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January 14, 2002 Vol. 4 No. 9
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| Romeo Hall and Juliet Oates by Don Grigware Could you ever conceive of Shakespeare's lyricism blending smoothly with the lyrics of Hall and Oates? Or would you expect to hear Romeo sing "Your Kiss Is On My List" to Juliet? The magnificent Troubadour Theater Company proves just how well they can fracture the Bard's plays and convert them into musicals. Take for example A Midsummer Saturday Night's Fever Dream, which was a gigantic hit last year at the Falcon Theatre in Toluca Lake. So, without further ado, the Falcon proudly presents the return of the Troubadour Theatre Company with Romeo Hall and Juliet Oates. Shakespeare's words in Romeo and Juliet are condensed, but the plot remains in tact, and the great Hall and Oates' rock songs of the 80s like "She's Gone" serve to enhance the enjoyment of the piece. The masked ball comes to life with "Won't You Smile Awhile For Me," replacing Sara with Julie for Juliet. The actors do absurd things as in improv and at times some gross behavior ensues, such as spraying the audience with cheese puffs, but it's all harmless, innocent childsplay, and the audience buys into it totally. The brilliant Matt Walker, who performed in A Christmas Carol with the San Diego Rep in 2000, serves as director and plays both Mercutio and Paris. A trained clown and mimist, he won the prestigious LA Critics Award for the Troubador's production of Twelfth Dog Night also at the Falcon. In a big, over the top portrayal, a la Jim Carrey, the wired Walker leads the pack through its hour and a half romp with skill and panache. Not enough praise can be heaped upon this great performer. Fun and surprises galore are dished out as well by company members Rick Batalla as Romeo, Meleney Humphrey as Juliet (She even plays the balcony!), Beth Kennedy as Lady Oates (with the Joan Crawford, Mommie Dearest look), and Michelle Anne Johnson as Nurse.(Check out that dental plan!). Great work also comes from Mike Teele, Tim Groff, Michael Sulprizio and Jordan Savage. Come just to reminisce and boogie down with those splendid Hall and Oates hits. You'll get caught up in all the silly antics of the company - guaranteed! For sheer physicality on a scale of one to ten, they rate a twenty! More Theatre by Archie Rothman The Doolittle Theatre reopens with West Coast premiere of Israel Horovitz's My Old Lady. The Mark Taper Forum, faced with holdovers of its current hit Flower Drum Song, has been forced to move a scheduled play My Old Lady into the dormant James A. Doolite Theatre on Vine and Hollywood. And it was a smart move. The Doolittle never looked better, cleaned and refurbished, and spruced up with new seats, and just the right size for its new production. My Old Lady is an ideal play to reopen the Doolittle. As directed by David Esbjornson, with a striking set design of an old and once-elegant Paris apartment by John Lee Beatty, My Old Lady has the appearance of being a big hit. What makes this production really work is the excellent cast featuring Peter Friedman, Jan Maxwell and Sian Phillips. Friedman is perfect as the "born loser." Maxwell makes her unsympathetic character poignant and touching. And Philllips plays the title role with award-winning artistry. The plot is provocative. Arriving in Paris to claim the luxurious apartment his father bequeathed him, a down-on-his-luck American, Mathias (played by Friedman) hopes for a rapid sale of this prime piece of property until he meets the very French, very determined 94-year-old Mathilde (played by Phillips) who was lent the apartment by Mathias' father when they were lovers. Mathias also meets Mathilde's equally intractable daughter Chloe (played by Maxwell) who lives with her mother in the apartment. As the play unfolds we learn that Mathias' mother committed suicide over her husband, Mathias' father's secret and long love affair with Mathilde. When Mathias falls in love with Chloe, Mathilde confesses that they are both hers and Mathias' father, making them brother and sister. I congratulate all involved with this production and urge you to see it. Sexual-themed plays attract large audiences and are held over again and again. Is this a trend? In the past stage, screen and television shied away from using material dealing with controversial subject matter. That's all changed. In recent years an ever-growing flood of productions depicting all forms of sex have been so successful that they have been held over repeatedly. Here are some recent examples: On TV Will and Grace, about a very gay roommate, and his very gay male friend, and their relationship with a straight girl friend, has been in the top ten for years. On cable an English import, the very bold and explicit Queer as Folk, now enters its second year gaining in popularity. Trolls, about a group of gay friends who gather together to party and mourn their dead gay friend, has been held over again at West Hollywood's Coast Playhouse. Pinafore, a gay version of Gilbert & Sullivan's classic comedy, has been packing them in for many months at the Celebration Theatre. Strip/Tease, filled with male frontal nudity, has extended its run at the Hudson Guild Theatre till February. And now there's a new play, called Callboy, that explicitly deals with male hustlers indulging in sex, drugs and drink. It's at a new theatre, Coleman & Smith Artistic Co., on Santa Monica Blvds. theatre row. With more conventional entertainments finding it difficult to attract audiences (especially after Sept. 11) it's interesting that the above productions are finding such great audience popularity. Pete's Garage by Hank Rosenfeld So much depends upon a bunch of Cheril's (Cheryl Hawker) "Baby Butter- fingers" in a bowl, the magenta "Aquanet" on her kitchen counter, and especially a 1964 Sears Silvertone Radio. These and all the other wonderful details build up in Joe Keyes' tough and tender play about a smalltown Minnesota pressure-cooker. Inside Pete's Garage taking hilarious turns are the alcoholic title character's neighbors, played to the hilt with a hoot by Maile Flanagan, Andrea Hutchman, Rich Hutchman, Pat O'Brien, Peter Carlin, Laura Carson, and Hawker. Keyes can't help but write sharp and funny lines - his credits include co-writing "Bob's Office Party," another matchless comedy featuring many of these fine Buzzworks Theater Co. talents. Hawker and Rich Hutchman are nothing less than revelations as gentle-hearted lovers -- "Will you love me forever?" she wonders. "I already do," he coos. Hutchman is Clayton, a slow-wit who loves ketchup and mustard sandwiches. And though his character makes nothing but wrong moves the entire play, Hutchman, throwing darts, offering a rat's nest as a gift, or catching his foot in a chinchilla cage - never makes a wrong move physically. It is a sublime performance. Hawker is Pete's wife, full of love and worry and adorable as a daruma doll in her Betty Crocker blue. The tear-filled tenderness with which she tells how much she hates Pete's guts is almost as moving as the little pat of her red hair she gives when looking out of the garage to see if anyone's watching. But it is Keyes, as the nasty drunk in the grease monkey suit behind the open garage door - he drinks so early and often that Cheril says he's even "backed into a belt sander and burned the wallet off his ass" who offers something else as Pete: an intense sadness that turns all our laughter into gut level queasiness. With his neck sticking out like Yertle the Turtle as his world is about to collapse under him, and guided with crackerjack timing by never-a-dull-moment director Melissa Denton, Keyes is one of those dangerous actors who can combine laconic storytelling with the coiled spring of a snake. From the unmistakeable "psshhh" of a pop top off a can of Tab to Cheril's sweet memory of playing darts at the bar's midweek fish feed, Keye's details are the delight of this play. Rutabagas grown in sheep manure, flea jelly brought home from the hardware store, and a package of pot roast floating in a baggie in the back of a toilet, have never dazzled so. (Not to mention the new meaning he brings to meat beating.) It is still mourning in America, but the American beauties gathered in Pete's Garage offer us freshly comic clues on how to move on. Lights! Tab! Action! (Not that you'd want to live next door to them....) |
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