Don Grigware - Page 27

When Faith Prince and Jason Graae first performed their show The Prince and the Showboy at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal in June, 2012, I wrote, '...there were enough sparks to set Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal on fire as Jason Graae and Tony Award winner Faith Prince seized the stage with the premiere of their new show The Prince and the Showboy to an adoring packed house. Graae's inimitable sarcasm and overdone delivery along with Prince's unique pauses and double takes made for a delicious evening of comedy through song as they focused on what makes them click as a team, namely the fun side of life'. Well, the show played 54 Below in New York and has returned to the Federal - December 27 and 28 for two nights only. It's now about 20 minutes longer, bringing it in at 90 minutes and allowing each of the stars to concentrate more fully on dramatic career transitions, especially for Prince.

There are undoubtedly other productions worthy of merit in 2015 which I did not cover. This list is based only on what I saw and reviewed. (alphabetical listings; Equity, Equity-waiver & Non-Equity productions are mixed) (artists performing outside LA may be included in performance categories) No set, costume, or technical awards. I leave that to the bigger awards and to the expertise of those who really know those fields inside out.

On Tuesday, December 22 exciting singer Laura Dickinson brought her BIG BAND HOLIDAY to the El Portal Mainstage in NoHo. The house was SRO, and Dickinson, needless to say, accompanied by a 17-piece band, knocked it out of the park. When I reviewed her CD release party a year ago at Vitello's I noted, 'She blew the roof off the joint with her dynamic delivery, oozing charm and warmth from every pore. Not only is she beautiful, but oh so terribly engaging as she grabs hold of you and won't let go. She's been called 'masterful'; I'll go a step further and add 'captivating and spellbinding'. She's a singer to be reckoned with!' A year later, she's even more appealing with a talent and drive that will not quit.

Award-winning veteran director Jules Aaron has been putting his directorial stamp on musicals and plays for several decades.  Mr. Aaron takes time out of his busy schedule to talk with us about his current project, the west coast premiere of The Group Rep's production of THAT LOVIN' FEELIN' running December 11 through January 24, 2016 at the Lonny Chapman Theatre in North Hollywood, which already has some SOLD OUT performance dates.  He also gives us a glimpse into his background and the encouragement he received along the way.

Resourceful Dan Goggin designed a line of greeting cards to honor the nun, then turned the project into a cabaret which finally became a full-fledged musical comedy in 1985. Now Nunsense plays in several languages all over the world. Everyone has a peculiar fascination with nuns. Why? Well, number one, they dress oddly and apart from that, they live out their daily lives praying and doing things uncommon to the average person. Say you are or grew up a Catholic, you still have difficulty figuring them out. Are they really that stern and block-headed? Well, Dan Goggin takes you behind the scenes, so-to-speak, in this tongue -in-cheek look at the Little Sisters of Hoboken at Mt. Saint Helen's School - you will see them do things, irreverent things, you never imagined in your wildest dreams - who are about to put on a benefit show to raise funds to...Oh, Saints preserve us... to bury four nuns who died from botulism. Currently onstage at Crown City Theatre in NoHo, Nunsense is receiving a nifty revival directed by the terrific Kristin

On Saturday December 19 at 3 pm and 8 pm and on Sunday December 20 at 3 pm, the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles (GMCLA) presented its annual Holiday Spectacular at the Alex Theatre, Glendale, this year entitled Brassy, Classy & Sassy! There's always diversity in the shows - it's what I like most - and this year, Acts One and Two of Brassy, Classy & Sassy!were as different as night and day. The chorus is under the executive direction of Chris Verdugo and artistic direction of conductor Dr. Joseph P, Nadeau. Chris wore a silly blue Christmas suit covered with snowflakes ,which almost blinded me and Nadeau a sweater, well, we'll talk about that one later on...

On Friday December 18 the legendary Ben Vereen came to Catalina Jazz Club for his latest one-man cabaret An Evening with Ben Vereen. Backed by three fabulous musicians, musical director David Loeb at the piano, Tom Kennedy on bass and Marc DiCianni on drums, Vereen took the stage for 70 minutes and let fly. There was enough energy and passion abounding for three performers, let alone one. Known as a primo dancer, that was at a minimum, as he is approaching 70, but he moved in constant rhythm across the stage and back as he lovingly sang 20 songs, mostly from Broadway. There was very little patter; Vereen poured his soul into the work and kept his packed house begging for more.

Hollywood with a divine program of entertainment. Among the stellar singers were Joan Ryan, Ruth Williamson, Sharon Catherine Brown, Scott Harlan, Jeffrey Christopher Todd, Walter Winston ONeil, Chelsea Field and producer Dianne Fraser, and a very special treat Tim Curry and one of his original song partners from the days of Rocky Horror onstage Jamie Donnelly, all under the baton of the one and only musical director Brad Ellis. This was not a Christmas program as such, but Broadway fare sprinkled with a couple of holiday tunes. Ellis, as always, with his inimitable style - he looks and comes off totally dry and unrehearsed - was sheer delight as he opened the show with 'You're Here', a delicious original composition.

This Troubie Christmas Show Santa Claus Is Comin' to Motown was first presented at the Falcon in 2004, so seeing it again was like seeing it for the very first time. Who could remember details from 11 years ago? And also, the Troubies are known for adding new jokes and gags consistently. New jokes about Donald Trump or Hilary Clinton in an election year would not have been in the first rendering of this show. I have always attested to the genius of Matt Walker, Beth Kennedy, Lisa Valenzuela and Rick Batalla, whose improv skills surpass any one else's. If I haven't said it outright before, I'm stating it now, they are THE BEST anywhere. And that goes for the entire gang.

Playwrights Horizons in association with The Actors Theatre of Louisville presented Lucas Hnath's new play The Christians this past fall in New York to great acclaim. The controversial  play with contradictory arguments about God and heaven/hell has now docked at the Mark Taper Forum through January 10, 2016. Judging by the opening night audience - you could hear a pin drop - The Christians with its crisp dialogue,  stellar cast and taut direction is a surefire winner.

The Bridges of Madison County was a hit film in 1995 for Meryl Streep and Clint Eastwood. The 2014 Broadway musical version with a gorgeous operatic score by Jason Robert Brown and stellar book by Marsha Norman is now playing at the Ahmanson downtown through January 17. When you look closely, there's so much to praise that it makes no sense whatsoever that the show closed early on Broadway and won only one Tony for Brown's music. It should have played on and on and walked away with a slew of awards.

For the last few years the uber talented Lythgoe family have been entertaining us at Christmastime, first at the El Portal in NoHo and now 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, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, or in this case Peter Pan and turns it into a fun imaginative show with music that will appeal to both children and their parents. There's usually an actor in drag - none here, and a villain (John O'Hurley as Captain Hook) ... and audience are encouraged to root for the heroes and HISS loudly at the villains. O'Hurley merely needs to turn on that magnificent voice to seize control of the audience, after which kids and adults boo and boo some more. It's all in amusement, of course, and this year's Peter Pan and Tinker Bell A Pirate's Christmas is all good fun with an excellent cast, some fine pop singing and fast-paced dancing... and, first and foremost, a pleasant script by Kris Lythgoe. I feel that some elements of the traditional Peter Pan telling should have been left in tact. For whatever reason, Lythgoe made some less appealing changes.

Where are you from? I was born in the Isle of Man, which is an island in between England and Ireland. I've kind of lived in a couple of places in the UK, but I basically grew up in a place called Guernsey which is a Channel Island. It has a lot of history - being occupied by the Nazis during WWII.  It was a great place to grow up. It was great for me as a creative because it's a small island but has a large population. They really support creativity there. If you want to do it, there's some great venues you can explore. Were your parents supportive of you?

There's no finer Christmas entertainment than an original story about home and family that has lots of humor, music and more than enough touches of magic...and of course, several kids and, to top it all off, Santa and Mrs. Claus. That's pretty much it in a nutshell with Home For Christmas, 2015's holiday show currently onstage at Candlelight Pavilion in Claremont through December 27. It's a whole lot of imaginative fun that you cannot afford to miss.

1996's mega hit British farce Cash on Delivery is an exceedingly hilarious romp through an unemployed man's out-of-control experiences with social security fraud. Written by Michael Cooney, son of well-known British actor/playwright Ray Cooney, the play builds an affecting series of misunderstandings, mistaken identities and all-out silliness that prevail when Eric Swan (Jim Mahoney) attempts to fraudulently kill off the people - out of guilt - whose government checks he has been collecting illegally. Now onstage at the El Portal, Ray Cooney has directed evenly and with dynamite pacing, guaranteeing fool-proof laughter with a terrific cast, through December 20 only.

The legendary song and dance man, Tony Award-winning triple-threat Ben Vereen will be performing his solo cabaret act Steppin' Out with Ben Vereen at Catalina Jazz Club on December 18 and 19. In our talk, he comments about the show and shares memories from many of the shows he's done during his illustrious career.

Actor/writer Jason Lott and writer Helen Murray Pafumi collaborated on writing Wonderful Life currently onstage at the Malibu Playhouse. I caught up with both of them to see how all of this got started and what they feel they have accomplished with their Christmas play. What motivated both of you to adapt It's a Wonderful Life? JL: Honestly, it was all Helen's idea. She wanted to do a one-person holiday show at her theatre, but wasn't finding the right script. She approached me about doing the show (whatever it might turn out to be) and mentioned that she was planning to adapt It's A Wonderful Life. I asked if she'd mind if I co-wrote it with her and she was gracious enough to say 'Yes.' You could make the argument that I only asked to co-write because I knew it would be easier to memorize that way, but that's only half-true (because, honestly, it is easier for me to memorize something I've written). The other side is that I only knew a little bit about It's A Wonderful Life. I knew it was an 'American classic' and I knew that I loved Jimmy Stewart's work in other movies, but the embarrassing fact is that I'd only seen bits and pieces over the years. I'd never watched the whole thing in one sitting. Once I did, though, I fell in love with the movie and absolutely wanted to help bring that story to the stage.

The 1946 Frank Capra film It's a Wonderful Life was based on the short story The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern, published in 1945. Now there is a stage adaptation, a solo show in which actor/co-writer Jason Lott portrays George Bailey and all the characters who surround him in Bedford Falls, New York. Nominated for a Helen Hayes Award in Washington D C, Lott is an actor who can play both men and women exceedingly well by simply switching his voice to a higher or lower register. In Wonderful Life he intones, just to take one example, Mary Hatch and George Bailey on the phone talking to Sam Wainwright, as the two realize for the first time that they are falling in love with each other. It's a heart-tingling moment for fans of the movie... and also for those unfamiliar with the scene, for Lott proves an uncanny ability to capture the image of innocence and raw emotion of that special moment.

One of my very favorite Christmas stories of all time is A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote about his boyhood growing up with his eccentric cousin Sook Faulk. Geraldine Page played Sook in a 1966 telefilm, and it was later remade for television in the 80s with Patty Duke. It is the Page version that stays with me, having left a lasting impression of the woman, the era and its fierce impact on humanity. Playwright Duane Poole has fashioned a retelling of the story with music by Larry Grossman and lyrics by Carol Hall in a new musical version of A Christmas Memory, now onstage at the Sierra Madre Playhouse through December 27. On this intimate stage with the orchestra in full view behind the actors, the flavor of the original story is well preserved by Alison Eliel Kalmus' fine direction and with a terrific ensemble.

Actor John O'Hurley will costar at the Pasadena Playhouse in the Lythgoe Family's Panto of Peter Pan and Tinker Bell A Pirates Christmas opening December 9. He chats with us about the show and his varied career on stage, film and TV.