Don Grigware - Page 28

Actress Peri Gilpin, best known as Roz on the now classic TV series Frasier, is currently preparing to open at the Pasadena Playhouse in a radio play of Miracle on 34th Street December 15. She took time out of her busy schedule to talk about her role in the play, her director Cameron Watson... and of course, Frasier. LET'S TALK ABOUT MIRACLE ON 34th STREET AND YOUR ROLE IN IT. I am playing Doris Walker in a Radio Play version of the 1947 film MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET at Pasadena Playhouse. The way the story was told has always struck me as very original. It's almost like a commercial for a sermon about a commercial for a department store. But, because it never denies that about itself it stays relevant, rooted in authenticity, and honest. It also feels so American. Doris is a very buttoned -up single Mom. She works as an EXPERT P.R.' ( public relations) person for Macy's department store. This working, single mom with a high powered job doesn't feel anachronistic if you are familiar with Katharine Hepburn or Maureen O'Hara, the original Doris Walker, movies, but by

I never feel let down when I attend An Evening of Classic Broadway at Rockwell Table and Stage. The singers are incredibly talented, led by lovely producer Dianne Fraser and delightful musical director Brad Ellis. Ellis narrates, introduces many of the guests and inserts delicious anecdotes about the performers and the music being played. This show on Tuesday November 28 was no exception. With Christmas only a few weeks away, Christmas music was expected. However, many were just as happy as the radio is inundated with holiday music. This is Broadway and what we got were some fabulous songs from shows both present and past.

Actor Bennett Saltzman is a new member of Group rep in NoHo, but has already played two leads in a row in the last two plays. He has been critically and publically praised for Lost in Yonkers and the current Midsummer Night's Dream. Saltzman talks about his young past and about his love for his craft. Tell us about yourself. Where you were born and grew up and how your love of theatre began.

others/directed by Des McAnuff/choreography by Sergio Trujillo/music supervision by Ron Melrose/La Jolla Playhouse, Mandell Weiss Theatre/extended through December 24 The world premiere musical SUMMER: The Donna Summer Musical currently onstage at the Mandell Weiss Theatre of the La Jolla Playhouse, extended again through December 24, is a kaleidascope of fun and a feast for the eyes and ears for every Donna Summer fan. Born in 1948 LaDonna Adrian Gaines who eventually became the Queen of Disco used to skip high school classes in Boston Massachusetts and take the bus to New York to audition. She landed her first professional gig in the rock musical Hair and performed it in Munich where she created a sensation. Her hit song 'I Feel Love' brought her back to the US...and the rest is history.

Triple threat performer David Engel needs no introduction. He is one of the top 5 musical stars on local stages and has won multiple Ovation Awards in the process. He is currently preparing to open White Christmas for two weeks at Musical Theatre West (MTW) Saturday December 2. In our chat he tells us about the show and why MTW is so important to him. How many times have you done this role? What attracts you to it? This is my sixth time performing White Christmas. 10 years ago I toured with the

Something Rotten/book by Karey Kirkpatrick and John O'Farrell/music & lyrics by Wayne Kirkpatrick and Karey Kirkpatrick/directed by Casey Nicholaw/Ahmanson Theatre/through December 31 What if someone told you you get to see Pippin, The Producers, Book of Mormon and other great musicals all together in one show? Yes, Something Rotten which goes back in time to 16th century Renaissance, incorporates elements of all the great contemporary musicals under one roof. Now at the Ahmanson, Something Rotten is clever and a cure for what ails you, so don't miss it through December 31!

A Midsummer Night's Dream is a Shakesperean treasure as it unites reality with fantasy in a dreamlike manner that puts audience in a happy mood, perfect for the holidays at hand. Now onstage at Group rep in NoHo, the play is directed by classically trained actor/director Marc Singer, who creates a gratifying production onstage through December 31. This is an ambitious project for Group rep who normally do their best work with Neil

Remember the classic 1983 film in which little Ralphie Parker (Griffin Sanford) in a small town in Indiana in 1940 wants a BB gun and formulates an elaborate plan to get one from Santa Claus? 'You'll shoot your eye out!' everyone complains. The movie contains one of the funniest scenes on film where little Flick (Jude Gomez) gets his tongue frozen on the school flag pole. Now in a rare production of the adapted movie script by Philip Grecian, A Christmas Story is live onstage with a bevy of kids, 14 in fact, and a whole lot of quaint antics, meticulously directed by artistic director Christian Lebano, at SMP through December 31.

lyrics by Alan & Marilyn Bergman/music by: Bill Cantos & Mari Falcone, Dave Grusin, Marvin Hamlisch, Michel Legrand and Johnny Mandel/Geffen Playhouse/Gil Cates Theater/through December 17 When I first heard about the premise of Chasing Mem'ries, I thought, 'Oh no, a musical about death and grieving...and with a ghost on tap...spare us!' Well, sometimes first thoughts are terribly wrong. As it turns out Josh Ravetch's world premiere is a complete joy to watch. Ravetch skillfully directs, allowing the brilliant Tyne Daly plenty of space to pursue her journey as Victoria. Also starring Robert Forster as Franklin and Scott Kradolfer as their son Mason, this piece not only tugs at your heartstrings but will make you cherish every moment of living, through December 17 at the Gil Cates Theater of the Geffen Playhouse. Subtitled A Different Kind of Musical, ...Mem'ries is more a play with music in which the songs, some old, some new, generate the memories that Victoria experiences in the attic of her Connecticut home on the day of Franklin's memorial. With lyrics by the sensational Alan and Marilyn Bergman, it's hard to go wr

The famed Musical Theatre Guild performed a staged reading on November 12 at the Alex Theatre in Glendale of the musical Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. Based on the 1988 film of the same name by Pedro Almodovar, the book for the musical is by Jeffrey Lane and the music by David Yazbek. When the show played in New York about 5 years ago, it was problematic. Mounted first at Lincoln Center it gradually moved to the Belasco and closed within a couple of months, due to critics and audience who claimed they found the plot difficult to follow.

Alfred Uhry's 1987 Pulitzer-Prize winning play Driving Miss Daisy is receiving a rare and outstanding revival at the Colony Theatre starring Donna Mills. It originally played off-Broadway and was filmed in 1989 with Jessica Tandy. The play recounts the relationship between Daisy Werthan (Mills) a white Southern Jewish woman and her African-American chauffeur Hoke Colburn (Arthur Richardson). This current production plays the Colony through December 10 only.

Kaufman and Hart's broad satire on the bizarre world of internationally famous critic Alexander Woollcott, here called Sheridan Whiteside (Greg Martin), when his egocentric life collides with the day to day humdrum lives of the Stanley family of Mesalia, Ohio in 1936 is rarely produced due to its large cast of wildly divergent characters and dated humor. Funny it is, exceedingly funny, but only to those who understand the references to the events and people of the 30s. Now, in a finely staged production at Actors Co-op, The Man Who Came to Dinner, like the playwrights' other smash hit You Can't Take It With You, shows just how dull life would be without flagrant eccentricity and staunch individuality.

Actor/director Marc Singer was a household name in the 80s with his big screen role as the Beastmaster in a series of theatrical films. He was also popular on the small screen in the series V, among others. Today he is still a working actor in demand and is a member of Group rep Theatre in NoHo where he is currently rehearsing their next production of A Midsummer Night's Dream to open November 17. Singer will play Oberon and also direct the piece. He took time out of his busy schedule to sit down and talk about his love of Shakespeare, Midsummer and some of his career highlights.

Known for his rich baritone voice on LA stages for the past several years, Robert Yacko made his solo concert debut entitled Opening Doors at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal Sunday October 29. In spite of the Dodger game, he attracted a good sized audience who hung on very note and lyric. Skillfully directed by Bruce Kimmel, who is no stranger to Yacko, as he has appeared in many Kritzerland shows, the concert/cabaret explored the highlights of Yacko's life and career from South Philly to New York and on to LA.

Linda Kerns has a made a name for herself as both an actress and director. As an actress: Broadway: NINE (Original Cast), Big River, National Tours: Les Miserables, Beauty and the Beast (LA), Wicked (LA). The movie TITANIC, LAWeekly Award (Best Musical Performance) for Into the Woods at Actors Co-op. As a director: World Premiere Matthew Goldsby's Makin' Hay, Pride and Prejudice, I Do, I Do!, And Then There Were None, Going to St. Ives, among others. She is currently directing the classic The Man Who Came to Dinner at Actors Co-op to open Friday November 3.

It baffles me when singers have a CD release party and then sing everything except the contents of the album. Even worse is not bothering to share with the audience the deep need to record it. And then they expect you to buy it! Go figure! Such was not the case at the Federal in NoHo for the solo concert debut of beautiful singer/actress Jean Louisa Kelly who literally sang the entire CD minus one song* and devoted the concert to her parents, husband and two children. Kelly is a joy to look at and has a wonderfully full and powerful vocal instrument that she uses to perfection. It doesn't hurt that all of your arrangements are composed by the brilliant Todd Schroeder who also served as musical director at the piano for the show that ran just under an hour at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal Sunday night October 22 to a packed house of adoring fans.

Lin-Manuel Miranda's Tony and Grammy Award-winning show In the Heights had a lot to shout about when it played Broadway in 2008...in fact, it still does. First of all, it's a musical with and about Latinos - way overdue -plus it has a terrific book with a heartwarming storyline about a closely knit community. That's right, a real community, one that boasts a bevy of exceedingly real and likeable characters. Miranda also created a varied score with ballads & traditional pop melodies and salsa meshed together with rap. MTW brings In the Heights to The Carpenter Center with a dynamite cast and slick direction by Benjamin Perez . It's full-out, enjoyable fare!

Steve Martin's and Edie Brickell's Bright Star played Broadway in 2016, garnering a Tony nomination for Carmen Cusack. The show fared somewhat well, but did not seem to be an overall critics' choice. On the minus side, it is an all too familiar story about a backwoods pregnant girl and parental abuse in the 1920s, with far-fetched resolutions and a sweet, but for many, saccharine ending. In spite of this, I was delighted with the bluegrass music by Martin and Brickell, with Walter Bobbie's fluid staging and with the performances. It's most definitely uplifting and an entertaining evening at the Ahmanson through November 19.

Is He Dead?/by Mark Twain/adapted by David Ives/Glendale Center Theatre (GCT)/directed by Todd Nielsen/through November 18 GCT loves doing seasonal shows. Since it's only weeks away from Halloween, what could be more fun than a melodramatic and satirical romp that focuses on a nasty villain and a man in a dress? Mark Twain wrote Is He Dead? in 1898 but the incredible fact is it wasn't published until 2003. Adapted by David Ives it received a production on Broadway in 2007 starring Norbert Leo Butz.

CHRISTINE DUNFORD made her directorial debut with last year's production of Good People at the Hudson Guild. She trained as an actor at Juilliard, making her debut in Joe Papp's Two Gentlemen of Verona. Broadway: Serious Money. Off-Broadway: Love's Labors Lost (Public Theater);Serious Money (Public Theater);Tamara; Infidelities (Primary Stages.) LA: I Carry Your Heart (BootlegTheater);The Cryptogram; Old Neighborhood (Geffen Playhouse);7Blow Jobs; Erotic Curtsies (Bottom's Dream Theater Company); Vanya & Sonia & Masha & Spike (Edgemar Theater.) Film: Ulee's Gold Love & Basketball American Dream Bandit Hound Hello Herman August Creek and award-winning shorts Dos Corazones and Lost People of Mountain Village. Ms. Dunford has appeared in over 100 episodes of television. Series Regular: Good Sports Bob Hudson Street Something So Right and Secret Lives of Men . Guest Star: The Gifted, Longmire, The Mentalist, Bones: & many others. Solo Performance: HBO Aspen Comedy Festival. She is currently directing a production of Donald Margulies' Collected Stories to open at the Dorie Theater at the Complex Friday October 13.