Don Grigware - Page 29

Producers Bruce Robert Harris and Jack W. Batman and The Transfer Group have announced that CARRIE THE MUSICAL will return to Los Angeles at the historic Los Angeles Theatre, the first theatrical musical at that venue. CARRIE THE MUSICAL begins previews on October 1, 2015 and officially opens on October 8, 2015.   

One of Stephen Schwartz's failures The Baker's Wife, which toured extensively across the US in 1976 but never made it to Broadway, had a cast recording with Patti LuPone, Paul Sorvino and Teri Ralston and has had a few revivals including the UK. Why did it bomb? It's a simple, sweet show with a lovely message about human connection and a few pretty ballads, especially the hit 'Meadowlark', but there's a spark missing, nothing really exciting to get people into the seats; it's most definitely not commercial enough for Broadway. Based on the 1938 French film La Femme du Boulanger, that may be the main reason that the show is rarely performed. Now onstage at Actors co-op, Baker's Wife is mounted scrumptiously with terrific direction from Richard Israel and a superlatively cast ensemble.

The inimitable Carole Cook is one of those theatrical greats that...the mere mention of her name makes faces light up. And immediate laughter abounds at the thought of the outrageous things she as said onstage. This fiery redhead legend  - it's OK, she and Lucy were friends - is about to open her night club act - directed by the one and only David Galligan - at Tom Rolla's Gardenia. Miss Cook took time from her rehearsals to sit down and chat about the upcoming show.

Commissioned by the Yale Repertory Theatre and premiering there in 2014, These Paper Bullets by Rolin Jones received 4 Connecticut Critics Awards and has been a highly anticipated arrival this fall at the Geffen Playhouse. Now onstage at the Gil Cates Theater through October 18, the show is a huge, if not over produced, endeavor. Subtitled A Modish Ripoff of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, what we get is Shakespeare's plotline meshed with the music of The Quadros, a group that took the world by storm - not unlike the Beatles - in 1964. So, it's some Shakespearean verse rephrased with a Liverpool dialect, music reminiscent of the Beatles - all original music by Billie Joe Armstrong, front man of Green Day - and overblown satire on the pop culture that resulted, namely the crazy fashion trends and sexual escapades that rattled 1964 London and sent it reeling.

Actress/singer/director Judy Norton began her cabaret act at Sterling's Upstairs at Vitello's in January of 2010 and in my review, I called it 'a stellar show with a true night club star. Norton, best known for her 9 years as daughter Mary Ellen and sister of John Boy on TV's The Waltons, is a versatile singer with a terrific range...and a warm and engaging performer. Gifted and experienced, she is not nervous or phrenetic, making excuses for herself or forgetting her words...no, none of that; Norton is a consummate artist whose selection of songs were guaranteed to entertain her appreciative theatrical audience, which they did in spades. No big ego here; Norton makes you feel right at home.'

The film of Josefina Lopez's Real Women Have Curves in 2002 was a big hit in art houses and won several Sundance prizes including an audience award for Best Actresses Lupe Ontiveros and America Ferrera, long before her Ugly Betty fame. Lopez's semi-autobiographical play from the 90s about the garment industry and the Latina women who struggle to survive in it - the basis for the film - is currently running at the Pasadena Playhouse through October 4 and has terrific direction from Seema Sueko and a closely connected ensemble of five actresses.

Based on Daniel Wallace's 1998 novel and Tim Burton's 2003 film of the same name, Big Fish, with a few minor changes in plot, becomes quite an imaginative musical...with Andrew Lippa, composer of some of the best songs written for a Broadway show in a long time. So, it is hard to imagine why its Broadway run ended after a mere three months. Now in its south coast California debut, Big Fish comes to Moonlight Amphitheatre, Vista with a divine cast directed stylishly by Steven Glaudini and choreographed vibrantly by Karl Warden with sets and costumes from the original New York production. It's a real charmer and another big hit for Moonlight's winning season.

Some shows I can see again and again, especially those composed by the forever upbeat Jerry Herman. Hello Dolly bowed on Broadway when I was a teenager in the 60s and it had a long run with original star Carol Channing, followed by turns with Ethel Merman, Ginger Rogers, Pearl Bailey, Martha Raye and Molly Picon, to name a few. Every major star wanted to do it because the role offers a female actress the chance to sing, dance and act the hell out of it. It's a big, splashy gut buster about a woman who has more moxy than the Pied Piper and enough wisdom and panache to win over an army or a whole kingdom, for that matter...and, for the audience, it's one of those extra-special feel-good musicals that just doesn't quit... for a moment. You leave the theatre actually humming the tunes.Welk Resort's current production of Dolly! in Escondido through November 15 is right on target...it's wondrously delectable.

On Sunday September 6 at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal, Kritzerland Records celebrated its 61st show and 5 year anniversary. On hand were affable host Kritzerland producer Bruce Kimmel, musical director extraordinaire John Boswell at the piano and a bevy of super talented singers who included: Brennley Brown, Hadley Miller, Jenna Lea Rosen, Sami Staitman, Robert Yacko, Damon Kirsche, Darcie Roberts, Sharon McNight, Jason Graae, and special guest star Tony Award winner Sammy Williams. What a cast and what a fabulous evening of entertainment entitled The Songs That Got Away IV!

Welcome to My World, starring Sami Staitman, is the first ever one-girl musical written for and about a fourteen-year-old. The musical will have its world premiere September 10 and continue through September 27, 2015 at the Grove Theatre in Burbank, CA. The Disney Channel's Corey Fogelmanis ("Farkle" on Girl Meets World), who appears as a Special Guest on the show's upcoming Kritzerland Records' CD Cast recording, will be on hand opening weekend for a private Meet & Greet with fans who have donated to the production. The show is created and directed by prolific Bruce Kimmel, surely no stranger to LA theatre.

My first association with musical composer Frank Loesser was as an actor in the 70s in a revue of his music. I played Sky Masterson of Guys and Dolls and sang a duet of 'I've Never Been In Love Before'. I came to realize quite rapidly how lovely his music is and how well he manages to capture the moment of genuine emotion within a song. Upon seeing Guys and Dolls several times since, I have been awestruck as well by Abe Burrows and Joe Swerling's ability to take Damon Runyon's New York Broadway characters from the 20s and blow them up into something overwhelmingly moving and appealing. The two worlds of sin and redemption have never been connected so naturally, cleverly and colorfully nor with such style and panache. Now at GCT, the cast give their all to Loesser's Runyonesque romp and it comes up a surefire hit.

To anyone who has not witnessed an Impro Theatre production, a word to the wise: you are about to experience a rare form of brilliance, sometimes seen in improvisation, but especially keen in Sondheim Unscripted, because it not only has an original book but music as well... totally in the style of Stephen Sondheim. A Sondheim composition is known for its incredible range of notes, strident chords, mixed rhythms, fugues, not to mention that his music amazingly conveys the themes or moods of the piece...to the letter. He is a unique composer, impossible to copy...well, Impro surely proves that statement wrong.

Assassins/book by John Weidman; music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim/presented by Red Blanket Productions with Punk Monkey Productions at the Pico Playhouse/directed by Dan Fishbach/thru September 27 A word or two before I start this review. In the film Judgement at Nuremberg, Spencer Tracy who plays the judge of the tribunals, states emphatically at the end that in the light of today's changing values, condoning these actions may seem logical, but it is not - or never is - right. Assassination is murder pure and simple. I will never condone it, even though I may understand the circumstances. I may laugh and enjoy Assassins and weigh the killers' motivations, but I will never accept them.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony and Grammy Award-winning show In the Heights had a lot to shout about when it played Broadway in 2008...in fact, it still does. First of all, it's a musical with and about Latinos - way overdue -plus it has a terrific book with a heartwarming storyline about a closely knit community. That's right, a real community, one that boasts a bevy of exceedingly real and likeable characters. Miranda also created a varied score with ballads & traditional pop melodies and salsa meshed together with rap. Candlelight Pavilion brings In the Heights to Claremont with a dynamite cast and slick direction by Benjamin Perez. It's full-out, enjoyable fare!

Virtuoso pianist Tom Ameen made his E-Spot Lounge debut at Vitello's Friday August 14 with a joyously entertaining show highlighting Disney music from TV, film and the Disney theme parks. It was a smash. Ameen is no stranger, though, to Vitello's, as he plays downstairs at the bar very Monday and Tuesday. He has amassed quite a following there, and his fans had only to climb a short flight of stairs to hear him play...and sing. Though he claims he hasn't sung in 15 years, his sweet, gentle tones and clear, smooth delivery were a consistent delight to listen to.

On August 21 Red Blanket Productions will present a rare revival of Stephen Sondheim's musical Assassins at the Pico Playhouse in West LA. Director Dan Fishbach and actor Zachary Lutsky, who plays assassin John Hinckley, recently took time out of their busy schedules to talk about the show. It is particularly relevant this year as we recollect the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's assassination by John Wilkes Booth in 1865. BIOS:

Proving once and for all that concerts need not be serious or dull, Fraser Entertainment Group's 9th installment of A Classic Evening of Broadway bowed at Rockwell Table and Stage on Monday, August 10 to a packed audience of enthusiastic show tune fans. And it was an uber delightful show! Musical director Brad Ellis, best known for TV's Glee and Broadway's Forbidden Broadway, is outrageous fun and his witty repartee at the piano serving as introduction to each of the guest singers was a big plus to the evening's seemingly spontaneous entertainment. Yes, indeed, the ambiance was so casual in the 90-minute set that it was as if we were all sitting on Ellis's private patio sipping drinks and listening to this musical genius create something fresh, for the very first time. He took lots of risks as in his exuberant opener, Peter Allen's 'Everything Old Is New Again'...and motivated each and every singer to join right in and follow his lead. And what a bevy of super-talented performers were on hand, including Valerie Perri, Barbara Minkus, Kevin Odekirk, Damon Kirsche, Jahmaul Bakare, Elizabeth Hayden and even producer Dianne Fraser, whom Ellis referred to as the series' empresario.

As a companion piece to Eric Simonson's Lombardi on the main stage, Group rep presents Lee Blessing's The Winning Streak on their second stage. Both plays involve sports: Lombardi, football and The Winning Streak, baseball. For full enjoyment of Lombardi, it helps to be a football fan; for The Winning Streak, you need not care at all about baseball. Whereas Lombardi derives its spark from the spirit of the sport, Streak's comes totally from the human spirit. Blessing's brilliance as a writer is in his ability to show human conflict full-out, and there is no finer example of a dysfunctional father/son relationship than this play.

Popular across the country for many years, Always Patsy Cline celebrates country/pop singing superstar Patsy Cline, her music and her warm down.to.earth persona. Endearing from the get go, the show's success depends on the right casting. Its two actresses must be perfect fits for their roles. Louise Seger is a diehard fan of Patsy Cline. She's all Texan, has an exuberant personality and is over.the.top humorous, and of course, Patsy is Patsy. The actress playing her must look pretty and just right in those curly black wigs, and most urgently be able to duplicate Cline's unique vocal stylings. Well, the Sierra Madre Playhouse and director Robert Marra have hit the jackpot with its two leading ladies, Nikki   D'Amico as Louise and Cori Cable Kidder as Cline. With the overabundant charm exuded by both stars and backed by a superb five-piece combo that includes terrific musical director Sean Paxton at the piano, Always Patsy Cline should take audiences over the rainbow, through September 12.

Playwright Martin Sherman, most famous for his Pulitzer and Tony-nominated play Bent is in town for the Mark Taper Forum's revival of  the classic directed by Moises Kaufman. We sat down at Vespaio at the after party Sunday July 26 and chatted briefly about the play and this production. What research you did originally on the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany?