Don Grigware - Page 56

Come an hour early to the El Portal Theatre and take a peak inside the lovely small Marilyn Monroe Theatre lobby, adjacent to the Mainstage and peruse the myriad of photos adorning the walls. They represent a delicious collection of candids of the iconic star. Then proceed on in to the Mainstage playing area for the 8 o'clock show ... you will gasp when Sunny Thompson comes on stage in character as MM. You first see her naked on a bed wrapped in silk sheets ...in live photographic implosions as the camera clicks away. The likeness will astound you.  

Carrie the Killer Musical Experience/book by Lawrence D. Cohen/based on the novel by Stephen King/music by Michael Gore & lyrics by Dean Pitchford/directed by Brady Schwind/choreographed by Lee Martino/Los Angeles Theatre/through November

On Monday October 5, zany comedienne/singer Diane Vincent brought her act: Diane and Lucy & Betty: A One Woman Show to an SRO room at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal. The best way to describe Vincent is off.the.wall, wound up tightly like a coil that will spring loose at any second. Watch out! She has a nonstop patter that is infectious, that keeps her fans rolling in the aisles and begging for more. In this show she also showed a lovely way with a ballad, proving that she can bring the volume down several decibels when she should...to great effect.

Transgender actress/singer Alexandra Billings has done quite remarkable work on LA stages over the last decade, as well as being one of the stars of the current amazon TV hit Transparent. She holds nothing back; her acting style is brutally honest. Now through next Sunday only October 11, you can see her new autobiographical cabaret play entitled S/he & Me: A Theatrical Cabaret.

Branden Jacobs-Jenkins is a young, upcoming playwright whose Neighbors back in 2010 was an alluring eye-opener about racism and the human condition. It declared that race is just an illusion, so the outrageous display of some black characters wearing black face and other blacks sublimating their heritage as white wannabes was in the end a painful reminder that a black man is still a black man; he is first and foremost a man who will help to shape a shared human experience.

birthday. He is dying of cancer but is told that he is suffering from a spastic colon. Mendacity. Margaret (Madeline Fair) denies gossip that she and husband Brick (Daniel Kaemon) are sleeping apart. The denial is a lie. Gooper (Todd Andrew Ball) and wife Mae (Kyra Schwartz) swear to have Big Daddy's back. More mendacity. Brick denies unspeakable devotion to football pal Skipper. Mendacity, mendacity, mendacity. The plantation reeks of it. The only truth that exists is that Big Daddy does hate his relationship with Big Mama (Diane Frank) and is not afraid to tell it to the world.The Pollitt family give new meaning to the word dysfunction. Who would want to celebrate anything with them? But somehow Tennessee Williams manages to get us to care for Maggie, Brick, Big Daddy and Big Mama. Gooper, Mae and their no.neck monster children... we can definitely live without. Now in an appealing production at Group rep directed meticulously by L. Flint Esquerra and with an outstanding cast, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof still manages to grab hold and move us.

Perhaps the best known musical of all time Rodgers' and Hammerstein's The Sound of Music has remained a family favorite since the 50s. Number one, the score is to die for; secondly, the book is dramatically fulfilling with a real life family being torn asunder by the ravages of fascism. Touches of real intertwined humor add to the appeal. Under the skillful eye and wisdom of director Jack O'Brien, the new North American touring production is now at the Ahmanson through October and proves thoroughly winning. I wouldn't say there's a totally fresh perspective, but somehow touches of real humanity and love stand out, and the entire ensemble is perfectly cast.

On Sunday September 27 at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal, dancer Mark C. Reis debuted his brand new cabaret show I'd Enjoy Being a Girl...on Broadway. Reis had tremendous success in 2012 with his first show at Sterling's called Diapers, Dishes and Dreams...Stories of a Dancer about his gay married life, which has included raising a small child. It is always a big risk, a bold endeavor to return with a new show, particularly if you veer 360 degrees in another direction. Reis has a great fan following. Since his audience for the most part truly love him, even if he falls on his face, as does a child learning how to walk, they will pick him up and encourage him to try again, to move on. The new show has much promise, but does need further work-shopping and retooling.

Broadway and TV actress/singer Megan Hilty performed a splashy show at Valley Performing Arts Center at CSUN, Northridge on Thursday, September 24 at 8 pm to a packed audience of her fans. Hilty is best remembered for playing Glinda in Wicked for four and a half years - she replaced Kristin Chenoweth on Broadway - and also for premiering the role of Doralee Rhodes, played in the film by Dolly Parton, in  the musical of 9 to 5 at the Ahmanson and on Broadway. She also starred in NBC's musical Smash as actress Ivy Lynn, who creates a Marilyn Monroe character for a fictional musical Bombshell, for two seasons on NBC to great acclaim.

Producers Bruce Robert Harris and Jack W. Batman and The Transfer Group have announced that CARRIE THE MUSICAL will return to Los Angeles at the historic Los Angeles Theatre, the first theatrical musical at that venue. CARRIE THE MUSICAL begins previews on October 1, 2015 and officially opens on October 8, 2015.   

One of Stephen Schwartz's failures The Baker's Wife, which toured extensively across the US in 1976 but never made it to Broadway, had a cast recording with Patti LuPone, Paul Sorvino and Teri Ralston and has had a few revivals including the UK. Why did it bomb? It's a simple, sweet show with a lovely message about human connection and a few pretty ballads, especially the hit 'Meadowlark', but there's a spark missing, nothing really exciting to get people into the seats; it's most definitely not commercial enough for Broadway. Based on the 1938 French film La Femme du Boulanger, that may be the main reason that the show is rarely performed. Now onstage at Actors co-op, Baker's Wife is mounted scrumptiously with terrific direction from Richard Israel and a superlatively cast ensemble.

The inimitable Carole Cook is one of those theatrical greats that...the mere mention of her name makes faces light up. And immediate laughter abounds at the thought of the outrageous things she as said onstage. This fiery redhead legend  - it's OK, she and Lucy were friends - is about to open her night club act - directed by the one and only David Galligan - at Tom Rolla's Gardenia. Miss Cook took time from her rehearsals to sit down and chat about the upcoming show.

Commissioned by the Yale Repertory Theatre and premiering there in 2014, These Paper Bullets by Rolin Jones received 4 Connecticut Critics Awards and has been a highly anticipated arrival this fall at the Geffen Playhouse. Now onstage at the Gil Cates Theater through October 18, the show is a huge, if not over produced, endeavor. Subtitled A Modish Ripoff of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, what we get is Shakespeare's plotline meshed with the music of The Quadros, a group that took the world by storm - not unlike the Beatles - in 1964. So, it's some Shakespearean verse rephrased with a Liverpool dialect, music reminiscent of the Beatles - all original music by Billie Joe Armstrong, front man of Green Day - and overblown satire on the pop culture that resulted, namely the crazy fashion trends and sexual escapades that rattled 1964 London and sent it reeling.

Actress/singer/director Judy Norton began her cabaret act at Sterling's Upstairs at Vitello's in January of 2010 and in my review, I called it 'a stellar show with a true night club star. Norton, best known for her 9 years as daughter Mary Ellen and sister of John Boy on TV's The Waltons, is a versatile singer with a terrific range...and a warm and engaging performer. Gifted and experienced, she is not nervous or phrenetic, making excuses for herself or forgetting her words...no, none of that; Norton is a consummate artist whose selection of songs were guaranteed to entertain her appreciative theatrical audience, which they did in spades. No big ego here; Norton makes you feel right at home.'

The film of Josefina Lopez's Real Women Have Curves in 2002 was a big hit in art houses and won several Sundance prizes including an audience award for Best Actresses Lupe Ontiveros and America Ferrera, long before her Ugly Betty fame. Lopez's semi-autobiographical play from the 90s about the garment industry and the Latina women who struggle to survive in it - the basis for the film - is currently running at the Pasadena Playhouse through October 4 and has terrific direction from Seema Sueko and a closely connected ensemble of five actresses.

Based on Daniel Wallace's 1998 novel and Tim Burton's 2003 film of the same name, Big Fish, with a few minor changes in plot, becomes quite an imaginative musical...with Andrew Lippa, composer of some of the best songs written for a Broadway show in a long time. So, it is hard to imagine why its Broadway run ended after a mere three months. Now in its south coast California debut, Big Fish comes to Moonlight Amphitheatre, Vista with a divine cast directed stylishly by Steven Glaudini and choreographed vibrantly by Karl Warden with sets and costumes from the original New York production. It's a real charmer and another big hit for Moonlight's winning season.

Some shows I can see again and again, especially those composed by the forever upbeat Jerry Herman. Hello Dolly bowed on Broadway when I was a teenager in the 60s and it had a long run with original star Carol Channing, followed by turns with Ethel Merman, Ginger Rogers, Pearl Bailey, Martha Raye and Molly Picon, to name a few. Every major star wanted to do it because the role offers a female actress the chance to sing, dance and act the hell out of it. It's a big, splashy gut buster about a woman who has more moxy than the Pied Piper and enough wisdom and panache to win over an army or a whole kingdom, for that matter...and, for the audience, it's one of those extra-special feel-good musicals that just doesn't quit... for a moment. You leave the theatre actually humming the tunes.Welk Resort's current production of Dolly! in Escondido through November 15 is right on target...it's wondrously delectable.

On Sunday September 6 at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal, Kritzerland Records celebrated its 61st show and 5 year anniversary. On hand were affable host Kritzerland producer Bruce Kimmel, musical director extraordinaire John Boswell at the piano and a bevy of super talented singers who included: Brennley Brown, Hadley Miller, Jenna Lea Rosen, Sami Staitman, Robert Yacko, Damon Kirsche, Darcie Roberts, Sharon McNight, Jason Graae, and special guest star Tony Award winner Sammy Williams. What a cast and what a fabulous evening of entertainment entitled The Songs That Got Away IV!

Welcome to My World, starring Sami Staitman, is the first ever one-girl musical written for and about a fourteen-year-old. The musical will have its world premiere September 10 and continue through September 27, 2015 at the Grove Theatre in Burbank, CA. The Disney Channel's Corey Fogelmanis ("Farkle" on Girl Meets World), who appears as a Special Guest on the show's upcoming Kritzerland Records' CD Cast recording, will be on hand opening weekend for a private Meet & Greet with fans who have donated to the production. The show is created and directed by prolific Bruce Kimmel, surely no stranger to LA theatre.