Don Grigware - Page 58

An uncanny incarnation! A perfect replica! Such have been the reviews worldwide for Sunny Thompson in her remarkable performance as Marilyn Monroe in Greg Thompson's Marilyn Forever Blonde, which played the El Portal Mainstage last weekend to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Monroe's death. The play has gone cross country, even to London, to great acclaim and awards. Thompson has been unanimously praised for her razor sharp recreation. Not only does she look, walk, talk and sing - a better singer than MM - like Marilyn, but she somehow manages to inhabit her thoroughly and channel her emotional fragility to the letter.

OMG! You mean, like, Elle Woods isn't from the San Fernando Valley, but from Malibu? Wow! And- she not only attended college locally but got into Harvard Law School? May seem a bit far-fetched or too hard to swallow, but it doesn't matter, because once you've seen Elle in action, she's irresistible: a cross between Goldie Hawn, Glinda from Wicked and a splash of Mary Poppins thrown in for good measure. You're gonna love her, guys, in this grande spanking, freshly blossomed pink rosebud of a show. If you liked Reese Witherspoon, you will adore perky, gorgeous Jessica Crouch and everyone else in the fantastically sugar-coated romp Legally Blonde The Musical.

Now on its national tour, Memphis docks at the Pantages for two weeks only through August 12, and the production is thrilling from top to bottom with a great book, great score, sensational direction and choreography and a truly fantastic cast of triple threat actors, singers and dancers. Memphis is one those rare shows that gives the audience a realistic picture of radio and the emergence of television as it took possession of the nation in the early 50s.

The New Electric Ballroom is wonderfully theatrical, creating a kind of sensual experience of pain/pleasure one is unlikely to forget - ever.

For the third summer in a row Theatre 40 is turning back time to present a delightfully eerie murder mystery thriller: first, it was Agatha Christie's Black Coffee, then last summer The Spider's Web, and now, from the early twenties, Mary Roberts Rinehart's and Avery Hopwood's The Bat. The current production is not quite as tightly packaged as the previous two, but, despite the play's lengthy exposition and a somewhat slow delivery, it does have guest artist Veronica Cartwright on board, an opulent set and costumes...and, with its thunder and lightning blackouts and creepy images popping up outside the window and in the corridor, it certainly is a whole lot of fun to experience.

Another truly masterful turn - this time as Liza Minnelli - is what Peter Mac presents in his newest tribute show Liza in Concert. Sharing the weekend bill - Thursdays & Fridays through August, with mama Judy Garland on Saturdays and Sundays, Liza has deliciously choice things to say about ex-hubbie Peter Allen, composers Kander & Ebb, and of course, Judy. But mostly, in this show, the emphasis is on singing.

Comic actor/singer Roger Bart won a Tony for playing Snoopy in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and a SAG Award for portraying George Williams on TV's Desperate Housewives. His versatility has also led to voice over work singing as Hercules in the Disney film of the same name. Bart will reprise his Tony nominated role of Carmen Ghia in The Producers at the Hollywood Bowl today, July 27-July 29. In our chat he talks about The Producers, Mel Brooks roles and other theatrical tidbits.

It's a pleasure to see an intelligently written play about sexual identity, one that shows how homosexuality has been affected by the American cultural climate over a 40 year period. But, when the piece goes beyond basic issues and delves deeply into raw human emotions, it comes up all the richer. In fact, Jon Robin Baitz' The Paris Letter with its breathtaking scope and poetic literary style may very well be categorized a new classic, and the current production is rendered so beautifully by a stellar cast and crew at Group rep through September 2.

Cabrillo's impressive reproduction of the 1989 Broadway version of Meet Me in St. Loui is so charmingly rendered, that one puts the movie, Judy Garland and company on a back burner... at least for 2 hours.

Actress/singer Karen Volpe has her own CD at long last called Dinner and a fancy dress. This is an album of all new pop country tunes written by Chuck Pelletier. Volpe's first association with Pelletier was his college musical The Green Room, which has received productions internationally from LA to Ireland. Volpe sang one of the most popular songs in the musical 'It's All About Me'; in fact, she recorded it. And displaying her versatile talent in such other musicals as Funny Girl, The Pajama Game, Oklahoma and GCT's next show Little Shop of Horrors, she has established herself as one of the leading musical actresses to beat, in and around LA.

Comic actor/singer Roger Bart won a Tony for playing Snoopy in You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown and a SAG Award for portraying George Williams on TV's Desperate Housewives. His versatility has also led to voice over work singing as Hercules in the Disney film of the same name. Bart will reprise his Tony nominated role of Carmen Ghia in The Producers at the Hollywood Bowl July 27-29. In our chat he talks about The Producers, Mel Brooks roles and other theatrical tidbits.

The funeral of a baby, the grieving parents look for reasons why their child should be taken from them. Finding no reason but the caprice of fate, the couple moves forward to exercise that caprice on those around them. Their hope for immortality through their child dashed, they will live on through infamy. As one begins in amoral certitude and descends to a moral madness, the other travels the road from moral doubt to a profane confidence to awful self-knowledge, neither losing sight of the love and loss that propelled their actions.

Hardly an easy task to successfully mount Ernest Thompson's heartwarming and funny On Golden Pond, with the 1980 film starring Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda so vivid in the mind! Well, the current mounting at Glendale Centre Theatre, despite a few cracks here and there, is indeed a mostly golden endeavor.

On Friday July 13 and Saturday July 14 Tony Award-winning actor/singer Levi Kreis presented his electric one-man odyssey Up Close and Personal to a packed house at the NoHo Arts Center to benefit both the venue and Independant Music. Consisting mostly of original material from his three albums, there was also a preview of 'Timeless' from a brand new album with a 2013 release. He managed a little patter in between the tunes - just enough for audiences to get a sense of just how personal and easy to like Kreis really is.

It's quite a shame when a well-written, absorbing play has three strikes against it from the onset. Such is the case with The Exorcist by John Pielmeier. The best-selling novel by William Peter Blatty and the 1973 boxoffice blockbuster film of the same name were so powerfully gripping and unforgettable that, with the play coming along 40 years later, for those of us that lived through the nightmare to end all nightmares, we've been there, seen that. For those of a newer, unfamiliar generation, it won't have enough special effects. Wisely, for my generation, the spinning head and green vomit in the original film are not recreated onstage. But, as a result, many may tune out or turn off preferring a midnight screening of the film on Netflix. As I already said, a shame, as Pielmeieir's script is psychologically thrilling on its own, so apt for the mature, questioning adult mind, and the production is extremely well directed by John Doyle and superbly acted by a first-rate ensemble headed by Brooke Shields in her best and most remarkable performance to date. But is all of this enough? Probably not.

Outrageous in design and color, choreography verging on the acrobatic, spectacle, great singing, offbeat, risque humor and miles of heart are certainly enough attributes to call La Cage Aux Folles top-notch.

Legendary actor George Hamilton, a major film star since the late 50s, is currently treading the boards in the national tour of La Cage Aux Folles, opening July 11 at the Pantages Theatre. Known for such film hits as Love at First Bite, Zorro the Gay Blade, All the Fine Young Cannibals, Light in the Piazza, Where the Boys Are, Your Cheatin' Heart, and Crime and Punishment USA, Hamilton has been referred to as more 'famous for his debonair style and his perfect and perpetual suntan'. He admits to it himself and in our chat, with his self-deprecating sense of humor, jokes and tells very amusing anecdotes.

No, Martin Casella's The Irish Curse is not about drinking, although it is alluded to. It's about men and another serious issue, namely the size of their willy... and how a tiny penis can and has caused a raft of problems in the lives of many Irish Catholic men. Now onstage at the Odyssey, the play has spunky, fiery humor, a crafty analysis of contemporary relationships, both straight and gay...and an unexpected keen exploration of how the issue affects our political and cultural world. It boasts a marvelous cast, evenly paced direction and, like The Vagina Monologues, about women and their issues, it should not be missed.

Roger Bean has had such tremendous success with his Marvelous Wonderettes, the musical fable of the all-female singing quartet that began at Springfield High in the 50s and 60s... and, he's done it again. Missy (Misty Cotton), Suzy (Bets Malone), Betty Jean (Jenna Coker-Jones) and Cindy Lou ( Lowe Taylor) are back for their second sequel entitled Marvelous Wonderettes: Caps and Gowns. Now onstage at the Laguna Playhouse, the four gals are still crackling with energy and optimism under the loving eye of director Bean.

DOMA has a big and bold mission statement: enhancing your theatre experience beyond expectations. Competing with Musical Theatre of Los Angeles, MTW (Musical Theatre West) and Cabrillo, just to name a few, it sounds as if their productions will be of a more memorable calibre than the others. If that is an accurate interpretation, their aim is stretched way out of proportion. But...surprisingly, if you look at it from a more realistic angle, it applies most assuredly to my experience. Since this is my first visit to DOMA, I must admit, based on negative word-of-mouth reactions to previous shows, I was unexpectedly and pleasantly impressed with what I saw in their latest production of Jekyll & Hyde. And realizing that part of the talent comes from the college student arena, the result is all the more impressive. Now through July 29, on the stage at the Met in Hollywood, Jekyll & Hyde will play out its intriguing game of good versus evil in DOMA's exceedingly professional looking and sounding representation.