Don Grigware - Page 78

Actress Stephanie Zimbalist certainly needs no introduction. With her star turn on Remington Steele on TV in the 80s, her multiple MOWs and frequent stage appearances all over the country, she is an actor in demand. In this conversation she talks about the challenges of playing Katharine Hepburn in Matthew Lombardo's Tea at Five, which she recently completed for the Rubicon in Ventura and is about to open at the Falcon Theatre in Burbank on October 22.

Based on his 2001 best seller about his relationship with the late great Lucille Ball, I Loved Lucy by Lee Tannen is now a one-act two character play, receiving its world premiere at Laguna Playhouse. It's a somewhat witty, but mostly bittersweet look at an aging star and how she deals with the emptiness of her later years.

Enough comparisons with sister Barbra Streisand! Roslyn Kind is her very own special creation, a singer's singer whose star shines brightly with its individual sparkling light. Based on her performance @ the Catalina Jazz Club Friday October 8, Ms. Kind, apart from possessing a uniquely sizzling vocal style, is warm, funny and joyous, sharing that joy with each and every one of her countless fans, including those in attendance such as legendary singers Linda Hopkins and Diahann Carroll.

'Gimme, gimme now!' perfectly describes Stiltz!, a comic musical fable showing the negativity of greed, power and fame. Though flawed the show has some terrific tunes from Deborah Johnson and a fine cast under Wayland Pickard and Doug Engalla's steadily fast-paced direction.

It's the late 70s. Oversized mockup stereo speakers adorn both sides of the Freud stage as part of the set for They're Playing Our Song. At opening curtain Jason Alexander enters, not to start the scene, but to give the downbeat as conductor of the overture. The back part of the set that serves as a window and skyline of New York City converts to a screen and the audience is treated to a retrospective slide show of 70s pop culture. Redford and Newman, Sonny and Cher, Lee Majors and Farrah, Ron Howard and Henry Winkler as Fonzie, Charlie's Angels...the list goes on. A fun and flavorful beginning to a wonderfully nostalgic evening of theatre that marks the first production of Reprise's 14th season.

This is first and foremost not a sequel to Brad Lemack's 2002 book. The new book concentrates on the changing landscape, the tremendous changes in technology that have opened up and are now available to today's blossoming actor. Divided into 15 chapters, there is a foreward by Lemack's first client, popular actress Isabel Sanford, now deceased, of The Jeffersons fame. Sanford at a younger age is a perfect example of the student of acting that Lemack is trying to reach in his guidebook. If you are ever to be successful in your acting career, you must be a businessman and know show business from the inside out. Talent and a desire to act is only the beginning; you must have a plan and shape that plan with some wise choices.

Taylor Tracey was a top five finalist in LA's Next Great Stage Star 2010, and one of its youngest. This gal has a truly dazzling voice. She can belt out a big number like 'The Name of the Game' from Mama Mia and deliver ever so gently as with Jason Robert Brown's beautiful 'What It Means To Be a Friend' from 13. On Sunday September 26, Tracey brought the house down @ Sterling's and proved why she made the top five of this year's contest.

I will say upfront that I have never been a great fan of Phantom. I have always found it hokey in part, even though it has pretty music and some dazzling effects. This touring production, I must admit, has held up fairly well after so many years, and the production is fresh and vibrant - more vibrant, with one major exception, than the production that I first saw in LA in the late eighties (1986-first performed in the UK).

Popular TV/ film/Broadway actor Monte Markham will play Antony in a scene from Antony and Cleopatra for CART (California Artists Radio Theatre) on October 9 at the Beverly Garland Hotel in NoHo at 1:30 pm. Markham is well known to TV/film audiences for his consistent work in TV series, MOWs and theatrical movies for the last 50 years. He is also producer/director of a series of acclaimed documentaries which have changed the face of Cable TV, since before the History Channel began. He started his Broadway career in 1973 co-starring in song and dance with Debbie Reynolds in the musical Irene, for which he won the prestigious Theatre World Award. In our interview he concentrates on his roots in and passion for theatre, and may I add with tremendous intelligence, wit and integrity.

For those who grew up in the 60s, it is easy to see why Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park (1963) was such a tremendous hit. Corie Banks Bratter (Melissa Soso) and Paul Bratter (Christian Kehoe) are the young newlyweds next-door, that everyone can relate to. Typical as well, they have day vs. night personalities. She is as sparkling, fun-loving and open-minded as he is sedate, serious and closed-in. They are different, but in the long run it does not get in the way. Today, sadly, they might actually divorce and never reconcile: alas , who knows? Differences are more the style in 2010, so they might just make it. After all, a young couple in love had and still do have hopes and dreams. That fact will never change. Simon's crisp dialogue and funny offbeat situations are certainly as timely as ever , and in GROUP rep's stunning production, the look and feel of the 60s are kept vibrantly alive thanks to a great cast and Stan Mazin's meticulous expertise as director.

When it first premiered on the West End in 1989 and then on Broadway in 1991, Miss Saigon won over critics and public alike with its bold operatic score and absorbing story of the Viet Nam War and its aftermath. Almost twenty years later it is as relevant as ever and Moonlight's stunning production could not be better.

Actress/singer Stephanie J. Block who recently starred on Broadway in The Boy From Oz, The Pirate Queen and 9 to 5: The Musical, as well as winning a Helen Hayes Award for playing Elphaba in the National Tour of Wicked, is about to open the new season on September 28 of Reprise Theatre Company co-starring with Jason Alexander in They're Playing Our Song. In our chat she talks about Song, Sondheim and other theatrical passions.

Provocative, imaginative material about sexual abuse, despite its uneasy and controversial nature, can fascinate, and this world premiere Mysterious Skin @ East West Players begs to be seen.

(Johnson with musical partner Wayland Pickard in one of their Legendary Duets collaborations.) Prolific musician Deborah Johnson has composed the music for an exciting new musical Stiltz! set to open Friday, September 24 at the Actors Forum Theatre in NoHo. On Stiltz!, Johnson also serves as musical director. Her partner Wayland Pickard (in photo above), another virtuoso, is co-directing the musical with Doug Engalla.

Fans of John Steinbeck will not want to miss this delightful parody of Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men. Lenny becomes an unwanted member of the Joad family, boss Curly is a lady and the Joads are as determined a family as ever to beat poverty in Oklahoma and find their little patch of green earth in sunny California. SeaGlass proves once again that they are a top-notch theatre company to be reckoned with, making the West coast premiere of Of Grapes and Nuts a wicked classic all by itself.