Don Grigware - Page 20

Looking for a different kind of entertainment this holiday season? Well, The MeshugaNutcracker!  may very well be the answer. It's a conglomeration of music from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker ballet and an original book that incorporates eight stories of Jewish culture, making them simultaneously fun and enriching.

Amelie A New Musical, based on the 2001 French film Amelie, has a magical charm that reminds one of Matilda, at least in the beginning scenes. We meet the young Amelie (Savvy Crawford) who enters through a picture frame (see photo at left) and proceeds to tell her story, quite sad in fact, for she is saddled with a heart condition and difficult parents who keep her isolated and unhappy. Her mother meets a tragic, almost freakish demise and Amelie is brought up by her father who lives in a world of his own. As she matures, she realizes her lot in life will be to make other people happy. Now onstage at the Ahmanson Theatre through January 15, Amelie A New Musical has some wonderfully imaginative moments and a sparkling cast under the fast-paced direction of Pam MacKinnon.

A friend referred to The King and I as a war horse, an old chestnut, for it has surely surpassed time as an enduring musical classic, but upon seeing it again, one realizes just how potent, vibrant and topical a piece it truly is. Musicals of such depth and perspective with a keen eye to the future seem to be a thing of the past. Yes, it's a love story at the core, an unlikely one, but with many, many more levels. It entails issues of race, slavery, the urgency for a king of a tiny uncivilized kingdom to change his primitive, barbaric ways, and for his children to receive a truthful education as he embarks on assimilating 19th century Siam to western culture and civilization...and to repeat, it's a bigger-than-life love story that has become eternally revered not only for its music but for its intolerance of bigotry of any type. In this 2015 Broadway revival, currently onstage at the Hollywood Pantages Theater, nothing is lost; every gorgeous detail is present, and the story of Anna and The King is radiantly performed through January 21, 2017. In short, this production is a stunner.

On Friday December 9 and Saturday December 10 Chris Isaacson Presents brought us the incomparable R&B recording artist Melba Moore with her CD release party for 'Forever Moore' at Catalina Jazz Club in Hollywood. Moore is no stranger to Broadway audiences who remember her Tony-winning portrayal in Purlie and a string of other hits including Hair, Ain't Misbehavin', Les Miserables and Chicago among many others. Once you have attended one of her live concerts, you are electrified and changed for good. Moore sings passionately from the very depths of her soul. She has been known for her p

The Troubadour Theater Company's Little Drummer Bowie was first presented at the Falcon in 2005, and with the fairly recent passing of iconic musician David Bowie, it seems the perfect time to bring it back. For many Bowie and rock are synonymous, just as director/founder Garry Marshall and the Falcon have been synonymous. Both Marshall and Bowie passed away in 2016. They brought music, love and laughter to the world through the arts, so The Troubadour Theater Company is paying tribute to both men with the revival of this production.

For the last few years the uber talented Lythgoe family have been entertaining us at Christmastime, at the Pasadena Playhouse with a British style panto. A panto is an interactive entertainment that starts with a very contemporary retelling of a fairy tale such as Snow White, Peter Pan, Sleeping Beauty, or in this case Cinderella  and turns it into a fun imaginative show with music that will appeal to both children and their parents. There's usually an actor or two in drag, and a villain ... and audience are encouraged to root for the heroes and HISS loudly at the villains. It's all in amusement, of course, and this year's A Cinderella Christmas is all good fun with a superb cast, some fine pop singing and fast-paced dancing... and, first and foremost, a funfilled script by Kris Lythgoe. To pull the younger audience into the proceedings, crowns and magic wands are on sale. The kids wave their wands on high to encourage the union of Prince Charming (Kenton Duty) and Cinders, short for Cinderella (Lauren Taylor). The delightful family show plays at the Pasadena Playhouse throughout the holiday season until January 8.

Karma Deki's Bhutanese film Kushuthara Pattern of Love has won tremendous praise throughout Asia and is currently preparing its American release. It has done very well on the international film festival circuit picking up many awards.  The film is stunning on many levels. First, it is a fascinating romance that develops between an American journalist/ photographer Charlie (Emrhys Cooper) and native weaver Chokimo (Kezang Wangmo). Set in the village of Kurtoe-Menjey in the Kingdom of Bhutan, the plot has Chokimo already in love with villager Bumpala. When Charlie and Chokimo meet for the first time, they experience a kind of deja vu. Their attraction goes very, very deep. It is an example of what the natives believe to be Karmic reincarnation. Charlie and Chokimo were somehow connected in many past lives.

On Sunday December 4 Irish tenor Dennis McNeil presented The Christmas Show at The Lounge of The Comedy and Magic Club in Hermosa Beach to an enthusiastic sellout crowd. This marked his 44th appearance in this venue, so he must be doing something right. He has a multitude of fans who keep coming back five or six times a year. A former opera singer, McNeil has sung for Presidents and in concert venues, including stadiums, around the world. He can adapt himself to any venue, and of course, in a room of this size that accommodates 100, he gets the chance to be up close, warm and personal and like most Irishmen, tell stories, some funny and a few... deliciously off-color. Throughout the 90-minute set, McNeil held his audience spellbound with his magnificent vocal range, a slew of Christmas songs - both pop and religious - and candid observations about the commercialism of Christmas. He was accompanied by skilled musical director Ed Martel, with whom he has had a long and fruitful association.

One thing is perfectly clear. Jane Wagner's perspective of the 80s, The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe is a brilliant piece of writing. When Lily Tomlin performed it in the 80s (the film version was released in 1991) as a one-woman play, portraying all twelve characters, the charm of the play was watching Tomlin's ingenious skill. She flawlessly slipped in and out of all the characters, female and male, without changing makeup, hair or clothes. It was a phenomenal performance. Now thirty years later, Wagner and Tomlin have adapted the work for a cast of 12 actors under the direction of Ken Sawyer, which opened in October and has been extended until December 11 only at the LGBT Center on the Ed Gould Plaza at McCadden Place, Hollywood.

The Eli and Edythe Broad Stage in Santa Monica presents the World Premiere of Impro Theatre's 1966 Holiday Variety Extravaganza, from LA's Impro Theatre, the creators and performers of the wildly popular Jane Austen UnScripted. Impro Theatre's 1966 Holiday Variety Extravaganza is created especially for The Broad Stage. Over their history, the company has produced a bevy of mainstage shows including: Shakespeare UnScripted, Film Noir UnScripted, Twilight Zone UnScripted, Sondheim UnScripted, Dickens UnScripted, The Western UnScripted, Tennessee Williams UnScripted, Chekhov UnScripted, along with Fairytales UnScripted and Jane Austen UnScripted, which both previously ran at The Broad Stage. This new production marks the group's 10th anniversary.

White Christmas, always a treat on film (1954), creates a unique and refreshing glow on stage. The original Broadway and touring productions - the first national tour played the Pantages in 2005 - were gloriously directed by Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Randy Skinner, who turned the second act opener 'I Love a Piano' into one of the most inventive and lively tap sequences ever. Now in a short tour and directed and choreographed by Skinner, White Christmas The Musical finally returns to the Pantages but only for a week, through December 4. This is a sparkling production with terrifically paced staging and superior choreography by Skinner and a sturdy acting ensemble which includes the presence of  the delightfully funny Lorna Luft as Martha Watson. Yes, it's a frothy concoction and weak on plot, but so heartwarming and... with the spectacular Irving Berlin tunes, who cares? Run to get tickets while they are available!

Actor/singer Cheyenne Jackson first appeared on Broadway with Sutton Foster in Thoroughly Modern Millie. Needless to say, he caused a sensation and has since made the TV screen sizzle with his appearances in Glee and American Horror Story. He will be making a concert appearance on December 15 and 17/18 in four Holiday shows with the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles. (GMCLA) Jackson spoke briefly with me about this concert and comments on various points of his illustrious career thus far. As far as his personal life goes, Jackson is openly gay, married to Jason Landau, and they just became the parents of two children.

Till We Meet Again, an independent film from 2015, written by its star Johan 'John' Matton and directed by Bank Tangjaitrong, has been playing film festivals and picking up awards as Best Film. As I read the description, I thought, 'Oh no, not another film about young lovers with relationship difficulties! After five years of living together, this couple have reached the point where they must explore options. They need to find themselves.' This type of story has been done to death, so what makes this film so special?

Film and TV actress Morgan Fairchild needs no introduction. She has been working for the past 40+ years, always recognizable as the glamorous blonde vixen from such series as Flamingo Road, Paper Dolls and Falcon Crest, as well as the soap Search For Tomorrow. Now about ready to start rehearsals for the Lythgoe Family's Christmas Panto, called A Cinderella Christmas at the Pasadena Playhouse, bowing December 8, Fairchild took time out of her busy schedule to chat with us about the role she is playing and her career. Has she been happy or does she long to change her sexy image?

Coeurage Theatre Company are known around town as the rebels, the 'pay what you want' company. Their motto? 'Nobody should have to pay high prices to see good theatre'. Nice reminder in these depression era times where our government is wracked by the entree of a despicably inept political leader and the majority of our middle-class struggle to make ends meet. The locale of this satirical musical comedy Urinetown, which had its Broadway run in 2001 with 10 Tony nominations, is a typical small city in a futuristic time where a drought has caused a water shortage and its citizens no longer have private amenities. They must urinate in public places and pay a fee to do so. The greedy Urine Good Company controls the enterprise, and if people pee in the bushes, they are arrested and thrown into Urinetown. Now in a striking production by the Coeurage Theatre Company at the Historic Lankershim Arts Center, the rarely revived Urinetown strikes s chord in our troubled times, as audiences laugh away problems that, when it comes right down to it, may not be that unimaginable.

Actress/singer Maggie Randolph won the prestigious LA's Next Great Stage Star 2016 last winter. Upon witnessing her amazing vocal range and spunky personality laced with oodles of warmth, it is easy to understand why. On Sunday November 20, Randolph premiered her LA Cabaret show Home Again to an SRO audience at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal. Accompanying her at the piano were musical director Richard Berent, Kerry Fenster on guitar and Ksenia Rozhdestvenskaya on violin. Needless to say, they all made beautiful music together in the hour long set. The entire evening was directed with great fervor by Peter Welkin.

Laura Ingalls Wilder's classic book Little House on the Prairie (1932) became famous as an hour-long TV drama in the 70s (1974-1983) starring Michael Landon and featuring Melissa Gilbert in her acting debut as Laura. The books, as well as the TV show, are forever popular. In fact, the TV show runs regularly on cable channel Insp Monday through Friday. Sierra Madre Playhouse and its artistic director Christian Lebano have chosen to bring back James DeVita's stage adaptation of the stories as its holiday presentation, first seen in 2014, A Little House Christmas, skillfully directed by Alison Eliel Kalmus and featuring a delightful cast of 10, is now onstage in its revival of a West Coast premiere, through December 23.

For the most part, brilliantly written classic plays make their locale the main character of the piece. Think of Tennessee Williams. All of his plays take place in the American South; poverty-stricken New Orleans sets the background for Streetcar among other plays. In Martin McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane, the small town of Leenane in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland not only displays the frequent rainy, dismal atmosphere for Mag Folan (Marie Mullen) and daughter Maureen (Aisling O'Sullivan), but it sets the lugubrious tone of isolation that cripples and destroys them. Now on the Taper stage through December 18 the Druid Company of Galway who originated the play in 1996, which went on to win four Tonys on Broadway in 1998, presents a stark portrait that lingers in the mind long after one leaves the theatre.

Playwright Phil Olson that same year. Since then, Doug co-produced Olson's A Nice Family Gathering in 2000, and has been involved in most of the Don't Hug Me World Premiere productions, including directing three of its five world premieres, A Don't Hug Me County Fair; Don't Hug Me, I'm Pregnant; and Don't Hug Me, We're Married. This year, he directed the Group Rep's second revival of A Nice Family Gathering, with an African-American cast. During the day, Doug works for Walt Disney Animation Studios as a custodian of the Studio's animation art legacy, and as an observer of Disney

Broadway actress/singer RENEE MARINO made her feature film debut in 2014 in Jersey Boys as Mary Delgado, Frankie Valli's tempestuous wife. She was seen in the role on Broadway by film director Clint Eastwood, and because of her magnanimous talent, was hand picked by him to repeat the role on film. New York born and bred, fiery Italian Marino performed her first cabaret show at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal on Monday November 7 to a packed house. Called I Am Me Because of Three, the smart and slick show examined her roots and the three relatives that gave her the drive and spirit that pervade her persona.