December 2006 Archives

Do I have your attention yet?

No, actually the practice of placing an actor of a given ethnic background into a part not normally associated with that background , (eg Dustin Hoffman IS Muhammad Ali) isn't the flashpoint it once was. It's fairly common practice in a city with theater landscape as culturally diverse as L.A.

So here's from the press release announcing East West Players production of Terrence McNally's "Master Class" to open Feb. 7 at the David Henry Hwang Theatre in Little Tokyo. (Info: (213) 625-7000 or visit www.eastwestplayers.org.)

"East West Players’ production of 'Master Class' will break down the casting barrier with an all Asian American cast, featuring Jeanne Sakata as Maria Callas with Randy Guiaya, Linda Igarashi, Tess Linda, Marc Macalintal, Maegan McConnell, Timothy Ford Murphy, Alden Ray, and Isabella Way."

A bit of background for those who don't know the play. "Master Class" dramatizes an aged and no longer vocally thunderous Callas teaching a master class, and bullying the stuffing out of the poor sods stuck under her tutelage while also reminiscing about her own life. It's a play that folks around these parts remember largely because of the performance of Zoe Caldwell who originated the role and played it at the Mark Taper Forum and later on Broadway (where she won a Tony award).

I did not happen to catch Miss Caldwell because at the time (we're talking 1995), I was a theater goer rather than a theater critic, which meant I had to pay for tickets. And, as I remember, I could not buy a ticket to the Taper production because there were no seats to be sold. As in sold out, forget it, see ya next summer. So a year or so later, when a "Master Class" tour rolled through town, I ended up seeing Faye Dunaway in the part.

But I digress.

Whatever else she was, Maria Callas was not, to the best of my knowledge, Asian American. That fact, of course, makes no difference to director Jules Aaron or the company. Color blind casting is what East West Players _ among the premiere Asian American companies in the nation _ does. The same would probably happen if the company elected to produce "A Raisin in the Sun" or "Zoot Suit." (Don't hold your breath).

My question, then, is not whether EWP should be staging this show, but whether Aaron plans to in any way acknowledge the production's cultural overlay. I'll also be wondering what yet another actor _ any actor _ can make of an Everest role like Ms. Callas.

Guess I'll have to wait 'til February to find out.

OK, so the Geffen folks made me wait all of one day to give me their "Speed-the-Plow" cast.

It is Jon Tenney as studio mogul Bobby Gould, Greg Germann as Gould's croney Charlie Fox and Alicia Silverstone as Karen the secretary. The play hinges on Bobby's decision to green light a sure fire schlock-buster or _ per Karen's suggestion _ an adaptation of a novel about the end of the world.

I've seen Tenny on stage before, though I have to go back a few years: to 1989, in fact, when he played Romeo in "R and J" at San Diego's Old Globe Theatre. Germann ("Talladega Nights," "Friends with Money") has got stage credentials, too. He's a member of NY's Circle Repertory Co. and Ensemble Studio Theatre. He's pretty much etched himself in my brain as the goofily sexist law partner Richard Fish on "Alley McBeal."

Silverstone, meanwhile, is fast becoming the Geffen's Mamet go-to girl. She was in last year's production of the playwright's "Boston Marriage," playing a semi-clueless (sorry, couldn't resist it) maid in the midst of a love spat/ scheme between a couple of upper crust New England ladies.

In that earlier play, Silverstone used an Irish accent and had to be in full lobotomized react mode. More will be required of her amidst the Hollywood sharks of "Speed-the-Plow."

"Speed-the-Plow" opens Feb. 7. Visit www.GeffenPlayhouse.com. for more info.

It may be a bit misleading for Deaf West to tease us with the announcement of their "FIRST NEW PRODUCTION SINCE THE NATIONAL TOUR OF BIG RIVER."

Granted, NoHo's Deaf West space on Lankershim hasn't housed an actual Deaf West production in quite some time. You've got to go back to CJ Jones's solo show "What Are You...Deaf?" in May of 2004 and the children's show "For the Love of Ducks" (Nov. '05) . Meantime, the company opened "Open Window," co-produced with the Pasadena Playhouse and performed on that stage, and kept "Big River" rolling across the country for more than a year from June '04 to '05 (including a stop at the Ahmanson).

So, OK, the bow of Samuel Beckett's "Krapp's Last Tape" and Edward Albee's "A Zoo Story" should make for an interesting evening, what with deaf actors and company regulars Troy Kotsur and Tyrone Giordano among the cast. Deaf West is titling the evening "Contemporary Classics: A Night of One-Act Plays." It opens Jan. 12. Check out www.deafwest.org for more info.

And everybody's especially anticipating the company's new musical "Sleeping Beauty Wakes" featuring the music of GroovLlily, co produced by Center Theatre Group and coming to the Kirk Douglas Theatre in April of '07.

One final note: it's a little bittersweet to receive Deaf West news from someone other than the theater's longtime publicist Kim Garfield who passed away this year. As will be the case with news from the Fountain, A Noise Within, I'll hear about productions, casting, etc....and I'll think of Kim.

My spam filter, which typically filters absolutely nothing, grabbed the latest casting notice out of the Geffen Playhouse because it contained the word...

... hold on to your seat here...

Nazis (eek!).

Meaning, apparently, that anybody can infect my beloved hardware with all measures of viruses, but throw in the word Nazi, and my computer balks. Go figure.

Back to the news...

Seems there's a Gestapo interrogator in Jeffrey Hatcher's play "A Picasso" which is set in 1941 during the German occupation _by Nazis, eek! _ of Paris. So this art critic turned interrogator tries to make Picasso authenticate three of his works.

Roma Downy (late of the tube's "Touched by an Angel") plays the interrogator and Peter Michael Goetz will be P.P. Theatre Producing Director Gilbert Cates directs. The production opens Feb. 11.

The production was scheduled to be on the Geffen mainstage, but flipped to the 117 seat Audrey Skirball Kenis space when the Geffen administrative brass realized the bigger house earning potential of the solo act Prince Leia Tells All (aka Carrie Fisher's "Wishful Drinking.")

I was not, alas, able to pry any casting tidbits out of the Geffen for David Mamet's "Speed the Plow," which opens the same week as "A Picasso" on the mainstage. "Speed the Plow," it will be remembered, is Mamet's take on Hollywood and originally starred Ron Silver, Joe Mantegna and Madonna.

Randall Arney, the Geffen's Artistic Director, and one of L.A.'s best, will take the helm on this production. For his "All My Sons" last year, he got Len Carriou, Laurie Metcalf and Neil Patrick Harris. That production was one of the year's best, so, yes, I'm jazzed to see who he gets for "Plow."

One thing we do know: two of the players won't be Roma Downy or Peter Michael Goetz.

OK, so earlier this month, the Pasadena Playhouse announces that its musical adaptation of "Sister Act" has become the top grossing production in the theater's history eclipsing the previous top grosser _ which also happened to be its last production _ August Wilson's "Fences" with Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett.

The "Sister Act" tally as of Dec. 7: $1,085,929 eclipsing $1,062,801for "Fences." Apparently the Playhouse audiences do indeed like their musicals. ("Sisterella" and "Play On" were previous blockbusters).

Let me repeat that: $1.085,929 million for the first four weeks of the run. Think of the worst movie you've ever seen. It probably earned triple that amount in its first two days. Kinda makes one think. About what, I'm not sure.

Readers may or may not recall that, while I enjoyed "Sister Act" enough to 3 star it, I didn't flip over it. There's a knockout number called "The Lady in the Long Black Dress" and a lot of entertaining Alan Menken songs framing the story of a Vegas lounge singer who hides out in a convent after she witnesses a murder.

This one will go to Atlanta, and may from thence make it to Broadway. Viewers have a few more days to check it out in the Rose City where it runs through Saturday.

Tix are steep on this one: $75 to $94, but I notice that L.A. Stage Alliance's LAStageTix is offering half price seats on select performances of the "Act."

L.A. Stage Alliance and its half priced service is a useful site, BTW. http://www.lastagealliance.com/. Check it out.

OK, so like the bio says, I go to the theater. Quite a lot, in fact. If you're reading this, perhaps you do the same. That's a good thing. Really. Live performance is pretty much the only facet of the arts that can never move to the Net. If you're anywhere other than in that auditorium watching that show, natch, it's not live.

If you've read my reviews in the Daily News or elsewhere, you've probably heard me blather on at some length about the necessity of supporting live theater in this town. We've got more companies producing plays in this town on a yearly basis than, oh, name your geography. Per square inch, we've probably got every city in the nation beat. Except maybe New York. When you pay your $10 to $15 bucks (or more. Granted, it can get expensive), you're encouraging Tinseltown's little wallflower of a cousin to get up on that dance floor and show what she's got. You're getting some cult-cha. And everybody needs cult-cha.

So 'nuff said on that topic.

I'll be using this space to let you know about programing, casting, anything I think is remotely noteworthy. I'll throw in some live family stuff from time to time because I've got an almost 8 year old who accompanies me on these jaunts from time to time.

You can tell me about productions you've seen as well that you think I should see or should shun (or see and crucify; that's fun too). Can't guarantee I'll get to everything. I'm only one person, after all, but go ahead and persuade me. Don't tell me about what other papers/critics have written (are you hearing me, publicists?); I frankly I don't care. Tell me why YOU personally think this is worth getting up off the couch, skipping the multiplex and plunking down the extra coins.

And before anybody asks, sorry, I got no tips for prime "Wicked" tix.

Thanks for reading folks. Play on!

E.