Don Grigware - Page 36

Based on the poetry, diaries and letters of poet Emily Elizabeth Dickinson of Amherst, Massachusetts, William Luce's The Belle of Amherst opened to great acclaim on Broadway in 1976 winning a Tony for its star Julie Harris. Petite like Dickinson herself, Harris continued to play the role for 25 years, again reviving it on tour at the Laguna Playhouse in the year 2000. I am happy to say I saw both the 1976 and 2000 productions, which were indeed mesmerizing. Now at Sierra Madre Playhouse, tall and very unique Ferrell Marshall produces and stars as Emily in a brave and exciting performance through April 23. I can only say that in spite of her physical differences, she pulled me in immediately and in the end made me feel every bit as joyful as when I had seen the play before.

Amanda began her career as an actress in New York City working for the late Sidney Lumet.  Amanda has appeared in numerous films and TV shows and earned a SAG Award for Ensemble Cast for the Academy Award-winning film Crash. Pursuing her real passion, writing, Amanda has learned from the best by working behind the camera for Woody Allen, Bobby Moresco, and David Chase, and in writer's rooms as assistant for Paul Haggis, Todd Field, John Lee Hancock, Mark Johnson, and Gil Adler. Amanda wrote two episodes for the first season of NBC's The Black Donnellys. She has had two feature films produced.  Amanda has written and produced numerous one-act plays.  Most recently, she directed the L. A. production of William Hoffman's 'Cal in Camo' which went on to a critically acclaimed Off-Broadway run. Amanda is raising two sons and splits her time between New York and Los Angeles.

Director Bryan Fox is an award-winning writer, director, and actor, as well as notable photographer whose work has been displayed in gallery shows around the world. Most recently, his photography was shown at the prestigious Art Basel in Miami. Bryan began directing with his short film "Dissonance" which screened throughout the U.S. and opened film festivals in Canada, Italy, Germany, and India. It won over 20 awards including Best Short Film at the Accolade Global Film Competition, Indie Fest Awards, LA Spotlight Film Festival, Waterfront Film Festival, Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival and the Temecula Film Festival. He also wrote and directed the film "We Alone' which took top prize for music video at the Accolade Global Film Festival. Bryan most recently directed an upcoming episode of the web series "Gossip Boy."

Charles Busch is more than just a drag artist; he is a bonafide actor./actress. This has been amply proved through the last 40 years in the performances of his plays off-Broadway and on tour with Vampire Lesbians of Soddom, Psycho Beach Party, and Die, Mommy, Die! among many others. Now in his LA cabaret debut at Rockwell Table and Stage, Busch has added more dimension, more layers to his persona in performance as he exposes himself to the audience from the inside out and comes clean in a dress as … Charles Busch.

Las Vegas Weekly, in naming ABSINTHE the #1 greatest show in Las Vegas history ever, said, "A performance of ABSINTHE is almost criminally fun. It is the domain of the Gazillionaire, the gold-toothed, foul-mouthed, lecherous dirtbag who runs the show. For the entirety of ABSINTHE's 90 wildly entertaining minutes, you feel like you've discovered something new, or stumbled onto a secret meeting of acrobats, dancers and reprobates. And the first thing you want to do after is tell everyone you know."

On Sunday evening March 5 The Beverly Bombshells exploded on the LA scene at Rockwell Table and Stage. This newly formed group that consists of Tiffany Dissette, Heather Lundtstedt O'Neill and Leah Sprecher reworks contemporary pop songs with a 40s style and all new arrangements. It's fresh, it's sassy, and its harmony is delightfully unlike anything you have ever heard. Adele's 'Send My Love' or Lady Gaga's 'Million Reasons' sung to the sound and beat of a swing song like 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B'? Yes, siree! These beautiful ladies have a one.of.a.kind approach laden with pizazz and gusto that takes a contemporary song and transports it back to a time when storytelling wasn't storytelling unless it poked fun at men, at seduction, at romance, at love...in both its sound and its meaning!

Playwrights Steve Shaffer and Mark Schiff have a background as standup comics and a plethora of television experience, so they certainly have an eye and an ear for what is funny. Their little play Married People A Comedy is a series of scenarios involving two couples who are best friends. Each pair has a son whose issues threaten to breakup their marriage, so they turn to group therapy...with much hesitation and trepidation. Currently onstage at the Zephyr Theatre through April 2, Married People has a real grounded base with four resourceful actors portraying nice, average, middle class people with whom audiences can assuredly relate.

Actor, singer, playwright and film historian Charles Busch is a multi-talented artist who has won many awards over the course of  his varied career. Remembered for his plays Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Psycho Beach Party and Die! Mommie Die!, the latter two having been translated to film, Busch never ceases to amaze with his unique style of creativity. On March 13 and 14 he is bringing his act That Girl/That Boy to Rockwell Table and Stage. In our chat, he talks about this cabaret evening along with delightful observations of the theatre and movie world. In a nutshell, tell our readers about what you are doing in That Girl/That Boy at Rockwell on March 13/14. How is the show unlike any show you have ever done?

Finally an extraordinary musical that is high on substance and heart as well as entertainment value! 2015's Tony Winning Best Musical Fun Home is based on Alison Bechdel's graphic novel Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic. The Bechdels are an atypically dysfunctional family living in Pennsylvania. Cartoonist Alison (Kate Shindle) is trying to draw her father Bruce (Robert Petkoff) and to understand why he committed suicide. Currently onstage at the Ahamsnon Theatre through April 1, Fun Home with its emotionally engaging book by Lisa Kron and curiously vibrant music score by Jeanine Tesori, boasts seamless direction from Sam Gold and a wonderfully sensitive cast. 

To say that the musical version of Finding Neverland is a real charmer is an understatement. The book by James Graham retains all of the sweetness of the 2004 film and adds on a delightful theatricality for the stage that just will not quit. One surprising element is the musical score by Gary Barlow and Eliot Kennedy that includes some wonderfully poignant and moving ballads. With sweeping direction by Diane Paulus and a dynamite cast this national touring production is bound to please just about everyone, the young and the young at heart. It plays at the Hollywood Pantages through March 12.

On Sunday, February 19 LA's Next Great Stage Star 2017 Presented by Princess Cruises came to an uber exciting conclusion at the Colony Theatre. After a very entertaining 90-minute program in which the 18 contestants gave 150% to their uptempo songs from Broadway shows, thirteen contestants were eliminated and the top five finalists selected during the first intermission. It was then decided, like the last two years from the consensus of the judges, to add a sixth contestant. Then each of the six proceeded to perform a second number after which the distinguished panel of 18 judges made the final decision during the second intermission. Musical director par excellence Richard Berent accompanied at the piano throughout the three hour show.

Will, your grandpa is a truly great actor, one of the best. What is it like to perform for him? How has he inspired you? Is he attentive to your needs - both giving and constructively critical ... or does he leave you on your own to overcome your own failures? Is he happy or unhappy that you have chosen the acting profession? It isn't particularly different for me having him in the audience. He is an inspirational figure to me because he loves what he does and he works hard. There are many lessons in watching him work at his senior age, and observing his passion to keep moving is an incredible thing. I am very glad we get to have the grandfather-grandson relationship we do, and he is always asking me how he can help or if I have any questions. He has always been my grandpa first, and it is very comforting to know that I have someone who I can ask anything, about life or about the business. I think he is happy for me that I am pursuing my passion, and he sees where my heart is at, in the work and

Actress Judith Light certainly needs no introduction. A familiar face to television audiences, she co-starred in the soap One Life to Live winning two Daytime Emmy Awards and in prime time with Tony Danza in Who's the Boss?She has also won two Tony Awards for her stellar work on Broadway. She is a gay rights activist and she and her husband Robert Desiderio have contributed greatly to the gay community in Los Angeles over the years. Co-starring in Amazon's web series Transparent, she is currently performing double duty: the TV show by day and at night a workshop play God Looked Away at the Pasadena Playhouse sharing the stage with none other than icon Al Pacino. I caught up with her this week, and she talked briefly but joyously about the play, her role in it and working with Pacino.

Let's get one thing perfectly clear from the get.go. Luis Valdez's Zoot Suit which premiered at the Mark Taper Forum and on Broadway in 1978, is a milestone. Broadway had not seen anything quite like it up to that point. First of all, it put Mexicans into the mainstream ... and their Pachuco culture, including their music and dance. In form it's a serious play about the Zoot Suit murders of 1942 in Southern California, but it is laced with humor, song and dance, classifying it in both realms of fact and fantasy. Now, after 39 years, in the 50th anniversary year of Center Theatre Group, Zoot Suit returns in an all new revival, once again directed by the brilliant Valdez. It has a fantastic cast, is high on entertainment value...and its issues do indeed mirror those present in today's politically ruthless world.

Don't cry for Eva! Tim Rice's & Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita has had a thirty-nine year international love affair with the public since it  premiered in 1978 in London and in 1979 on Broadway. The latest revival in regional theatre is currently at MTW in Long Beach. An operetta, or rock opera, with no spoken dialogue, and based on Eva Duarte Peron and husband Juan Peron of Argentina, the story documents the rise to power of a simple peasant girl to the rank - almost - of Vice-President of her country. I say almost because she became too ill to accept the nomination in 1951 and passed into immor

Author Jacqueline T. Lynch has just published Comedy and Tragedy on the Mountain about the Mt. Tom Playhouse in Holyoke, Massachusetts. She interviewed me about three years ago, since I was born and raised in Holyoke and ... since I spent my childhood watching the Valley Players at Mt. Tom. The Players were my mentors for my odyssey through the acting world. It's a fascinating book. Lynch has also written the only biography in existence of movie and musical star Ann Blyth. In the following interview she talks about both books and her life as a writer.

There's nothing like a good old fashioned mystery to keep you on the edge of your theatre seat, especially one that's written by the grande dame of the genre Agatha Christie. The Mousetrap was one of the longest running plays on the West End for umpteen years. As I sat at Group rep Friday night watching Witness for the Prosecution, which is rarely revived, I really tuned in to the dialogue. It is so well constructed, and the dozen or so characters are deliciously humorous. I am happy to report that the new production at Group rep directed by skilled veteran Jules Aaron and starring guest artist Salome Jens and Larry Eisenberg is akin to a jolly good rollercoaster ride. It's delightfully entertaining and can be seen through March 12.

Angelica Page stands quietly stage left and watches a home movie of herself on a giant rear screen. She sees a seemingly innocent little girl running around and playing with her mother Geraldine Page. When the film is over, she steps forward ever so slowly into the spotlight and addresses the audience fearlessly, 'My mother is haunting me.' At that precise moment, we sense we are in good hands. The family talent assuredly has rubbed off on Angelica Page, and we are in for a brilliantly honed theatrical evening.

Award-winning veteran director Jules Aaron has been putting his directorial stamp on plays and musicals for several decades.  Mr. Aaron took time out of his busy schedule to talk with us about his current project, The Group Rep's production of Agatha Christie's New York Critic Circle and Tony award-winning play WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION featuring guest artist Salome Jens, running January 27 through March 12, 2017 at the Lonny Chapman Theatre in North Hollywood.  Last season, Jules Aaron directed the most successful play the Group Rep has ever produced, the sold-out, twice extended musical THAT LOVIN' FEELIN'.

Actor Dan Castellaneta is a familiar face and voice from TV's The Simpsons and The Tracy Ullman Show. He has written a play entitled For Piano and Harpo that will open on February 10 at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank. In our chat he tells us about his past work, the play and what inspired him to write it. Tell us how For Piano and Harpo came about. Were you intrigued by the relationship between Harpo and Oscar Levant? What a frenzy those two must have created together!