Theatre – Page 12

The Spirit of Theater – ‘Ghosts of Broadway’ promises to present the stars of tomorrow in a new musical

June 11, 2010June 1, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Hamlet may have died avenging his father’s murder, but he’s spent a bit of time in the afterlife brushing up on his Broadway musical knowledge. That is the admittedly silly thesis that results in a lot of song and dance behind “Ghosts of Broadway,” the first production from Big Stage Productions, the performance arm of Santa Barbara Dance Arts. Kids from ages 8 and up will show their love of musical theater this Monday night.

Big Stage answers what founders Dauri Kennedy, Laezer Schlomkowitz, Steven Lovelace, Alana Tillim and Kathy Kelley saw as a real need in Santa Barbara. With the increasing popularity of “High School Musical,” “Glee” and “American Idol,” as well as a new interest in Broadway through a new decade of classics, a generation of children is coming up desperate for training in the all-singing, all-dancing arts.

Getting away with it : ‘Loot’ returns to Swinging London for a tale of murder and robbery … and laughs

June 8, 2010June 3, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

From left, Ned Schmidtke as Truscott and Wyatt Fenner as Dennis. DAVID BAZEMORE PHOTOS — From left, Ned Schmidtke as Truscott and Wyatt Fenner as Dennis.
DAVID BAZEMORE PHOTOS

“The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there,” said L.P. Hartley in his opening lines to “The Go-Between.” Joe Orton’s “Loot,” which opened this past weekend at the Alhecama Theatre, is very foreign indeed. The farce makes traveling back to the Swinging London of the mid-1960s feel as long a trip as one to Oscar Wilde’s 19th-century Britain. As they say about traveling in new cars, your mileage may vary.

Orton was the enfant terrible of the new playwrights of his time, busting genres like Tom Stoppard but poking the establishment where it irritated them most. With his life cut short at age 34, we wonder where Orton might have gone — more political like Stoppard or Harold Pinter? Would he have been an ambassador of bad taste, like our filmmaker John Waters? Or just petered out?

Life Imitates Farce – Joe Orton’s ‘Loot’ comes to Ensemble Theatre

June 4, 2010June 3, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Clockwise from top left: Julian Rubel plays policeman Bobby Meadows, Heather Prete is Fay, Kerby Joe Grubb plays Hal and Wyatt Fenner is Dennis in Ensemble's "Loot." David Bazemore Photo — Clockwise from top left: Julian Rubel plays policeman Bobby Meadows, Heather Prete is Fay, Kerby Joe Grubb plays Hal and Wyatt Fenner is Dennis in Ensemble’s “Loot.”
David Bazemore Photo

During the original stage run of Joe Orton’s “Loot,” which features a dead mother as a plot device that spurs the action, the playwright’s mother died.

Orton went to Leicester for the funeral, then returned to London and the production. There is a scene where the dead mother’s false teeth are played like castanets. Backstage, Orton handed his mother’s real set to the actor Kenneth Cranham, who blanched.

Swinging ’60s – ‘Girl in the Freudian Slip’ surfaces at Circle Bar B Dinner Theatre

May 28, 2010May 26, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

The bedroom/analyst's office farce "Girl in the Freudian Slip" deals with Dewey Maugham, a married psychoanalyst who secretly lusts after his shapely and sex-positive patient, Barbara Leonard, played by Nicole Hollenitsch, above. — The bedroom/analyst’s office farce “Girl in the Freudian Slip” deals with Dewey Maugham, a married psychoanalyst who secretly lusts after his shapely and sex-positive patient, Barbara Leonard, played by Nicole Hollenitsch, above.

“The Girl in the Freudian Slip” would have been lost to the sands of Broadway time in the 1960s if opening night reviews were anything to go by. It didn’t last too long in 1967, but Bernadette Peters, who made her debut in the original cast, did (to the tune of seven Tony nominations, two of which she won). As did playwright William F. Brown, who went on to write a musical called “The Wiz.”

Circle Bar B Theatre has made a successful run of resurrecting light comedic fare and plans to do so again this weekend, when Joe Beck directs its next production.

Speaking of T.C. Boyle – The successful writer takes his turn at Speaking of Stories

May 7, 2010May 27, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Can there be a fan of Speaking of Stories, a 14-year spoken word mainstay of Santa Barbara entertainment calendars, who isn’t a fan of T.C. Boyle? Since its earliest days, the short stories of our literary resident have been a constant, first as material read by actors, then read by the author himself. Actor Charles De L’Arbe reads Boyle’s story “My Pain Is Worse Than Your Pain” on Sunday, while Boyle appears Monday night to read his story “The Lie.”

Many contemporary authors read their stories out loud, either over the radio (NPR is a major pitstop) or as part of a book tour. But “Speaking of Stories,” directed by Maggie Mixsell, allows its readers a performance space.

Wonka Onstage – ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’ opens in Ojai

April 30, 2010May 19, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Willy Wonka (Cecil Sutton) announces a world-wide contest for a lifetime supply of chocolate. Dean Zatkowsky Photo — Willy Wonka (Cecil Sutton) announces a world-wide contest for a lifetime supply of chocolate.
Dean Zatkowsky Photo

Mention “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” and three things spring to most people’s minds: the cherished book by Roald Dahl and the two movies that altered how different generations have imagined the goings-on inside the factory. But who knows of the play?

This entirely different thing — adapted by elementary school teacher Richard George and later given the thumbs up by Dahl — is a blank slate for designers, with no descriptions of characters or sets. It’s a chance for a production to go mad, to act like, shall we say, kids in a candy store. That’s exactly what goes down tonight in Ojai when Gai Jones and Ojai ACT unveil their version.

Neil Berg’s Home Run – Five singers help legendary writer/composer celebrate 101 years of Broadway, this weekend at The Granada

April 23, 2010May 20, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

For those who might imagine that baseball and Broadway exist on opposite sides of the spectrum, meet Neil Berg. A college all-star in his 20s, this East Coast boy has since gone on to pen numerous musicals. Best-known for “The Prince and the Pauper” and the upcoming “Grumpy Old Men” he comes to The Granada with a musical revue bearing his name, “Neil Berg’s 101 Years of Broadway.”

Really, Berg says, the distance from the lessons learned on the baseball diamond and what one needs to succeed on the Great White Way is not far. “Because I had a regular-guy perspective,” he says. “Not a theater world perspective, I wanted to make a show that people like my mom would appreciate.”

Origins Out of a Bottle – The Birth of Alcoholics Anonymous detailed in new play at Center Stage

April 16, 2010May 21, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Before alcoholism was seen as a disease, one man decided that the best way to get a drunk off the booze was to have him talk to another drunk. The camaraderie and that empathetic, shared experience worked, and the organization Alcoholics Anonymous was born.

The new production of “Bill W. and Dr. Bob,” which opens at Center Stage this Thursday, drops us right into those early days in 1934, where the two men keep each other sober, helped over the course of the play by their respective wives.

Through a glass, sadly : Ensemble Theatre Company stages Tennessee Williams’ classic ‘The Glass Menagerie’

April 13, 2010May 21, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Joe Delafield as Tom; Sara Botsford as his mother, Amanda; and Erin Pineda as Laura, Amanda's daughter and Tom's older sister. DAVID BAZEMORE PHOTOS — Joe Delafield as Tom; Sara Botsford as his mother, Amanda; and Erin Pineda as Laura, Amanda’s daughter and Tom’s older sister.
DAVID BAZEMORE PHOTOS

First thoughts upon entering the Alhecama Theatre for this production of “The Glass Menagerie” — has the stage ever contained this much depth? By its use of sliding doors, three levels, and some beautiful floor lighting, we get taken back to the dark and dank St. Louis tenement where playwright Tennessee Williams exorcised the ghosts of his past and reincarnated them as unforgettable characters.

On walks Tom Wingfield, played by Joe Delafield. He stands outside the tenement he shares with his mother and sister, lights a cigarette and leans against the wall, looking like the anti-hero in a film noir. But he’s no gumshoe, and his staccato Southern accent — young, fast, clipped, like George W. Bush, but with 10 times the vocabulary — lays out the rules of the play: Memory, spirits, exaggerations. And then there are the things that we realize he is not telling us about: shame, guilt, betrayal, and regret.

Grit and Polish – Ensemble Theatre takes on Tennessee Williams and ‘The Glass Menagerie’

April 9, 2010May 21, 2015 tedmills Leave a comment

Erin Pineda plays Laura and Joel J. Gelman is the "Gentleman Caller," on whom the Wingfield family pins their hopes and dreams, in Ensemble Theatre's production of "The Glass Menagerie." David Bazemore — Erin Pineda plays Laura and Joel J. Gelman is the “Gentleman Caller,” on whom the Wingfield family pins their hopes and dreams, in Ensemble Theatre’s production of “The Glass Menagerie.”
David Bazemore

There’s a lot of dust and funk that has covered “The Glass Menagerie” in the 65 years since its premiere. The campy parodies, the popular and “definitive” portrayals of the Wingfield family by stars like Katharine Hepburn, John Malkovich and Karen Allen. The celluloid amber of Anthony Harvey’s 1973 version. But if any company in town can polish and make this classic look brand new, it’s Jonathan Fox and Ensemble Theatre.

“The characters have become iconic and the lines are so well-known, like ‘Hamlet,’ ” says Fox, who directs. “It becomes a challenge to figure out what might be fresh.”