Don Grigware - Page 64

On Sunday January 15 producers Michael Sterling and Tony Monsour presented the second week of the annual six-week competition LA's Next Great Stage Star 2012, now in its sixth knockout year. Twenty very talented contestants are competing for the title which will be announced at the end of the finale on Sunday February 12.

Incredible to believe but the Palm Springs Follies is in its 21st season with an all new production called Hot!Hot!Hot! Equally unbelievable is the fact that I have seen and reviewed 10 of these shows since 2005, which means I've returned sometimes twice in one season. I'm really hooked on the Follies. You know why? It's one-of-a-kind. There's nothing like it anywhere. It has beautiful ladies - and none under 60. It has stunning gentlemen - the youngest ... 58 years young. These folks can dance and sing and lead the parade as if they were still in their prime. Well, I guess they are, and age, like the saying goes, is just a state of mind - at least if you look that good. Their music includes the good old standards of the 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s-songs that they truly know how to sing, because they grew up listening to and singing them. And of course, those glorious costumes are simply gorgeous to look at! The performers, the music, the costumes - is that enough? Hell, yes!

It is common knowledge that a movie director's vision shapes the outcome of a film, meaning that irregardless of the quality of the actors' performances, film is most assuredly the director's medium. Now in translating Tennessee Williams' screenplay Baby Doll to the stage, Joel Daavid is proof positive that the director is in control. Starting as the one-act 27 Wagons Full of Cotten, when adapted into the film Baby Doll, director Elia Kazan made the atmosphere of place just as important a character as Archie, Flora and Silva. Daavid is determined with his amazingly ample and mood- perfect stage set to transport the audience into the delapidated world of Tiger Tail, Miss. of the late 50s, and cinematically, he does just that. Using an ensemble of actors who play townsfolk to double as ghosts around Archie's run-down homestead is Daavid's original perspective, not a part of Kazan's movie. Some may question the stylized manner in which these characters move around within an otherwise gritty, realistic play, but one thing is for sure: Daavid's re-envisioning does create an undeniably eerie mood that enhances the uncertainty of destiny so apparent at the play's core. The themes of Where to go? and what to do? echo throughout.

Sam Harris has perfected a pretty good stand-up act over the years. He loves to expound on everything from show business and Liza Minnelli ... to surgeries and artificial body parts ... to dieting and even whine about how a toddler can radically alter one's comfortable lifestyle...he's into sharing news, issues, trends, gossip...take his New Year's resolutions over the course of three years: 'Don't look back!...Don't look!...Don't.' In there somewhere is a valuable lesson on how to downsize. Wait a minute, does all this jabber need a point? Even if he says absolutely nothing, Harris' greatest talent is to entertain, to put on a show. And that he blessedly does. As witnessed by Saturday evening's joyful Sam Harris & Friends on the El Portal Mainstage, boy oh boy, he can also still SING! So can all of his guests: Tony winner Levi Kreis, David Burnham, Todd Schroeder and Olivier/Ovation winner Lesli Margherita. It's been a while since I've seen this much overwhelmingly glorious talent assembled on one stage.

Brought up on The Carol Burnett Show and Saturday Night Live, I love sketch comedy. It makes its point rather fast, and if it's really, really funny, you don't have to be hit over the head more than once to buy into it. Zombie Joe's Underground (ZJU) Theatre Group in NoHo is specializing in some off-the-wall, upbeat sketches in their Christmas Thrills and High Adventure, now onstage Fridays at 11 pm through December 30.

The Best in LA Theatre for 2011 (alphabetical listings) (artists performing outside LA may be included in performance categories)

For those who prefer theatre with a message, this is your play; for those who prefer a screamingly funny time, you've also come to the right place - Joe Marshall's The Gayest Christmas Pageant Ever! is now making its West Coast premiere at the Avery Schreiber Theatre. Yes, it's sacrilegious, irreverent, so no one is spared, yet it's a play with a whole lot of tolerance and love for everyone. With a tightly-knit cast and meticulous direction from Paul Storiale, this Christmas Pageant should run annually for many years to come.

What turns a Christmas song into a classic? Firstly, the music & lyrics become instantly recognizable. Secondly, it triggers in the listener an image or memory of real happiness. Third, it immediately makes him want to sing along. Actor/dancer Jeffrey Cornell's Everything Christmas, his personal collection of original compositions through the years has a few such future classics... like listening to the score of a Broadway show, there's a big, dramatic pulsating orchestral sound...and, the lyrics are uplifting, infusing you with peace, heart and love, feelings that only Christmas can generate.

First published in 2006, The Story of Hollywood was the recipient of the National Best Books Award 2007, and was also a Film, TV, Radio IPPY Silver Medal Winner 2007. Leonard Maltin has given the book his highest recommendation, and Los Angeles magazine calls The Story of Hollywood the best book on the neighborhood to come out this decade.

GMCLA (Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles) annually present the best holiday concert in town. Honoring both Chanukah and Christmas, this year's show entitled Naughty & Nice was most definitely more nice than naughty with special guest artist Melissa Manchester at the top of her form. There were most definitely fun shenanigans though in the mildly naughty department. Take for example the off-center'Chanukah in Santa Monica', the raucous stomp number 'Christmas This Year' closing the first half, and those Malibu Monks doing their unbelievably dextrous thing by turning over those lyric cards with split-second timing on the 'Hallelujah Chorus' (see photo below).

Vicki Lewis, best known to audiences for her role as Beth on the hit NBC comedy Newsradio, as well as her work in feature length animation (Finding Nemo, Alpha and Omega) and for her star turns as Velma Kelly in the Broadway production of Chicago and as Gloria Thorpe in the Broadway revival of Damn Yankees announces the release of an EP of four Christmas songs titled Santa's Little Helper, with all of the proceeds from sales of the EP going to support the Los Angeles organization Project Angel Food.

In the tradition of the British Panto, brought so successfully to the Los Angeles stage in 2010 via Cinderella, the Lythgoe family return this year with A Snow White Christmas. British Panto, short for Pantomime, is an interactive show with music for the entire family and based on a fairytale. The music incorporated is the latest craze, and the jokes used are always relevant to current cultural trends. The main goal is to bring the family unit together for entertainment.

'Original: No Artificiality' intones in song Sahr Ngaujah as Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and human rights activist (1938-1997). Originality in everything was indeed what Kuti represented. He travelled the world and not only brought innovations to music with his Afrobeat, but also through exposure to American Black Powerattempted to fight European imperialism and 'change the world'. He unsuccessfully ran for President of Nigeria. In 1977 his mother Funmilayo (Melanie Marshall) was violently assassinated and his wives brutally attacked and raped by the Nigerian military. Despite rejection and humiliation, he never gave up fighting until his death in 1997.

Tribute artist Peter Mac as Judy Garland is motivation enough to go on down to the Gardenia for a fun-filled evening of entertainment, and with Christmas fast approaching, what could be more pleasurable than a stroll down memory lane and TV's delightfully homespun The Judy Garland Christmas Special. In that very show audience get to see a really youngish Liza Minnelli (Glory Gale), a young Lorna Luft (Alissa Cote) and little brother Joey Luft (not so little David Marker). And very special guest star - this was pre Golden Girls - Bea Arthur (D. J. Schaefer), who camps it up buddy-style with la Garland.

At Christmas I do my best to avoid seeing Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Bah, humbug! I've seen so many theatre and film productions of it and even played parts in it as an actor, and as timeless and wonderful as it is, people forget that there are other rarely done Christmas plays and musicals just begging to be mounted. I made an exception this year, went to Mrs. Scrooge The Musical in Santa Monica, and am so glad I did. There is something about Diane Namm's script and the imaginative execution of it that creates a thoroughly captivating experience - its tunes, the actors, twists in the story... and the overall contemporary upbeat ambiance. It's a joyful, tuneful ride.

White Christmas is always a treat on film (1954) and even brighter on stage. The touring and original Broadway productions, which played Los Angeles only once at the Pantages in 2005, were gloriously directed by Walter Bobbie and choreographed by Randy Skinner, who turns the second act opener 'I Love a Piano' into one of the most inventive and lively tap sequences ever. Now on stage at Segerstrom Hall, Costa Mesa the new touring company under the banner Theatre of the Stars Atlanta has supplied this production with meticulous director Norb Joerder, and wisely brought back Randy Skinner for his brilliant Tony Award nominated choreography. The sturdy acting company makes this production a sublimely frothy confection playing through New Year's Day January 1, 2012.

With such memorable Christmas shows before it like It's a Stevie Wonderful Life, Santa Claus Is Comin' to MOTOWN andFrosty the Snow Manilow, A Christmas Westside Story joins the ranks of the Troubies' very, very best. Why? Because everyone's now classic film favorite A Christmas Story blends perfectly with everyone's favorite music from Westside Story. Both entail the pangs of growing up. What better base for drama? And both depict violence - Westside Story on a bigger scale, but there's assuredly more than a glimmer of it in A Christmas Story.

On Sunday evening December 11, actress Thea Gill, well known for Showtime's Queer as Folk, made her cabaret debut at Sterling's Upstairs at Vitello's. This stunning beauty can really sing and her show entitled Body and Soul allowed her avenues as singer/actress that she truly loves, but has little opportunity to explore. Directed by David Galligan and with slick choreographic moves by Lee Martino, Gill captivated her audience with a sensuality, style and glamor reminiscent of cabaret's heyday, but now sorely missing. Think the pure sexuality of Lana Turner and the vocal prowess of Ruth Etting, and you come close to the inimitable way Thea Gill presents herself. With fab Grammy Award-winning Gail Deadrick at the piano, Ed Livingstone on bass and Robert Miller on drums, the 65-minute set could not have been smoother.

Sam and Bella Spewack's My Three Angels is one of those black yet heartwarming Christmas comedies, akin to It's A Wonderful Life, that really digs into the underbelly of the human condition. Christmas is never joyful for those facing unsettling economic and personal problems that cry out for even a temporary solution. Remedy? Out of the blue come three uniquely different convicts on a work release program who take jobs with a shopkeeper and his family on Devil's Island. They may begin with menial jobs, but through their darkly scheming, treacherous manner end up producing miracles. Now on stage at Group rep in NoHo, Larry Eisenberg's production of My Three Angels emanates heart and soul guaranteed to make it a truly big hit this holiday season.