Shari Barrett - Page 32

The Actors' Gang is presenting the groundbreaking multimedia production LYRICS FROM LOCKDOWN, a solo show written and performed by Bryonn Bain and directed by Gina Belafonte, which tells Bryonn Bain's true story of racial profiling and wrongful incarceration at the hands of New York City police and how this experience led to a transformative friendship with death row inmate Nanon Williams. Bain weaves the voices of over 40 characters into an extraordinary, internationally acclaimed tour de force production featuring a live band, performing a fusion of hip hop, theater, spoken word, rhythm and blues, calypso and classical music, to tell Bain's story.

Los Angeles audiences now have the chance to see brilliant performances as The Geffen Playhouse is presenting O'Neill's masterpiece featuring Emmy nominee Jane Kaczmarek and Tony nominee Alfred Molina as leads Mary Cavan Tyrone and James Tyrone, along with Angela Goethals as Cathleen, Stephen Louis Grush as James Tyrone, Jr., and Colin Woodell as Edmund Tyrone. This production marks the first major staging of the classic play in Los Angeles in nearly a decade, and even though it runs almost three and a half hours, each of the actors give amazing performances, making even the longest of scenes riveting to watch thanks to Jeanie Hackett's direction and the actors' skills.

The story of FUGU, a world premiere play written by Howard Teichman and Steven G. Simon which Teichman also directs and produces, takes place at a time just prior to the United States' entry into World War II. Suggested by true events, it recounts the efforts of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara who assisted in getting 6000 Lithuanian Jews rescued from the clutches of the Nazis and relocated to Kobe, Japan, and the choices which had to be made to ensure their safety.

When we entered The Edye at The Broad Stage to see Jonny Donahoe's solo show EVERY BRIILIANT THING, we were handed pieces of paper with a number and a phrase after being asked if we would be willing to participate when called upon to read the contents when our number was called. Of course, we agreed and so the stage was set for a very fun evening of audience participation theatre in this new play about depression and the lengths we will go to for those we love. In this acclaimed show based on true and untrue stories, a young boy attempts to cure his mother's depression by creating a list of the best things in the world.

I first heard about Kurt Weill's final musical masterpiece, LOST IN THE STARS, when I was studying his body of work during my senior year at CSUN. It was at a time, such as now, when society was being torn apart by opposing political forces, protests filled the streets, and racial inequality was being challenged in the wake of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination. And I have been waiting since then to see a production of the "musical tragedy" which opened on Broadway in 1949, just one year prior to Weill's death at age 50, at a time when segregation was still rampant in America. I am thrilled to report my wish came true last weekend at UCLA's Royce Hall when the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, in partnership with CAP UCLA, presented the first Los Angeles performance since the 1950s of LOST IN THE STARS.

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) is widely recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969, and is best known for his play Waiting for Godot which launched his career in theater. He then went on to write numerous successful full-length plays including Endgame in 1957, Krapp's Last Tape in 1958 and Happy Days in 1960, as well as several short, one-act plays. While his plays may not be for everyone, Beckett's works capture the pathos and ironies of modern life, yet still maintain his faith in man's capacity for compassion and survival no matter how absurd his environment may have become.

Santa Monica's Morgan-Wixson Theatre is sharing the comedy so prevalent in Florence Foster Jenkins performances by presenting "GLORIOUS! the True Story of Florence Foster Jenkins, the Worst Singer in The World" written by Peter Quilter through February 5, 2017. It is a hilarious and heart-warming comedy, somewhat similar to the 2016 film Florence Foster Jenkins starring Meryl Streep. As directed by Anne Gesling, and thanks to the brilliant performance of AnnaLisa Erickson as Florence, we get to know the real woman who truly believes she is the best opera singer in the world - with a remarkable ability to ignore the taunts and laughter from her critics and audiences in the pursuit of her dream. Erickson's ability to overplay Florence's brutally imperfect singing and flamboyant physical style to perfection is captivating.

Almost fifteen years ago, Ronnie Marmo pulled together a group of his most talented friends in Los Angeles and created The 68 Cent Crew Company, after having arrived here with 68 cents in his pocket and a head full of dreams. So, when a company member recently asked him what they could do about terrible current events, and about how our country is dealing with racism, perfect timing intervened the following morning when the play A TIME TO KILL came across his desk, and as the father of an 8- year-old child, Marmo knew he needed to present it.

After Penny Fuller approached Barry Kleinbort to create a musical version of Hatcher's play for her to perform as a cabaret artist, 13 Things About Ed Carpolotti was originally developed at The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center Cabaret and Performance Conference in Summer 2012 and had its New York premiere in December 2012. The two have a natural affinity for knowing what works well for both of them, and the musical spark between Fuller and her accompanist Paul Greenwood lights up the stage.

Although Clifford Odets forgotten masterpiece 'Rocket to the Moon' first premiered back in 1938, many of the themes of the Depression-era drama feel totally in step today with our own financial and career woes. With its central character, Ben Stark, (Jesse Steccato) is a dentist stuck in an unhappy marriage and a stagnant dental practice who longs for both more money as well as more passion and joy in his life. Things are set on a collision course with fate when he hires the beautiful, young Cleo Singer (lovely Kristin Couture) as his new receptionist. As his marriage fails and he succumbs to Cleo's flirting, will she be his proverbial rocket to the moon, thus allowing his dreams to come true? And will he be willing to change his life and take the necessary risks in order to make that happen?

In the program notes for the Los Angeles premiere of Benjamin Scheuer's one-man show "The Lion," he states that "a song is a powerful tool for connection. Words are how we think and music is how we feel, so songs allows us to think our feelings and feel our thoughts." As such, he masterfully shares the story of his many struggles in his autobiographical Drama Desk Award-winning solo show at the Geffen Playhouse through February 19.

In his autobiographical comedy, THE GOLDEN GLAZER, iconic TV writer-producer-turned-actor Sy Rosen uses his comedic talents to share a series of funny, at times poignant stories about the joys and horrors of getting older. Rosen covers everything from being out of work and lying about it, to rekindling his marriage, to cryogenics, to going to his 50th high school reunion, to getting his first senior discount. All of these stories are laugh out loud funny and relatable, but it's Rosen's affecting relationship with his mom and her gallant fight against Alzheimer's that ties the whole piece together.

Kentwood Players proudly presents THE IMAGINARY INVALID by Moliere, an outrageous satire of medicine and its practitioners, opening Friday, January 13 through Saturday, February 18, 2017 on Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00pm and Sundays at 2:00pm at the Westchester Playhouse, located at 8301 Hindry Avenue in Westchester, CA 90045. There will be a champagne and dessert reception between 7:00-7:30pm for season subscribers and members attending the Saturday, January 14 performance. The production is directed by Susan Stangl, who just happens to be a medical doctor adding her unique spin to the production, and produced by Sheridan Cole for Kentwood Players. Featured in the cast in alphabetical order are Harold Dershimer, Mitch Feinstein, Drew Fitzsimmons, Sydney Holliday, Daniel Kruger, Zachary Leonard, Aaron Merken, Lezlie Moore, Michele Selin, Beau Smith, and Jenna Tovey.

Much in the same vein as Arthur's Miller The Crucible, DEVIL'S SALT presents a tale about witchcraft in which a young woman is accused of consorting with the devil and forced to give her life just for being who she is, a modern-thinking woman before her time. Jovanka Bach's World Premiere drama, directed and produced by her husband John Stark as a guest production at the Odyssey Theatre, is set in the 17th Century in the King James Colony of Plymouth Bay in New England, a very Puritanical community in which Hannah Mulwray, a young woman who acts as a mid-wife, is brought to trial for witchcraft. Her main accuser, Hooker Wainwright, is the Governor of the colony and a man driven by religious zealotry and his own sexual obsession ignited by witnessing Hannah and her husband William (handsome Robert Brettenaugh) making love in the forest. And since he cannot accept the sexual excitement he feels as anything other than the devil, poor Hannah is doomed to suffer just for being a free-spirited being.

LA Ballet returns the essential holiday tradition of THE NUTCRACKER ballet to hometown audiences during the month of December, including venues in Glendale, Hollywood, Westwood and Redondo Beach. This production is the perfect introduction to classic ballet for the whole family as there are many children of all ages in the cast, all students of Los Angeles Ballet School. And given the number of touring companies bringing productions to Los Angeles, it's nice to be able to support a hometown ballet company where many of the featured dancers were born in our area.

Set in a boxing gym where female boxing phenom Dee Crosby (Suli Holum) is preparing for a whole new fight, THE WHOLEHEARTED looks past the neatly-packaged Cinderella stories of sports coverage into the real world of a woman grappling with lost love and her abusive husband, Charlie, who is being released from prison on the date we meet her. This tale of revenge and redemption addresses the violence of love, the sexuality of sports, and the high cost of fame through the use of live projections, filmed interviews broadcast on an overhead screen resembling a scoreboard. and a thumping rockabilly score to explore the line between personal fantasy and hard reality - and what it takes to be a champion.

Director John DiFusco, himself a Vietnam Veteran, opened the world premiere of Rebecca Stahl's EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN on Veteran's Day 11-11-16 at the Hollywood American Legion Post 43, produced by Karl Risinger and Liberty Theater. The play tells the interrelated tale of four generations of vets, each dealing with their own difficulties, who collaborate to help a Lance Porter, a young veteran coming home from the war in Afghanistan. who is haunted by the loss and experiences that followed him back and are destroying his personal relationships and life as he knew it.

Eugene O'Neill is the only American playwright ever to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature and he is a four-time recipient of the Pulitzer Prize. Between 1920 and 1943, he completed 20 long plays, with several of them double and triple length. And unfortunately, the current Pacific Resident production comes in at over 3 hours, a trying time for a play with such dramatic verbiage that it is necessary to pay full attention throughout since O'Neill's brilliant writing is both incredibly introspective yet often very repetitive. So be sure not to eat a huge meal before attending so the urge to fall asleep does not overtake you.

Surely most theatre folks have seen productions of the fabulous musical THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE, winner of six Tony Awards including Best Musical, making the show the 2002 season's most awarded new show on Broadway, based on the original story and screenplay by Richard Morris for the 1967 Universal Pictures film directed by George Roy Hill and starring Julie Andrews. I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, the current production directed by Anne Gesling for the Y.E.S. Youth/Teen Program at Santa Monica's Morgan-Wixson Theatre is just as good as many adult production I have seen, given the cast's talent, Gesling's spot-on fast-paced direction and fabulous 1920's costuming, Daniel Koh's musical direction creating wonderful cast harmonies, and creative choreography by Lauren Blair.

As a lifelong fan of Frank Sinatra thanks in part to my Mom being one of the bobbysoxers who fawned over him as I did for the Beatles, I was thrilled to jump at the chance to attend SINATRA 101 at the El Portal in Noho on November 26, 2016 at one of the 2 shows they did that date. Since 2011, Matt Mauser and the 101 Big Band led by Pete Jacobs have been playing Frank Sinatra's greatest hits with high-octane arrangements. Their collaboration captures Sinatra at the height of his career at the Sands Hotel in early 1966, backed by Quincy Jones conducting the Count Basie Orchestra.