Don Grigware - Page 55

And Then There Were None/by Agatha Christie/directed by Dierdra Celeste Miranda/Glendale Centre Theatre (GCT)/through November 17

Smoke and Mirrors/by Albie Selznick/directed by Paul Millet/Promenade Playhouse, Santa Monica/through December 16

With Jon Engstrom's super direction and choreography and this cast's nonstop excellent tapping, cavorting, and devilishly fine chemistry, this production of 42nd Street dazzles from top to bottom.

Proving that class is indeed a rare commodity these days, this lady, who co-starred on Broadway with Sergio Franchi in Nine, presented a marvelously varied bill of fare which highlighted songs from Amanda McBroom, Randy Newman, Stephen Sondheim, Kurt Weill, Jacques Brel and by the evening's musical director, renowned composer Michele Brourman - by no means your typical evening of predictable songs. Apart from having an exquisite soprano voice, Barnett is down-to-earth, warm and very funny.

Playwright Theresa Rebeck manifests a genuine dedication to the arts. In Mauritius she entered the world of painting and propagated an detailed appreciation of art collecting. Now in Seminar it is writing that takes center stage. Every writer who has heard 'You must write this. It must be told' needs to see this play for a million reasons, but... First, to see if you rightfully belong in the club, and if so, why you have to overcome the fear of sharing your work...and trust. With first rate direction from Sam Gold and a sparkling cast headed by Jeff Goldblum, Seminar not only entertains enormously but also makes you think seriously about where you are in your chosen field and where you ought to be. Get yourself quickly to the Mark Taper Forum through November 18 only!

'Finnegan's Wake', a popular Irish ballad, from the music hall tradition, and made famous by The Clancy Brothers, invokes the joy of living among the rowdy Irish, telling how, through the perils of liquor, a man falls and then rises to live again.

Singing actresses Sarah Orr and Valerie Rachelle sure know how to take real life experiences and weave them into an extraordinary musical show! On Sunday October 21 at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal the two Sirens put on a slicker than slick presentation, glossier and more fine-tuned than most cabarets. They managed to make you laugh and cry simultaneously and kept the hour long beat rolling forward without the slightest glitch or hesitation. What professionalism and what dynamic, big belting voices that together almost blew the roof off the Federal!

Theatre in the Dark/Evening One: DARK/conceived by Ron Sossi and Sally Essex-Lopresti/with mini plays, some parables and others, original work by members of the company/directed by Sossi, Jeremy Aluma, Denise Blasor, David Bridel, Susan Heldfond/Odyssey Theatre/October 20 through December 16

Playwrights Kaufman and Hart saw the vitality and urgency of comedy within drama when they penned You Can't Take It With You in 1936. It won a Pulitzer for Drama in 1937 and then a Best Picture Oscar for the film version in 1938. Their other big hit The Man Who Came to Dinner in 1939 has a similar theme and tone. In both plays it's wild, zany over-the-top characters and off-kilter incidents that blow the lid off the humdrum existence of the well to do middle class, and to meaningful avail. In Y.C.T.I.W.Y., the wealthy Kirbys are about as unlike the crazy free-living Sycamores as black is to white. Yet, when meshed together, merriment and unexpected happiness abound. With a spectacular cast (double) and brightly paced direction from Gigi Birmingham, Antaeus' Y.C.T.I.W.Y. is a splendid tonic for our depressing economic times and simply a whole lot of fun.

Upon its premiere at the Mark Taper Forum in 1979, I Ought To Be in Pictures was clearly Neil Simon in a new light. There were less laugh-out-loud one-liners and more meaningful dialogue dealing with tattered relationships in a realistic, true-to-life manner. Mind you, he had not yet reached the level of sophistication of the Brighton Beach trilogy and Lost in Yonkers, but it was definitely a step in that direction, employing autobiographical as opposed to fictional elements as plot. Herb Tucker is... Neil Simon. In a rarely produced revival, I Ought To Be in Pictures resurfaces at the Falcon Theatre with skilled direction and a genuinely wonderful cast through November 11.

The fourth show from Jackie Goldberg and Rockin' with the Ages The Beat Goes On! is by far their BEST, most slick and vibrant and totally indicative of Goldberg's great philosophy for all seniors to 'Get Up, Get Out and Get a Life!' It really MOVES! But you don't have to be a senior to enjoy the show. There's something for everyone from hip hop to rock and roll to 'Young at Heart'.

There have been many dramatized stories about the relationship between teacher/student, mentor/artist. Eve Harrington in All About Eve is the first to come to mind and her infatuation with Margo Channing's every move. She adored her and stole from her. She recreated and used her for her own success, not caring what became of Margo. In his Collected Stories Donald Margulies puts seemingly vulnerable writing student Lisa Morrison (Liza de Weerd) into the nurturing care of teacher/writer Ruth Steiner (Julia Silverman) and extols the comaraderie that develops between them as colleagues until it becomes a fact that Morrison has taken a confided incident from Steiner's life and sensationalized it in her very first novel. Under Sherry Netherland's watchful eye, both actresses hit the jackpot theatrically as they meticulously explore the intelligent issues at hand.

Adorned in period black cocktail dresses imprinted with cherries, a rose in their shiny red hair and with that fresh scrubbed look not seen since the 40s/50s, the two gals demanded attention like a hurricane ripping though town.

Legendary singer/actress Vikki Carr, born Florencia Bisenta de Casillas Martinez Cardona in El Paso, Texas, skyrocketed to superstardom as an American pop singer in 1962 with 'He's a Rebel' followed by 'It Must Be Him' in 1967 and 'With Pen in Hand' in 1969. In the 80s and 90s her Spanish recordings brought her three Grammy Awards, and she set the precedent for cross over artists becoming successful in both English and Spanish. Now in 2012 she returns to the Sony label with a new album Viva la Vida, released on September 25. In our chat she talks about the album, the charity that is closest to her heart and how she feels about being a Mexican-American in show business.

It seems an easy acting assignment; sit at a table in the dark, wait for the lights to come up full, gather your thoughts, eat a banana or two, explore the limits of your playing area, bring out a few properties from the wings, including an old tape recorder, and then sit, listen, react and comment on what you hear on the tape until, finally, the lights fade to black.

Donald Margulies, winner of a Pulitzer for his Dinner With Friends, was also nominated for the same prestigious award for Collected Stories, a taut two-character drama about a complicated relationship between a renowned short story writer, Ruth Steiner, and Lisa Morrison, a talented graduate student she is mentoring. The relationship deepens beyond mentor/pupil to best friend and confidant. Several years pass and Lisa publishes her own work of fiction…or is it?

It takes a master playwright - who better than David Mamet? - to put an audience smack dab in the middle of the political arena, in the Oval Office no less, where slings and arrows of undeniable speed fly, attack and injure. Yet, victims rise, valiantly or not, to face a continuous onslaught of greed and deception. November, Mamet's 2008 Broadway play, is a great forerunner to election day 2012. Is one candidate more greedy, more downright stupid than the other? Who is the lesser of two evils? The decision is yours, dear voter.

Is it possible to define a nation by the dinnerware it uses? Playwright Steven Tomlinson clearly thinks so, as in his American Fiesta, a one-man play now on stage at the Colony Theatre through October 21, dishware, piece by piece, passes through the hands of young and old, of every race and religious denomination, turning the popular Fiesta into a powerful instrument for communizing diversity.

Fans of improv and the ever popular The Twilight Zone series may exult in the opportunity to witness and contribute to an engaging theatre presentation by Impro called Twilight Zone Unscripted, playing in repertory with Chekhov Unscripted, at the Odyssey through November 4. Impro are a quite brilliant company of actors who take audience suggestions and turn them within seconds into original one-act plays of incredible insight and humor with the exact structure and flavor of...Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone.