Blog Stage - Acting in Film, TV, Theatre - Backstage

Full Court

The critically acclaimed Theatre @ Boston Court, under the helm of co-artistic directors Jessica Kubzansky and Michael Michetti, has announced an entire season of world-premiere works for 2010.

The ecectic slate begins with Oedipus El Rey, by visionary scribe Luis Alfaro (pictured left), to be directed by prolific Jon Lawrence Rivera, artistic director of Playwrights Arena. It's described as a gritty re-imagining of Sophocles' classic Greek tragedy Oedipus Rex, in which the setting is the barrio of East L.A.Oedipus has been released from Federal prison.

San Francisco's Magic Theatre collaborates on this production, opening February 27

High-Rent District

Musical Theatre West, one of the finest and longest-standing musical theater companies in Southern California, has thrived for decades by catering to the traditional civic-light-opera audience, which has meant offering primarily old-fashioned Broadway fare--usually shows with surefire boxoffice muscle.

Other local suburban CLO companies have told me horror stories of audience reactions when the groups dared to offer fare such as The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and La Cage Aux Folles (which oddly enough, is still  viewed as subservise or shocking by some). In recent years, MTW has taken more chances--not only in including slightly bawdy fare such as The Full Monty, but in sampling new (Silk Stockings) or little-known (The Andrews Brothers) works. Coming up in January for MTW is Sondheim's challenging and demanding Sweeney Todd, hardly a CLO staple, but what will put MTW's audiences to the ultimate test is the first LA-produced staging of Jonathan Larson's counter-culture rock musical Rent, which opens December 12, starring Emmy-winning actor-singer Jai Rodriguez (Zanna, Don't!, The Producers; pictured here).

Grinches, Gay Scrooges, and More

The usual onslaught of holiday-themed shows in the Southland is underway this year. Here are a few highlights:

Making its L.A. debut, following 11 years as a staple offering at the Old Globe in San Diego, and seasonal Broadway productions since 2006, is Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!  The Musical at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, through January 3. John Larroquette stars as Max the Dog. It's based on the famous children's book by Dr. Seuss, with book and lyrics by Timothy Mason and music by Mac Marvin. Supplying additional music and lyrics are Albert Hague and Dr. Seuss. A timeless story about the true meaning of Christmas, this promises to be one of the strongest attractions amid the year-end fare.

The Troubadour Theatre Company, which for 14 years has offered zany musical shows parodying pop and rock songwriters and performers, offers the latest of several holiday-themed spoofs it has presented over the years. Frosty the Snow Manilow, directed by Matt Walker and featuring the ever-frolicsome Troubies troupe, combines the character of everyone's favorite snowman and pop-tunesmith extraordinaire Barry Manilow. It plays through January 17 at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank.

That irresistible fictional high-school girl group of the 1960s that was first introduced in-director Roger Bean's smash L.A. and Broadway musical The Marvelous Wonderettes returns in Winter Wonderettes. This festive sequel comes back to SoCal in a Laguna Playhouse engagement, running through December 30. Set six months after the prior tuner, the show follows the efforts of our trusty quartet to save the day at an office Christmas party for which Santa failed to show up. From "Jingle Bell Rock" to "It's a Marshmallow World," they bring plenty of sass, class, and rocking energy to perennielly popular holiday tunes.

Heavenly Entertainment

The prolific and versatile Upright Cabaret producers, Chris Isaacson and Shane Scheel, unveil their latest venture this weekend, in collaboration with the La Mirada Theatre for the Performing Arts in La Mirada, to be performed the first Sunday night of the run during each of La Mirada's mainstage productions.

The newly opened Cabaret Lounge at the theater will showcase the first offering in Upright's debuting American Icon Series. The single-night City of Angels concert on November 8 will star  stellar performers Michael Arden, Valarie Pettiford, and Matt Cusson (pictured left).

This trio of entertainers will perform the music of Joni Mitchell, Doris Day, and Brian Wilson, under the musical direction of Christopher Lloyd Bratten.

We've Got You, Babe

The latest in the string of jukebox musicals that have popped up in recent years makes its world-premiere debut in Pasadena on November 13, following two lengthy preview periods in West Hollywood.

The new show was recently added to the Pasadena Playhouse season, and is presented by special arrangement with American Pop Anthology and Warner Bros. Theatre Ventures, in association with Universal Music Group. Baby It's You, by Colin Escott and Floyd Mutrux, is about New Jersey housewife Florence Greenberg, who discovered the sensational Shirelles singing group in the early 1960s. She also built Scepter Records, one of the most successful independent record companies, along with African-American songwriter Luther Dixon. The score will derive from chart-topping hits of the 1960s, such as the title tune,  "He's So Fine," "Soldier Boy,' "Dedicated to the One I Love," and "Twist and Shout."

Ovation Anticipation Begins

Nominations for L.A.'s annual peer-judged Ovation Awards for theater productions were revealed this week. As usual, observers will have their individual quibbles about  choices--what was left out, what was included, and so on. As all awards groups have their idiosyncracies, as well as vastly different voting and qualification policies, it seems pointless to challenge or dispute choices that were made. So perhaps I will qualify what I have to say in advance. Let's call what follows observations rather than complaints or arguments.

Shooting Much More Than Blanks

Blank Theatre Company in Hollywood, headed by Founding Artistic Director, Daniel Henning, and Artistic Producer, Noah Wylie, has announced its 19th season, themed Great Writers. The award-winning company is one of L.A.'s leading producing entities, offering wide-ranging styles of theater in first-class productions and frequently featuring well-known actors from all mediums. The group has also received nationwide attention for its annual Young Playwrights Festival, with the eighteenth annual edition slated for summer 2010.

Works by renowned scribes David Sedaris, Christopher Durang, and songwriter-librettist Michael John LaChiusa make up the tantalizing bill of fare for the upcoming 2009-2010 roster, which leads off on November 20 with Sedaris' The Santaland Diaries, to be directed by Michael Matthews, former artistic director of the Celebration Theatre.

Baring it All for Their Art

The terrific musical Bare (originally called Bare: A Pop Opera), which enjoyed a triumphant world-premiere run in Hollywood in 2000 at the Hudson Backstage Theatre made a return to the City of Angels recently in a two-night stint as a staged reading at the Art/Works Theatre. Wiith a little bit of luck, this will lead to a full-scale new production locally.

The stirring musical drama about ill-fated gay love at a Catholic boarding school (book by John Hartmere, Jr. and Damon Intrabartolo; lyrics by Hartmere; music by Intrabartolo) garnered fabulous reviews and sellout crowds in the original L.A. run. It then played briefly Off-Broadway in 2004, was mounted in Houston last year, and  recently opened in a Toronto production. It has become a cult hit, with more productions certain to be announced.

Varla Jean de Havilland

Fans of the veteran cross-dress entertainer Varla Jean Merman (self-proclaimed love child of Ernest Borgnine and Ethel Merman), noted for her operatic voice and guzzling of cans of Cheez-Whiz during her cabaret shows, as well as those who cherish the guilty-pleasure 1964 Bette Davis-Olivia de Havilland film thriller Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte are in for a treat. The zany spoof Shut Up Sweet Charlotte, written by Varla Jean and Matthew Martin, stars Varla Jean (pictured on right) as the ruthless villaness originally played by de Havilland, and Ricky Graham (left), in the beleagured heroine role, uncharacteristically played by Davis in the cult classic. The show  is currently on tour, playing two weekends in Southern California this month--first in Palm Springs, then in San Diego.

'Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas'... and Bad Reviews

The L.A. Times Culture Monster pointed out over the weekend that the Geffen Playhouse is taking advantage of bad reviews for its limited run of Matthew Modine Saves the Alpacas in a new ad. By adding exclamation points to creatively-edited critics' quotes, the ad suggests that the play is a campy comedy that's so bad it's good -- when in fact, critics mostly panned the show and found very little to enjoy about it.

"What we were up to in this ad was to use the words in the reviews to point up how funny and silly the show is," said Ken Novice, managing director of the Geffen Playhouse.

In Blaire Singer's satirical new play, "Modine plays a version of himself -- a movie actor well past his peak fame who embarks on a journey to save a rare species of mammal in order to revive his career." French Stewart (3rd Rock from the Sun) and Peri Gilpin (Frasier) also star. Below, Culture Monster's David Ng points out the differences between some of the quotes and original reviews.