Power was brilliant. As was the staging. And I can’t say enough about the three actors who performed for 3 hours (with two intermissions; they probably needed a rest) –and held my attention. Simon Russell Beale, Adam Godley, and Howard W. Overshown played the original brothers. They also played women, children, plantation owners…basically, they played whatever character was needed. Wow. It was a master class in acting. Most Los Angeles audiences tend to leave after two hours but I didn’t see anybody walk out–or not show up after either intermission. It was engrossing. Well done.
So, for an evening of brilliant theater, go see The Lehman Trilogy. I don’t know how much longer it’s running at the Ahmanson.
