Don Grigware - Page 80

2013 BWW Award winner for Best Female Cabaret Artist, Joan Ryan will perform her acclaimed night club show On the Edge on Sunday June 1 at Catalina Jazz Club with special guest star Eric McCormack. The show will benefit The Trevor Project. In our chat, Ryan discusses the show, her music and theatrical career.

What do the 1950s have in common with 1912? Ages of innocence, both. When Meredith Willson wrote his story with Franklin Lacey about a con artist bamboozling an Iowa town in 1912, which formed the substance of his musical The Music Man (1957), the effect became like that of N. Richard Nash's The Rainmaker. People were jubilant, ecstatic and welcomed Professor Harold Hill, as they craved a good old-fashioned love story coated with ironic excitement. He was a charmer, and they saw way past his bad side. Now in a jubilant new production at GCT, the company pulls out all the stops and yet presents a delightfully down.to.earth show that keeps the flavor of Meredith Willson in tact. With fast-paced direction from Valerie Rachelle and a terrific cast led by Brent Schindele, The Music Man offers a refreshing look at the way life should be.

It's always nice to revisit a show and see a 100% improvement. Such is the case with the rewritten spoof A Big Gay North Hollywood Wedding at Crown City Theatre, which opened May 15 for an extended run, at least throughout the summer. The first time around - 2009 - (review below) I noticed a lot of missed opportunities for big laughs. With an exceedingly strong cast and a really sturdy ending which puts the whole issue of being gay centerstage in a totally positive way, this new version hits the top.

On Sunday May 18 at Sterling's Upstairs at the Federal phenomenal Broadway singer Terri White brought down the house with her all new cabaret show Two Score with musical direction by the incomparable Bryan Miller. The slightly under one hour set marked the second appearance, by popular demand, of the singer, whose versatility, powerhouse vocal instrument, striking sense of humor and unbeatable warmth place her among the great night club performers of all time. There isn't anything she can't do. She's acted, sung, danced...played an instrument? Well, she gives even that her very best shot in Two Score.

Think Thornton Wilder's Our Town. Move the action ahead a century or so, adding Asian Americans and Mexican-Americans to the Anglo-Saxon mix and you come out with a very contemporary perspective of a small American town in Kimber Lee's different words for the same thing, beautifully staged by director Neel Keller. In fact, the entire staging with set pieces moved or carried on and off by the 12-member cast to make the houses, stores, school playground, church, cemetery and other interiors/exteriors of the Idaho town come to life in the vast space is what first brought Our Town to mind. I could see/feel the big picture before getting into the smaller ones. These are highly personal scenarios, some quiet/passive, others volatile. Some scenes are practically blackouts with little or no dialogue... but the all-encompassing thread keeping them connected bristles with furrows of emotional tension. Very cinematic! The effect is overwhelming, almost like divine intervention. Now onstage at the Kirk Douglas Theatre through June 1, this world-premiere play cries out to be experienced.

Night club entertainer extraordinaire Neile Adams will appear May 24 and 25 for two performances only at the El Portal in her acclaimed night club show, fresh from Paris, France. In our chat she talks about her fascinating background, marriage to Steve McQueen and her passion for music.

Unorganized Crime/by Kenny D'Aquila/directed by David Fofi/Elephant Theatre/through May 31

The Ghost of Gershwin/A New Old-Fashioned Musical/book by Doug Haverty/music by Wayland Pickard/lyrics by Wayland Pickard & Laura Manning/directed by Jules Aaron/Group rep at Lonny Chapman Theatre, NoHo/through June 22

The Ghost of Gershwin, a new old-fashioned musical, will open Friday, May 9th at the Lonny Chapman Theatre located on the edge of the NoHo Arts District.

Two character plays about love and friendship over time like Same Time, Next Year by Bernard Slade and Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry are A-list treasures. Their lack of pretension and real humanity make them linger quite joyously in the mind. In spite of some wonderful moments, Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks by Richard Alfieri is not quite at that level. As in a sitcom, many of the reactions are too quick and ready-made...and the outcome relies heavily on illness and sympathy to keep the two characters connected; but despite its flaws, the play is enormously entertaining and appealing in the right hands. What makes the current Laguna Playhouse production so memorable is the pairing of film legend Leslie Caron with 6-time Ovation Award winner David Engel, both known for their superior reliability with a dance step or two.

Wake/by Carey Crim/directed by Matt Kirkwood/SeaGlass Theatre at the Fremont Centre Theatre, Pasadena/through May 25

Tarzan The Stage Musical/book by David Henry Hwang/based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' story 'Tarzan of the Apes' and the Disney film/music and lyrics by Phil Collins/directed by Erik Austin/El Portal, Monroe Forum Theatre/through May 18

The Tallest Tree in the Forest/written & performed by Daniel Beaty/directed by Moises Kaufman/Mark Taper Forum/through May 25

Ruth Draper's Monologues/written by Ruth Draper/directed & performed by Annette Bening/Geffen Playhouse/through May 18

Come Back, Little Sheba/by William Inge/directed by Geoff Elliott and Julia Rodriguez-Elliott/a Noise Within, Pasadena/through May 17

S'Wonderful:The New Gershwin Musical//written & directed by Ray Roderick/MTW (Musical Theatre West) at Carpenter Performing Arts Center, Long Beach/through April 20