Don Grigware - Page 37

Carnie, daughter of Brian Wilson, one of the original Beach Boys, and sister of Wendy Wilson, is also known for her television work and recently for creating gourmet desserts for Vitello's Ristorante in Studio City. Carnie is married to music producer Rob Bonfiglio and has two young daughters, Lola 9 and Luci 5. She recently sat down with me to chat about the upcoming concert and various aspects of her career.

Actress/lawyer Allison Brush made her very well-received cabaret debut at Upstairs at Vitello's Sunday September 14 with her show entitled For This You Went to Law School? Once an actress/singer, Brush, discouraged by rejection like many, left the profession and studied law, passing the bar exam on her first try. Now after many successful years as a lawyer, in which she claims she was miserable, she is returning to show biz, something she has sorely missed. In fact, participating in weekly sessions of Open Mic at the Gardenia and studying with songstress/master teacher Karen Morrow - law by day and singing at night - singing became her therapy.

Think quirky like Moonstruck, only transplant the action from New York to Los Angeles and replace the large Italian Family with a dysfunctional community of friends and their current significant others. For those that have forgotten Moonstruck it was a hit movie in 1987 in which relationships were turned upside down, inside out under the spell of a full moon, creating odd, unpredictable sexual entanglements. It's not John Patrick Shanley but Joanne Mosconi who has written You Love That I'm Not Your Wife, and with a kooky title like that, something's got to give comedically. Now onstage in NoHo at the Avery Schreiber Playhouse, Wife is a crowd-pleaser with miles of heart, 10 very likable characters as well as the actors playing them.. under the direction of the playwright who really knows how to keep the pacing fast and bright and to stage action fully within the confines of a minimal space.

What a joy-filled experience to see tap legend Arthur Duncan live onstage in his one man show One More Time! at the El Portal when he performed five shows September 12 - 14 in the Monroe Forum Theatre! Duncan was the first African American performer to do a regular TV gig - for 18 years in fact - on The Lawrence Welk Show. His legendary tapping has been seen all over the world from Australia to Egypt to Yugoslavia and on various TV shows such as Diagnosis Murder dancing with Dick Van Dyke and on the big screen in Tap with Sammy Davis Jr. and Gregory Hines.

It used to be, in days gone by, that hit Broadway shows would be made into movies; now, it's the reverse. With a dearth of ideas for Broadway musicals, the trend lately has been to turn to the big screen and revamp a popular film for the stage, adding song and dance. Such was the case with 9 to 5 and later Legally Blonde engendering quite a bit of success. Those two had female stars at the core, so it's high time a male got some attention. Voila! Catch Me If You Can has a quirky real-life story about an anti-hero Frank Abagnale Jr. (Jacob Haren) who in the 60s was called the Johnny Appleseed of fraud. The outstanding creative team of book writer Terrence McNally and musical wizards Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman took an old idea and created an entertainingly fresh showcase around it. The resultant Catch Me If You Can which received several Tony Award nominations in 2012 - one win for Norbert Leo Butz as Best Featured Actor playing Agent Carl Hanratty - is now playing in its West Coast regional premiere in Vista at the Moonlight Amphitheatre with Josh Adamson essaying Hanratty.

When Oklahoma! was first produced on Broadway in 1943 it became the first smash hit for newly formed collaborating team Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II and also the first real book musical, preceded only by Showboat. It was a breakthrough musical, which when given a first-class production, is still, some 71 years later, without question, one of the greatest American musicals ever written. 'The Farmer and the Cowman' truly represents the philosophy of what America is all about, a unity and pride that is unmistakably individual. Welk Resorts' newest production is wonderfully entertaining, retaining a lot of traditional elements. Director Dan Mojica jubilantly brings together a very talented cast now in Escondido through November 16.

On Sunday September 7, at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal, due to an advance sell-out crowd for the 7 pm show, an additional matinee show was performed for the Fourth Anniversary of Kritzerland. Needless to say, both matinee and evening performances were sold out, making the monthly Kritzerland tributes the most popular shows at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal. The anniversary party was entitled They're Playing Our Song: The Songs That Got Away III and along with special guests Kerry O'Malley and Bruce Vilanch, the big cast also included Robert Yacko, Evan Harris, Madison Claire Parks, Sami Staitman, Jenna Lea Rosen, and also little Hadley Miller, and in chorus numbers of What If?: Kimberly Hessler, Travis Leland, Bruce Merkle, and Adrienne Visnic, all under the baton of super musical director John Boswell. This marked the 49th Kritzerland show since its inception at the Gardenia in 2010, and its host Bruce Kimmel, founder of Kritzerland Records, was in rare form, doling out trivia-worthy anecdotes about every number presented, as well as singing a song himself, due to the absence of Guy Haines.

Playwright Carey Crim has a great talent for digging deep and exposing the many different layers of her characters. In Wake, her main character, an undertaker, is agoraphobic and attempting to recover from the death of her husband. She struggles to find a sense of self-worth, independence and freedom within her relationships with her mother and her teenage daughter and to accept a new love interest. In her world premiere Conviction, there's an even more critical issue facing its protagonists. Tom Hodges (Tom Astor), a high-school teacher in New Jersey, is accused of improper conduct with a female student, convicted and sent to prison for four years for a crime he may or may not have committed. His devastating struggle after release from prison is at the core of the play: a struggle to find a job and more urgently, self-worth through maintaining his relationships with his wife Leigh (Elyse Mirto), teenage son Nicholas (Daniel Burns) and friends Bruce and Jayne Wagner (Joseph Fuqua and Julie Granata), all of whom have been deeply affected by his supposed crime, some far worse than others. The friends represent only a small fraction, to be sure, of the negativity from the community at large. Heartbreaking though it is, each character must come to terms with what has happened and try to move on. The intense emotional layers that Crim unravels from all of them is astounding. Now onstage at the Rubicon Theatre in Ventura, Conviction boasts taut direction from Scott Schwartz and a superlative five-member ensemble, through September 28 only.

Impro Theatre's mission is to create a play from scratch in a particular style, right before the eyes of its audience. Their improvised plays include: The Twilight Zone, and the works of Shakespeare, Chekhov, Dickens, Tennessee Williams, even Sondheim - all unscripted. This time around it's The Western Unscripted, now onstage at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank through October 5.

Since high school I have found Greek tragedy a repetitious, tedious bore - lots of emoting with zero action and no laughs. As I watched the magnificent SITI Company from New York perform Aeschylus' very first tragedy Persians at the Getty Villa in Malibu, things took a different turn, I somehow became fascinated ... primarily by Anne Bogart's fluid staging and the company of 9 impeccably disciplined and graceful actors.

Joanne Mosconi's new play You Love That I'm Not Your Wife is set to open at the Avery Schreiber Playhouse in NoHo September 12. Blake Boyd is one of the leading actors in the play. Tell me about the play from the actor's standpoint and about the character you play. I play Tony Ciccarelli, an extremely successful entrepreneur who is in love with the idea of being in love. Perhaps not attuned to the feelings of his previous conquests, Tony gets more than he can handle and (hopefully) a life changing lesson in the form of Marie. Tony's relationship with Marie epitomizes the old adage that 'characters get not what they want, but what they need.'

By Steve Peterson How did you first get involved in theatre and acting? I first got involved with a small part in a community theatre in Medford, Oregon as a child and had the usual school plays and debate teams. I was fairly shy as a kid and my voice would rise when I was nervous, so I took a college course in the theatre department at the University of Washington to 'modulate' my voice and learn 'vocal placement;' one thing led to another till I was firmly ensconced as a drama major and began getting cast in great character roles.

New artistic director of Sierra Madre Playhouse Christian Lebano is busy as director rehearsing 4000 Miles for its opening at Sierra Madre Playhouse September 26. Lebano talks about this play, this season at Sierra Madre and his role as artistic director, including his plans for the playhouse. What is your background at Sierra Madre Playhouse?

Joanne Mosconi's new play You Love That I'm Not Your Wife is set to open at the Avery Schreiber Playhouse in NoHo September 12.

The 1920s were not called the roaring twenties for nothing, and when 'modern' girls came from small towns across America to New York to seek a job, a husband and money, they were an overabundant lot. Take Millie Dillmount (Allyson Spiegelman) for example, who, like many others, sets her eyes, but hardly her heart, on dreamy boss Trevor Graydon (Kelby Thwaits), who also has eyes for Miss Dorothy Brown (Deanna Bakker). Add Jimmy Smith (Jason Webb), who literally ran into Millie on the streets and then pops back into the picture, attempting to win her over romantically. Welcome to modern big city living: take a number, stand in line. And there's even more discouragement. Apart from New York's degrading social life led by Muzzy Van Hossmere (Julia Marie Rodriguez), Millie is living in a den of iniquity the Priscilla Hotel where hostess Mrs.Meers (Alison England) has a side job selling orphan girls into white slavery. However, despite all these calamities, big and small, there's an air of the ridiculous surrounding them. Based on the 1967 film which starred Julie Andrews, Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Channing, TMM is an ode to madcap senselessness, and go no further than to Glendale and GCT for a nifty revival now onstage through October 4.

Playwright Joanna McClelland Glass's autobiographical Trying is a two character play based on her working relationship as secretary to Judge Francis Biddle from 1967-68 in Georgetown, Washington, D.C. Now in a fine West Coast premiere at ICT in Long Beach, Trying recounts the difficult professional and personal growth of Sarah Schorr (Paige Lindsey White) at the beginning of her career and Biddle (Tony Abatemarco) in the final days of his, against the backdrop of 60s political turmoil. With excellent direction from John Henry Davis and two astounding performances, Trying runs to September 14 only.

Sex in a title is an eye-catching titillation guaranteed to attract an audience. I had never seen It's Just Sex originally, so I thought, 'OMG, let's do it - no pun intended - and be done with it'. Is it about sex for the sake of sex or what? Hardly. The play is not a parody of the porn industry or about consistently rampant promiscuity. Not that there's isn't sex involved or that the actors are not appealing. It is and they are, but, in the long run , there is much, much more. In fact, you leave the theatre gaining more from it than you expected, going in. It's Just Sex had an 11-year run in LA before it spent a year off-Broadway; now it returns with a brand-spanking new and electric cast to the Secret Rose Theatre for continued fun, games and plenty of food for thought, through October 26.

Prolifically talented director Glenn Casale's pursuits in the LA theatre community are immeasurable and should not go unnoticed. He took time out from an ultra busy schedule to talk about his post as artistic director of Music Circus in Sacramento - which is presenting its last offering for the current season La Cage Aux Folles this week through Sunday August 24 - and also about a production of Beauty and the Beast which will open soon in Russia.

Actor/singer Dan Callaway has been revered over the last decade in New York and Los Angeles for his fine tenor/baritone voice, and so it is with mixed feelings that we say goodbye to him as he leaves to assume a teaching position in his home state of Elon, North Carolina. We are indeed happy that through his teaching he will be sharing his great love of music with others, but on local musical stages he will be sorely missed. On Sunday August 17 Callaway presented a farewell concert at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal that was full of the simplistic, homegrown music of his youth.

On Friday August 15 singer/actress Rebecca Spencer made her Los Angles concert debut with Fair Warning at Upstairs at Vitello's with her long-time collaborator Philip Fortenberry as musical director, also making his LA debut.