Don Grigware - Page 21

For the second year in a row the Pink Lady Jackie Goldberg presented an attention-grabbing Senior Talent Competition. This year's show was very different, as it had two contests on two separate days, one on Saturday November 5 and the other on Sunday November 6 at the Wadsworth Theatre in West LA, and included an endearing salute to our veterans.

The annual dysfunctional family Christmas gathering? Oy! This family lives in Minnesota. Double oy!! Issue at hand: not one of the family members is anywhere near to being happy. Mom (Belinda Howell) is in denial, keeping her breast cancer a secret, her doctor son Michael (Patrick Burke) has been mysteriously separated from wife Jill (Rebekah Dunn) for three months, other son Carl (Greg D. Barnett), a struggling writer, is estranged from his girlfriend Rita, and daughter Stacey (Truett Jean Butler) is gay and separated from her partner, who hasn't yet told her parents about their relationship. Then there's obnoxious intruder Uncle Bob (Fox Carney) who does his best to upset everyone with his disgustingly uber jovial disposition, and Grandma (Marcia Rodd), with a tongue that could cut glass, who sashays around them all with digs, jibes and a whole barrel of insulting fun. Doug Engalla has skillfully directed a superb cast of players who only have to speak Phil Olson's hysterically funny lines to get laughs. It's a howler a la Neil Simon with a laugh about every two seconds, and each character has that dry infectious Minnesota accent that makes you double over every time you hear it.

In a rare revival, Conundrum Theatre Company in its inaugural production, is now presenting the 60s' mega Broadway smash Funny Girl. October 29 was Fanny Brice's birthday. her 125th, in fact. So, we remember the great comedic talent of Miss Brice who took the Zigfield Follies by storm and became a huge Broadway and later Hollywood star.

Actor and President of Celebrity Access, Inc Glenn Rosenblum performed his one-man cabaret Glenn Rosenblum Is 'the Musical Man' at Rockwell Table and Stage Monday October 24 to a packed house of adoring fans. Reminding one a little bit of actor James Coco, who had an undeniably infectious sensitivity and sense of humor, Rosenblum took the stage with great ease, sat on a stool by the piano and proceeded to tell his story. First, of course, there was a full overture of Broadway tunes, under the baton of musical director David J. Kaminski at the piano, Jon Butterworth on percussion and Josh Nyback on bass. The three musicians were terrific.

Winner of the 2010 Tony Award for Best Musical, Memphis is an eye-catching, heart-throbbing musical and fictionalized account of how the music business of the 50s actually changed, and as its lead DJ Huey Carmichael would say, it's 'fantastical'! Memphis is currently being revived by MTW in Long Beach for three weeks only through November 6, and the production is thrilling from top to bottom with a great book, great score, sensational direction and choreography and a truly fantastic cast of triple threat actors, singers and dancers. Memphis is one those rare shows that gives the audience a realistic picture of radio and the emergence of television as it took possession of the nation in the early 50s.

German film-maker F. W. Murnau created the 1922 eclectic silent film Nosferatu based on Bram Stoker's Dracula. It is highly regarded worldwide as an artistic masterpiece, utilizing Expressionistic art. Now in a unique Los Angeles production - unlike any you have seen or are likely to - William A. Reilly has adapted the film to the stage at Crown City Theatre in NoHo. Nosferatu: A Symphony in Terror is a silent film onstage with classical music, ballet and a splendid cast of nine actors, directed with remarkable precision by Reilly.

Actor Marc Kudisch has been nominated for many Tony Awards, including Best Featured Actor in a Musical for Thoroughly Modern Millie and 9 to 5: The Musical. A first time director he has just completed an enormously successful engagement of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat for 3-D Theatricals. In our brief  chat he ruminates about this success and relates the experience to other productions of Joseph in which he has performed. Marc, I understand that this is not your first association with Joseph. Tell us about your Broadway debut in the revival of the show in 1993/94.

Scott Rognlien (Adaptor/Director/Producer) will have a world premiere of his latest work, VONNEGUT, USA running October 14 - November 20, at the Atwater Village Theatre in Los Angeles, CA.  The work is an adaptation of five Vonnegut short stories presented as one continuous 90 minute piece. Members of The Next Arena, a theatre company founded by Scott and friends, are performing in and producing the six week run.  

My favorite part of the evening was the inclusion of the standards all of which are nicely suited to Stolper's voice and delivery. They were Sondheim's 'Move On' from Sunday in the Park with George. a gorgeous rendition of 'Something Good' sung originally by Julie Andrews in the film The Sound of Music, and lastly Carole King's 'Beautiful', all adding uber positive touches to Stolper's creative and personal journey thus far. She concluded as she had begun with Peter Pan, only this time with Scott Alan's lovely contemporary perspective  'Never Never Land (Fly Away)'. 

I have heard this little double couplet poem since childhood, and have always been terrified by it, so, if I see a story depicted about accused murderess Lizzie Borden of Fall River, Massachusetts, I expect two people to end up corpses, her stepmother and her father. In the new musical by Katrina Wood Spindle City: The Lizzie Borden Musical, now playing at the Secret Rose Theatre, only her father's murder is enacted. But... Lizzie loved her father, in spite of his intolerable business tactics, and... despised her money-hungry stepmother. Does this omission of her murder from the retelling of the infamous story make any sense? Hardly. But that's just one of the problems plaguing this uneven musical at the Secret Rose through November 5.

Tim Rice's & Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita has had a thirty-eight year international love affair with the public since it  premiered in 1978 in London and in 1979 on Broadway. The newest revival in regional theatre is currently at Cabrillo in Thousand Oaks until October 23 only. An operetta based on Eva Duarte Peron and husband Juan Peron of Argentina, the story documents the rise to power of a simple peasant girl to the rank - almost - of Vice-President of her country. I say almost because she became too ill to accept the nomination in 1951 and passed into immortality in 1952 after a seven year reign as First Lady of Argentina, which began in 1946. Evita: criminal or saint? has been the topic of books and documentaries. Eva

THE AYE SHOW is adapted from Ana Isabel Ordonez's THE EXTRAORDINARY LOVE STORY OF AYE AYE AND FEDOR. A sparkling fusion of music, dance and narration, the show was performed last week in Cape Town. Before the event, Before the event author Ana Isabel Ordonez discussed elements of the show for our readers.

Stage and TV star Barrett Foa will be performing Sunday October 16 at Catalina Jazz Club in Right This Way, Your Table's Waiting, a part of the special event CABARET is alive and well and living in LOS ANGELES, directed by David Galligan. What are you going to be performing in the benefit?

THE AYE, a stage show adapted from Ana Isabel Ordonez's internationally acclaim ed book, THE EXTRAORDINARY LOVE STORY OF AYE AYE AND FEDOR, will be performed to celebrate the 85th birthday of Nobel Peace Laureate Monsigneur Archbishop Desmond Tutu as a part of the Sixth Annual Desmond Tutu International Peace Conference in Cape Town on 7 October.

I rarely use the word brilliant to describe the work I've seen. There are so many good actors, directors and writers in this town that one must be careful not to be too generous and overuse one's praise. Unlike one reviewer who calls everything he sees the best and gives an award of merit to all of them, I choose to be more selective. This is my very first time at Neo Ensemble Theatre under the new artistic direction of Paul Elliott, and I am exceedingly impressed with the acting, direction and particularly the writing. Airport Encounters, onstage at the Lounge on Santa Monica Blvd through October 16 only, is a collection of 10 vignettes that all take place in a big city airport.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat/lyrics by Tim Rice/ music by Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber/directed by Marc Kudisch/choreographed/associate directed by Shannon Lewis/3-D Theatricals at Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center, Redondo Beach through October 9/at Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts, Cerritos October 14 - 23 Considered Andrew Lloyd Webber's first official musical in the late 60s, in spite of the fact that it really took off after Jesus Christ Superstar, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat has within itself a miraculous power to entertain and inspire...especially the young among us w

Great works of literature are often beautifully adapted into opera and ballet. Think of Federico Garcia Lorca's The House of Bernarda Alba, to name just one. Jean Giraudoux's The Madwoman of Chaillot is also tremendously passionate and digs deep into the female psyche, producing emotional rhythms that lend themselves to music. Whereas Lorca's work concentrates on sexual repression, Giraudoux's is more romantic and... goes a step further into the realm of championing a cause, a desire to right human wrongs and change the world.

For the Record is first and foremost an absolutely awesome show visually... and emotionally. The creative team of For the Record, namely Anderson Davis, Shane Scheel and music supervisor Jesse Vargas, began these amazing shows back in 2010 at Show at Barre on Vermont which turned into Rockwell Table and Stage. It's perfectly suited to a cabaret setting focusing on movie scenes and songs from a particular filmmaker. I first saw Baz Luhrman before it crossed country to great success; another big hit is the show about Quentin Tarantino. Now, in its debut, For The Record: Scorsese American Crime Requiem world premieres at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts through October 16. Scenes form Martin Scorsese films are mixed together with pop songs from the soundtracks of his films featuring a spectacular cast. It's a bigger venue but suits Scorsese's over.the.top portrayal of violent crime in America to a tee.

Stage, film and TV actress Rebecca Wisocky, best known for the Lifetime series Devious Maids, is currently onstage at the Geffen in Barbecue. In our chat she discusses the play, Devious Maids and other theatrical interests. What is all the hype over Barbecue? Our audiences have been very enthusiastic. I think people have been excited to see a play that is both incredibly funny and sneakily scathing. It asks you by the end to think about how you are complicit in perceiving and perpetuating bullshit in our society. Among other things. Tell us about your role.

In 1968 Promises, Promises, based on 1960's hit film The Apartment, opened on Broadway to great critical and popular acclaim. It was the first collaboration between Burt Bacharach and Hal David, and the resultant score was - and still is - regarded as one of the most gloriously upbeat musicals to grace a stage. Throw in Neil Simon, who wrote the book, and how can you miss having a hit? Promises2 was nominated for 8 Tony Awards and won 2 for Jerry Orbach and Marion Mercer. The show was successfully revived in 2010 in New York starring Sean Hayes and Kristin Chenoweth, but did not receive nearly the same praise from audience or critics.