Don Grigware - Page 80

Raquel_Sandler_a_Hit_Sterlings_20010101 One of the top five finalists in LA's Next Great Stage Star 2010 Raquel Sandler successfully premiered her cabaret gig @ Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's Sunday July 11 to a packed house. This outstanding singer/character actress picked tunes that not only show off her tremendous range as a vocalist but as comic actress as well.

Cumming's impish charm is undiminished. The show was 15 minutes shorter, with 12 songs instead of 15. The best anecdotes are still in, like Ann Miller's obscene comment about Eyes Wide Shut, and there are a few new ones, like about his 45th birthday tupperware party and the hilarious saga of his participation in Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade 2009, but the banter is still fresh and spontaneous and typically Cumming-esque. 7 songs remain from the CD I Bought a Blue Car Today and a couple of new songs have been added. I especially loved the medley of Bacharach and Sondheim - 'I Still Have That Other Girl'/'Losing My Mind' that do work beautifully together, the original song 'I Want To See You' - take away all that plastic surgery! - written by Cumming and Lance Horne, and Horne's satirical tune about what it means to be 'American'. Cumming with a G, not Cummings with an S - is as precious as ever. I overheard someone say 'I just want to take him home with me!' I can just imagine how his deliciously quick-witted brain would react to that comment! He's one unique individual that makes a show forever fascinating, always gutsy and real and totally entertaining!

Life Could Be a Dream @ the Laguna Playhouse, which opened Saturday July 10 with its original cast in tact and the very same creative dream team, is even stronger on a bigger stage. Opening it up for the Moulton Theatre in Laguna has not diminished one grain of its vibrant electricity. In fact, it's readier than ever for the lights of New York! Doug Carpenter, Daniel Tatar, Jessica Keenan Wynn, Jim Holdridge and Ryan Castellino are simply sensational with Roger Bean's stellar direction and Lee Martino's brilliant choreography that make it rock. One song 'The Great Pretender' has been cut and instead of 'Unchained Melody' reprised at the finale, it's now 'Life Could Be a Dream', which, as the show's title, makes much more sense! Bravo! Brava!

Thurgood /by George Stevens, Jr./ directed by Leonard Foglia /Geffen Playhouse /through August 8

Actor, producer, director Aurelien Roulin is an opinionated Frenchman, to be sure, but also a very talented one. His Beyond plays the El Portal mainstage through August 1. In our interview, he tells us how it all came into being. He also shares his thoughts about certain aspects of American versus French culture.

Every Monday at 4 pm PST on LA Talk Radio - Internet Radio - Michael Sterling and Paul Stroili co-host State of the Arts, a new 50 minute radio show that covers music, theatre and dance events in and around Los Angeles. These two gents are doing a great service to the community in bringing back the art form of radio, which has been slowing fading out for decades.

That irrepressibly zany team that brings you the annual Fruitcake Follies in December presented for the very first time - hopefully, it will be an annual event - Firecracker Follies @ the Cavern Club Theater @ Casita del Campo in Silverlake. Believe me, folks, this democratically liberal revue turned American history upside down and rightside up and gave brand new meaning to the anthem 'This Land Is My Land'. With devilishly creative James Gray and the one and only drag impresario Momma at the helm, how could it be anything less than a total camp, an irreverant sendup a la National Lampoon and Monty Python of our great heroes and heroines and all we hold sacred as Americans?! So much PR is put out there to make us feel guilty about the war, the recession, the environment and taking advantage of our freedom, it's about time we just laid back, blamed everyone else for what's happening and had some sheer fun with it all!

Natalie Toro, the brilliant co-star of In the Heights recently played Broadway in A Tale of Two Cities and has also played Les Mis and A Christmas Carol in New York. She has a mile-long list of credits in tours of shows such as Evita, Jesus Chrsit Superstar, West Side Story and Cats. She's equally at home on the theatrical stage, at Carnegie Hall and in the recording studio, having released several solo CDs - her latest entitled simply Natalie Toro. In our interview, she discusses her role in Heights, her new cabaret show - which will premiere in LA at the Magic Castle's Inner Circle on July 12 - and other roles and theatrical passions.

Academy-Award nominated actress/singer Sally Kellerman presented her cabaret act 'Blues & Jazz!' as a sort of CD party for Sally Wednesday June 30 @ Vitello's in Studio City. What a knockout! This lady knows her way around a tune and knows how to envelop her audience. Spontaneous from the getgo, she oozes sensuality from every pore - still intact after 40 some odd years - and utilizes her smoky voice to its greatest advantage, whether she's crooning the jazz of Cole Porter or Chris Caswell. She's fun, makes fun of herself and plucks every ounce of meaning from each and every lyric. I've always said the best actresses make the best singers, because when they love the material and put their soul into it, it traverses the footlights. She's one-of-a-kind!

Singer/musical comedy actress Domonique Paton, runnerup in LA's Next Great Stage Star 2010 made her cabaret debut Sunday June 27 at Sterling's Upstairs @ Vitello's to a thundering standing ovation. What potential for great success this young artist has! She is vibrantly alive with a strong voice and steadfast delivery that in the past have served quite well the like of Stephanie Mills, Diana Ross and Miss Lena Horne who all had gigantic careers on Broadway, the big screen and in the recording studio. Paton possesses that rare star quality that will sustain her for life if she keeps on singing. Virtuoso pianist/accompanist James Lent served as musical director.

Three Sisters After Chekhov opens July 9 @ The Lost Studio in Hollywood. Its director Gregg T. Daniel has a diversified and well-known career as director/actor of stage and television/film actor. His stage direction includes 2009's critically-acclaimed production of Tom Stoppard's Heroes at the Group rep and Sybyl Walker's Beneath Rippling Waters presented by the Company of Angels @ the Fremont Center in Pasadena in 2006. As actor, he currently has a recurring role as Reverend Daniels in HBO's True Blood.

Surf Report/ by Annie Weisman/ La Jolla Playhouse @ Mandell Weiss Forum/ directed by Lisa Peterson/ through July 11 Catering to the whims of a spoiled womanizing boss and dealing with the philanderings of an ailing husband are but two of the issues facing career-oriented wife and mother Jude in Annie Weisman's engrossing world-premiere play Surf Report now playing in La Jolla.

It's always great news when the Troubies return to the Falcon for their summer shows. Two seasons back they lampooned The Brady Bunch and maid Alice in Alice Through the Looking Glass and 60s/70s television sitcoms were never the same. This season they turn to TV drama and the 1977 blockbuster CHiPS - and for the very first time, ladies and gentlemen, the Troubies have created their very own musical score for CHiPS The Musical. Rick Batalla and Matt Walker play the simple-minded Ponch, played originally by Erik Estrada and John Baker, originally played byLarry Wilcox, respectively. Needless to say, skin tight uniforms, Ponch's sexy bod and John's perfect coiff aside, these guys bring new and obscenely funny meaning to being California Highway Patrolmen. Thank Heavens! The Troubies' outrageous parody/improv makes this dull show better than it was, or could be or ever hope to be!

Difficult to believe, but this is the first full production of a Shakespeare play performed by the Antaeus Company, which was founded to keep the classics alive. And that they have, most splendidly with Festivals, challenging new visions like Cousin Bette by Jeffrey Hatcher and Chekhov, but not the Bard - until now. This lavish yet economical King Lear proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that it has been most definitely worth the wait.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony and Grammy Award-winning show In the Heights has a lot to shout about. First of all, it's a musical with and about Latinos - way overdue -plus it has a terrific book with a heartwarming storyline and a bevy of exceedingly likeable characters, an unusually varied score, joyful choreography and direction, and an ensemble that rocks.

Cesar Chavez was a nonviolent leader, who, for many, came close to sainthood. The beauty of Fred Blanco's work is that he humanizes the legend and puts the man at arm's reach. He was, after all, a bilingual campesino, born of humble beginnings. But the asset of speaking another language worked ridiculously against him. Always moving forward and upward, however, amidst verbal and physical obstacles, he eventually gave migrant farm workers their very first union in an excrutiatingly long civil rights struggle that literally killed him.

Truly great pop singers are a rarity these days, singers of the calibre of Elton John, Billy Joel and Stevie Wonder - all idols of Matt Zarley. No wonder Zarley turned out so good! He has an easy-going, warm style onstage that pulls you in and holds you tight. Like his grandma's idol Elvis, he becomes our 'Teddy Bear' possessing on the inside such a heartfelt and winning spirit!

Many plays have been written about holding on to life in the face of death, many maudlin or sentimental, but rarely has there been a play as glorious in every way as Grace & Glorie. The Colony's meticulous production rings out with unparalleled honesty and glory!