Don Grigware - Page 77

Sweden's great beauty Greta Gustafsson, later renamed Greta Garbo has been the subject of several plays, but, to my knowledge, When Garbo Talks is the first musical to recount her fascinating career. ICT's world premiere production in Long Beach is well directed, has an excellent cast, but at best comes off disconnected and unduly and unclearly satirical. If parody is the intent, it is far from apparent at the beginning.

Actress/singer Callie Carson made her cabaret debut @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's Sunday October 17 and wowed the SRO house with her super-talent, beauty and glowing charm. It is hardly pretentious to say it, so let's proclaim it loud and clear: this gal has it all. Her height and wholesome good looks have already made her a very successful model. If being offered role after role in musical comedy productions like Little Shop of Horrors and Happy Days the Musical isn't enough proof of her fine singing and acting abilities, then this Sterling's supper club gig should help to pave her way to stage stardom. She is that good.

It's great news that the Pasadena Playhouse has reopened its doors, less than a year from the time that it filed Chapter 11. The first entry into the current season is unusual for this venue, a one-person show, written in 1977 by Dore Schary as a sequel to his 1958 popular hit Sunrise at Campabello. The Pasadena stage is too large for this play, but due to the present state of the economy and the playhouse's tight budget, FDR will have to suffice, and with octogenarian favorite Ed Asner as President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, it becomes a wholeheartedly valuable and enjoyable experience.

Actress/singer Andrea McArdle made a big splash on Broadway in 1977 as the very first Annie, and has not stopped working since. She has been seen more recently in Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express as well as State Fair, and this summer, essayed for the very first time the role of Miss Hannigan in Annie. She is about to repeat Miss Hannigan for Musical Theatre West's production opening in Long Beach on October 30. In our chat she speaks about Annie, Hannigan and other theatrical delights.

Actress Stephanie Zimbalist certainly needs no introduction. With her star turn on Remington Steele on TV in the 80s, her multiple MOWs and frequent stage appearances all over the country, she is an actor in demand. In this conversation she talks about the challenges of playing Katharine Hepburn in Matthew Lombardo's Tea at Five, which she recently completed for the Rubicon in Ventura and is about to open at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank on October 22.

Based on his 2001 best seller about his relationship with the late great Lucille Ball, I Loved Lucy by Lee Tannen is now a one-act two character play, receiving its world premiere at Laguna Playhouse. It's a somewhat witty, but mostly bittersweet look at an aging star and how she deals with the emptiness of her later years.

Enough comparisons with sister Barbra Streisand! Roslyn Kind is her very own special creation, a singer's singer whose star shines brightly with its individual sparkling light. Based on her performance @ the Catalina Jazz Club Friday October 8, Ms. Kind, apart from possessing a uniquely sizzling vocal style, is warm, funny and joyous, sharing that joy with each and every one of her countless fans, including those in attendance such as legendary singers Linda Hopkins and Diahann Carroll.

'Gimme, gimme now!' perfectly describes Stiltz!, a comic musical fable showing the negativity of greed, power and fame. Though flawed the show has some terrific tunes from Deborah Johnson and a fine cast under Wayland Pickard and Doug Engalla's steadily fast-paced direction.

It's the late 70s. Oversized mockup stereo speakers adorn both sides of the Freud stage as part of the set for They're Playing Our Song. At opening curtain Jason Alexander enters, not to start the scene, but to give the downbeat as conductor of the overture. The back part of the set that serves as a window and skyline of New York City converts to a screen and the audience is treated to a retrospective slide show of 70s pop culture. Redford and Newman, Sonny and Cher, Lee Majors and Farrah, Ron Howard and Henry Winkler as Fonzie, Charlie's Angels...the list goes on. A fun and flavorful beginning to a wonderfully nostalgic evening of theatre that marks the first production of Reprise's 14th season.

This is first and foremost not a sequel to Brad Lemack's 2002 book. The new book concentrates on the changing landscape, the tremendous changes in technology that have opened up and are now available to today's blossoming actor. Divided into 15 chapters, there is a foreward by Lemack's first client, popular actress Isabel Sanford, now deceased, of The Jeffersons fame. Sanford at a younger age is a perfect example of the student of acting that Lemack is trying to reach in his guidebook. If you are ever to be successful in your acting career, you must be a businessman and know show business from the inside out. Talent and a desire to act is only the beginning; you must have a plan and shape that plan with some wise choices.

Taylor Tracey was a top five finalist in LA's Next Great Stage Star 2010, and one of its youngest. This gal has a truly dazzling voice. She can belt out a big number like 'The Name of the Game' from Mama Mia and deliver ever so gently as with Jason Robert Brown's beautiful 'What It Means To Be a Friend' from 13. On Sunday September 26, Tracey brought the house down @ Sterling's and proved why she made the top five of this year's contest.

I will say upfront that I have never been a great fan of Phantom. I have always found it hokey in part, even though it has pretty music and some dazzling effects. This touring production, I must admit, has held up fairly well after so many years, and the production is fresh and vibrant - more vibrant, with one major exception, than the production that I first saw in LA in the late eighties (1986-first performed in the UK).

Popular TV/ film/Broadway actor Monte Markham will play Antony in a scene from Antony and Cleopatra for CART (California Artists Radio Theatre) on October 9 at the Beverly Garland Hotel in NoHo at 1:30 pm. Markham is well known to TV/film audiences for his consistent work in TV series, MOWs and theatrical movies for the last 50 years. He is also producer/director of a series of acclaimed documentaries which have changed the face of Cable TV, since before the History Channel began. He started his Broadway career in 1973 co-starring in song and dance with Debbie Reynolds in the musical Irene, for which he won the prestigious Theatre World Award. In our interview he concentrates on his roots in and passion for theatre, and may I add with tremendous intelligence, wit and integrity.

For those who grew up in the 60s, it is easy to see why Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park (1963) was such a tremendous hit. Corie Banks Bratter (Melissa Soso) and Paul Bratter (Christian Kehoe) are the young newlyweds next-door, that everyone can relate to. Typical as well, they have day vs. night personalities. She is as sparkling, fun-loving and open-minded as he is sedate, serious and closed-in. They are different, but in the long run it does not get in the way. Today, sadly, they might actually divorce and never reconcile: alas , who knows? Differences are more the style in 2010, so they might just make it. After all, a young couple in love had and still do have hopes and dreams. That fact will never change. Simon's crisp dialogue and funny offbeat situations are certainly as timely as ever , and in GROUP rep's stunning production, the look and feel of the 60s are kept vibrantly alive thanks to a great cast and Stan Mazin's meticulous expertise as director.