January 2007 Archives

So David Hasselhoff is headlining (or support lining) as Roger De Bris in a new streamlined version of Mel Brooks' musical, "The Producers." Opening tonight at PAris Las Vegas.

Yeah, gas up my car and point me toward the I-15.

Not.

About 16 months ago, I spent a few days in Sin City writing a travel story and taking in the best Broadway style entertainment LV had to offer. Which, at the time, meant the regional premiere of "Avenue Q." Which isn't there anymore.

I also saw "Mamma Mia," Cirque du Soliel's "Ka" (which, so help me Montreal, I'd see again and again) and _ ahem! _ the Queen musical joke, "We Will Rock You."

"Hairspray" was on its way (it came, and closed). As was "Phantom of the Opera" (more on that in a second). The big hook for many of these rebuilt and rejiggered Broadway hits intended to lure patrons out of the casinos for a 90 minutes slot machine breather, was precisely that time commitment: 90 minutes, over and out.

When you're talking about something as crappy as "We Will Rock You" or "Phantom" (Sorry, never been a fan), a quick running time is a lure indeed. In fact, I just got a loaded envelope from my friends at Kirvin Doak Communications re-inviting me to see "Phantom" (which premiered last June). The fresh enticement: no less a publication than the LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL dubbed "Phantom" the top Strip show of 2006.

For you number hounds, "Love," the Beatles/Cirque fusion (which I also didn't care much for) came in at #2. Followed by Prince and Liza Minnelli. That's right, 90 minutes with the masked opera ghoul is, according to the LAS VEGAS REVIEW JOURNAL, a better draw than the Artist Currently Known as whatever he's currently known as.

If I trek to Vegas again _ and, if I do, it will be for the shows, not to lose money _ I will not see "Phantom," or "The Producers." I will see "Monty Python's Spamalot" because _ and thank you so VERY much, Steve Wynn _ it can't tour to L.A. until it's played Vegas for two years, or until it closes. That's the way it worked with "Avenue Q," which is now Vegas free and coming first to San Diego this summer and subsequently, to L.A.

Wonder which of any of these shows will still be around when I check the listings at this time next year...

The news out of Beverly Hills is that the Wilshire Theatre _ recent home to the “Dynasty� reunion vehicle “Legends� -- is under newmanagement, has its own programming and now wants to be refered to by
the unwieldy title “The Wilshire Theatre Beverly Hills.�

As opposed to what, The Wilshire Theatre Pacoima?

As a theatrical venue, the Wilshire is a bit hit and miss. The acoustics are frequently God awful (particularly for musicals).The parking stinks. It’s neither an especially comfortable nor historic venue.

But it’s got the seats and the location, location, location to do some flashy stuff. Billy Crystal’s �700 Sundays� parked at the Wilshire, as did many of the Broadway/LA season shows while the Pantages was tied up with long running hits like “The Lion King,� �The Producers,� etc.

Well, now the Pantages is going to be off the market again, what with “Wicked� about to start an indefinite run (I’m guessing two years). So if The Wilshire Theatre Turlock…sorry, Beverly Hills is now doing its own booking (of people like Kenny G, James Taylor and the Chinese ballet “The Butterfly Lovers,� where exactly does that leave “Phantom of the Opera,� “Mamma Mia� and all those other national tours that
come in for a week or so?

Wadsworth? Brentwood? All of the above, says Martin Wiviott GM of The Pantages Theatre. As well as UCLA's Royce Hall, and, yes, the Wilshire.

"Even though the Wilshire Theatre is under new ownership, we are still able to schedule our presentations with them if schedules permi," Wiviott said. "As you know, when Lion King was at the Pantages for 2 1/2 years, the Broadway/LA subscription continued at various theatres throughout the city. The same will be true during the WICKED engagement."

The Wilshire will be getting “Chita Rivera: the Dancer’s Life,� a show which I was not crestfallen to see dropped from the Ahmanson’s season a couple years back.

To check out the rest of their lineup, www.wilshiretheatrebeverlyhills.com

Being the theater guy that I am, I'm always more than a little interested to tally _ around this time of year _ which of the acting nominees for the Oscars, Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, etc. I've seen perform live. We're talking either L.A stages (where I see a bunch of plays), New York (not so often), London (occasionally).

The Brits, of course, are frequently hopping back and forth between the screen and the live stage, usually proclaiming their theat-uh roots along the way as though somehow the bigger paycheck of a film gig doesn't do a thing to feed their artistic soul.

Whatever.

I'm sitting here backstage at SAG, looking over the nominees. Several of these nominees I've interviewed (kinda cool), and a few more I've seen perform (increased cool).

A sampling:

Judi Dench (of "Notes of a Scandal," "Mrs Henderson Presents," etc.) : I was told many years ago that her work on stage is not to be believed. And, yes, she was rather remarkable in a production of Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" that I caught back in the late 1980s in the Royal National Theatre in London. She played Cleo opposite Anthony Hopkins's Marc Antony. Before accepting the assignment, she was reported to have asked director Peter Hall something like "Are you certain you want a menopausal dwarf" playing this role. Hall did.

Helen Mirren was in a production of Alan Ayckbourn's "Woman in Mind" in 1992 at the Tiffany Theatre in Hollywood. Didn't see it. Wish I had. She's also appeared in "Dance of Death" with Ian McKellen on Broadway in "Orpheus Descending" in London and, like Dench, she played Cleopatra at the National Theatre (with Alan Rickman). This 1998 production was, it should be noted, 33 years after Mirren played the same role in Britain in her stage debut. She was 19.

Cate Blanchett had to forego presenting George Clooney with his supporting actor Oscar in 2005 because she was wrapped up playing a much panned production of Ibsen's "Hedda Gabbler." (No, I didn't see it).

Caught Annette Bening in Chekhov's "A Cherry Orchard" about a year ago at the Mark Taper Forum. In fact, I sat behind one row behind Warren Beatty and much of the Bening/Beatty clan. I also saw TV or miniseries best actress nominee Cloris Leachman in a touring production of "Showboat" at the Ahmanson Theatre.

The TV stars frequently come from the stage. Edie Falco of "The Sopranos" has performed in New York a few times: "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune," "Side Men," and, most recently, "Night Mother." I caught "Weeds'" Mary Louise Parker not in her star making "Proof" turn, but in "Prelude to a Kiss" and in a God awful Terrence McNally comedy called "Up in Sarratoga" in San Diego.

Pre Karen, Megan Mullally did indeed sport that helium enhanced voice when she worked opposite Matthew Broderick in the musical "How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying." And before she went "Desperate," Felicity Huffman was a regular David Mamet player. I saw her in a small show titled "Out of Purgatory" in San Diego.

I'll recount the male nominees I've seen in a later entry.

Heard the name? John Doyle is the British director who made Patti LuPone learn to play the tuba for her role in the Broadway revival of "Sweeny Todd" in which all the actors had to be the orchestra as well. The same technique is used for his interpretation of another Stephen Sondheim musical, "Company," currently on Broadway.

Well, it seems Mr. Doyle has finally made it to this coast.

He'll direct L.A. Opera's production of Brecht and Weill's rarely seen "Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny." He'll have LuPone for that production as well as Tony award magnet Audra McDonald (no word whether she'll have to play the trombone). The production opens Feb. 10 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the day after the revival of Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" bows across the plaza at the Ahmanson. The two productions are completely unrelated, of course apart from playing the same venue complex. Still, Feb. 9-11 is shaping up to be quite a weekend downtown.

Back to Doyle: He's not done in the southland. The man was schedueld to direct a revival of "Barnum" at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre this summer, but apparently the theater ran into some kind of snafu regarding getting the rights to the musical. Playbill Online reports that the Globe will announce a replacement production _ also directed by Doyle _ in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, the casting notice has gone up for the Doyle-directed "Sweeney Todd" tour, to kick off in San Francisco in August. By my calculations, we'd probably get "Sweeney" (perhaps to coincide with the release of the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie) by the end of 07.

Meryl Streep in the film adaptation of "Mamma Mia"

Am I the only person who feels like we have entered a parallel universe?

It's bizarro enough that anybody would want to MAKE a movie adaptation of "Mamma Mia." OK, maybe not that strange. The musical built around ABBA songs _ despite its announced closing in Vegas _ is a monster hit. And with so many other hit musicals headed for the screen, why not the ABBA story.

It's just that when I think of Ms. Streep, I think "The French Lieutenant's Woman" and "Sophie's Choice." I think of "The Devil Wears Prada," "Adaptation" and "The Bridges of Madison County." I think accents and ultra polished screen work. I think of Brecht, Chekhov, and, less hi-brow even of the delight she seemed to be having doing the live "Prairie Home Companion" show last summer at the Hollywood Bowl.

I do not envision Meryl Streep _ even a thoroughly inebriated Meryl Streep _ ever, in this life or the next, singing the lyrics to "The Winner Takes it all."

Which is why I don't produce movies. No imagination.

This being my day to talk about playgoing manners, etc., here's a little plea in the interest of generosity.

On Sunday afternoon, I attended the opening performance of "13" at the Mark Taper Forum. The performance was sold out, as Center Theatre Group openings almost always are, and the standby line was in full effect.

CTG does a cool thing. At the opening performance, you stand in that line, get a number, and if there are any returns or unsold seats, you get to see the show free of charge. This happens at the Taper, the Ahmanson Theatre and the Kirk Douglas Theatre. Except for pay-what-you-can performances, the opening is the only show during the run where the cheapest of cheap seats is a possibility. Otherwise, you're looking at minimum $20, and usually substantially higher.

Now, this last Sunday, I happened to be going solo which, I'm grateful to say, doesn't happen as often as it used to. This time, I had an extra ticket to what was looking to be a somewhat in demand performance.

So I did what I usually do when faced with this situation. I went to the back of the standby line, said, "Who needs 1 ticket?" and handed my extra to the first person who raised his or her hand.

Now, the box office may frown on my behavior since they could conceivably sell my extra ticket to a paying customer (i.e. someone who goes up to the box office and pays instead of trying standby). I've turned in the extra ticket as well at performances that weren't sold out or where it wasn't clear that someone was around who needed a ticket. That's cool, too. Theaters need the money. Ticket sales alone don't come close to keeping them in business.

I have never sold an extra ticket, and never will. Dispense with the gold star. Since I don't pay for them, it would be hugely unethical _ let alone potentially illegal _ for me to make a few bucks off the freebie I don't use.

Now, I know theater tickets _ even though I don't pay for them _ are expensive. And it royally sucks to have shelled out in the $50 to $100 range only to have Aunt Myrtle come down with a stomach virus and be unable to attend the show you planned to take her to 8 months ago. And I absolutely get the temptation to try to recoup even a portion of that $75 item which _ at precisely 8:05 _ will become worthless.

Here's my plea, though. Don't sell the extra ticket. If you can find anyone who wants it, give it away. The act makes for good karma, and it's a generous thing to do. You'll wind up sitting next to someone who _ one hopes _ will be thankful for the gift, and if enough people get into the mindset, maybe you'll be on the receiving end of a free ticket one day.

As for you recipients (you know who you are). When you get a freebie, don't take it as your due: "Yeah, I always come and someone always coughs one up." Be appreciative. Karma runs both ways.

AKA etiquette. Meaning behavior.

That you shouldn't talk during a performance seems to be common sense...yet people do it. It's not the flicks. People around you can hear.

Another problem is they make those pre curtain announcements about turning off cell phones too blamed folksy. This one, people are pretty good about following. I can only recall a couple of instances where someone's phone went off in the middle of a performance. The offenders were justifiably mortified.

They frequently omit the absolute most important directive: noisy, crinkly, candy or cough drop wrappers. It shouldn't be a choice. The announcement should not be, "And if you want to enjoy a hard candy or lozenge, why not take a moment to unwrap it now." (chuckle, chuckle). Ix-nay. It should be, "Do not, under any circumstances open a lozenge or candy wrapper DURING any portion of the play you happen to be seeing or you will be evicted from the theater, because it sounds like this...

(insert sound of awful crinkly static)

...and makes your fellow theatergoers feel like this

(insert sound of rampaging elephants)."

In fact, I think I know exactly why so many theaters don't bother with pre-curtain wrapper announcements: because their administrators know that there are a finite number of people idiotic enough to unwrap a piece of candy while someone is speaking on stage in a quiet theater, and those people only ATTEND the theater when I'm present, and they can sit somewhere within my earshot.

I admit, I have issues.

I also have backup. I spoke with Joan Collins, currently on the road with the comedy "Legends!" When I asked her about what's going on in the audience while she and Linda Evans are duking it out, she replied, "Sometimes we have the coughers, the people who really should be home wiping their noses. Sometimes we have the screamers and laughers on every line. Most of the time we do get huge vociferous applause and sometimes standing ovations."

I had forgotten about the coughers. They bug me too.

Oh, and "Legends!" opens next Thursday, Jan. 18, at the Wilshire Theatre. www.Broadwayla.org.

Some things you take for granted.

Some things you should NOT take for granted.

Hal Holbrook will perform his solo performance "Mark Twain Tonight!" on Friday, Jan. 26 at the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza (www.civicartsplaza.com).

"Oh, right," you say, "THAT old thing that comes around every couple of years or so."

A perennial, perhaps. But consider...

Hal Holbrook first performed this role in 1954. He won the Tony award for Best Actor for the Twain in 1966. In January 2004, he notched his 2,000th performance. Yeah, that's a lot of Twains. Samuel Langhorne Clemens died in 1910 at the age of 74. A few weeks after his Thousand Oaks engagement, Holbrook will turn 81.

Ask anybody you know who has ever fronted a "Look at Me! Look at Me!" (That's Julia Sweeney's term for a one man or one woman show) and he or she will _ or should _ mention Holbrook as a man who helped shape the genre.

I've seen Holbrook play King Lear and Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice" ... both brilliantly. I missed his turn in David Mamet's "A Life in the Theatre" at the Pasadena Playhouse and wish I hadn't. I have interviewed him twice. The man is one of the kindest, most gracious individuals _ as well as one of the greatest storytellers _ I have ever met. And he's a legend.

Holbrook. "Twain Tonigh.t" Thousand Oaks. Jan. 26.

Nuff Said.

The much ballyhooed sit-down production of "Wicked" that arrives at the Pantages Feb. 10 has its Wizard of Oz. He will be John Rubinstein of "Children of a Lesser God" and "Counsellor-at-Law" fame who was most recently seen in the Interact Theatre Co.'s production of "Urinetown" at the Matrix.

He joines previously announced Eden Espinosa (as green skinned Wicked Witch Elphaba), Megan Hilty (Glinda), Carol Kane (Madame Morrible), Kristoffer Cusick (Fiyero), Jenna Leigh Green (Nessarose) and Adam Wylie (Boq). Kane and Green were both with the national tour of "Wicked" that played the Pantages.

This production will be my third. I first saw "Wicked" back in the fall of 2003 (w/ Kristin Chenoweth, Idina Menzel, Robert Morse, Norbert Leo Butz) during its pre Broadway run at the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. Before it opened, it was the show over which every single female musical theatre performer I interviewed was slobbering.

Then it opened, and it was the audiences who went nuts.

Go figure.

'Twill be the year of the "Hamlets," apparently in 2007. There are three major productions of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" skeded for the upcoming months. Trouble is, you'll have to burn some petrol to catch 'em.

1. Rubicon Theatre, Ventura April 26-May 20, Rubicon Company member Joseph Fuqua in the title role. (www.rubicon.org)

2. South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, May 25 to July 1. Hamish Linklater (J-L Dreyfuss's brother Matt on "The New Adventures of Old Christine") plays H. (www.scr.org).

3. Old Globe Theatre, San Diego. June 16-Sept. 30 (www.theoldglobe.com). Casting undetermined.

Now, I tend to catch a lot of Shakespeare. It's good for me (I guess) and, quite often, it's part of the job. And, OK, yeah, I often enjoy it. There's nothing quite like hearing someone uttering the word "Forsooth!" in a dark auditorium. I suspect I've seen "Macbeth," "Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Much Ado About Nothing" upwards of 12 times apiece. This is not bragging. These are hours of my life I will never get back.

"Hamlet," however _ that pinnacle of literature, that play that absolutely everybody knows, ("To be or not to...oh shut the #$@! up!) _ has passed before my eyes in its entirety twice. Twice only. Both times in San Diego: once with Campbell Scott (son of George C. and Colleen Dewhurst), the second with "I am My Own Wife's" Jefferson Mays. I don't know from Ralph Fiennes or Ken Branagh or Simon Russell Beale or any other famous man or woman to play the role (My brother once saw Kevin Kline's understudy. How much must that suck). If anybody out there has a tale of a great "Hamlet" experience, believe me, I'd love to hear about it.

Conventional wisdom has it that you don't stage "Hamlet" unless you've got someone with the chops to pull off the Dane. Now, conventional wisdom has never stopped anybody, and there are no shortage of mediocre to really bad "Hamlets" sprouting up like so much fungus. The three I've listed are at reliable professional venues, so they don't figure to be vanity projects.

I don't know Hamish Linklater or Joseph Fuqua. I do, however, know Daniel Sullivan who will direct the SCR production. He's a better than average New York director and his productions of Shakespeare typically rock.

I'll catch the Globe production because I typically go to SD for the Shakespeare anyway during the summer (I'm sick that way.) Darko Tresnjak, the Festival's Artistic Director, will direct this production. The way they've got the Shakespeare repertory working down there, the Globe's Hamlet may well be played by an unknown. Which could be exciting.: "I saw him when..." potential.

Still, if I see all three productions at 3 hours at least apiece, plus travel time...sigh! yet more time that the Great American Novel remains unwritten.

I learn from producer/publicist David Elzer that the '50s prom musical "The Marvellous Wonderettes" (not to be confused with "The Wonderful Marvelettes") has become the longest running production in the history of NoHo's El Portal Theatre, surpassing the 12 weeks that "Cesar and Ruben" played on the El Portal's mainstage and that "Fellowship" played in the El Portal's smaller Forum Theatre.

"Wonderettes," currently playing in the Forum space, is entering its 16th week, and is currently scheduled to run through Feb. 11.

The "Wonderettes" milestone_ and accompanying sell-out houses _ is encouraging on a number of fronts. Confound it, there needs to be a steady parade of people through the heart of NoHo and that venue in particular, "Wonderettes" or no "Wonderettes."

Now, a body could easily say "Yeah, yeah, someone stuck a decent product in there, it caught on, and they sold tickets. Could have happened anywhere."

True enough. Still...

I'm especially glad that success is happening at the El Portal, a venue which has not always been the site of the city's finest theatrical offerings. Put another way: some of the worst theatrical slop I've ever witnessed has started, and ended, at 5269 Lankershim Blvd. Since re-opening in 2000 as a live performance venue, the E.P. has had money problems, accoustic problems, administrative shake-ups, you name it. Attempts to get regular quality programing at the site have been hit and miss at best.

But times appear to be changing.

"Beehive," the first offering of the new resident company, Valley Musical Theatre, was a kick, and VMT has a small scale season coming in 2007, beginning with "They're Playing Our Song" February 23. (www.Valleymusicaltheatre.com)

The venue has hosted visits from folks like Bea Arthur, Jason Robert Brown and Rita McKenzie. Vox Lumiere is also coming in with its unique musicalizing of the silent film "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." (More highlights are available at www.elportaltheatre.com.)

For now, they've got the "Wonderettes," about which I'll wax critical in Friday's Daily News.

Meantime, here's wishing even bigger and longer running hits at the E.P. for 2007. The venue needs it. As does the Valley.