Talk To Me Photos - Off-Broadway

What did our critic think of ELLIOT & ME at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre? There's a lot of brotherly love, some good songs, professional actors, and an appealing story going on at Chagrin Valley Little Theatre!

In the 50s and 60s during the Cold War nuclear panic, mathematician Tom Lehrer became an international comedy sensation as he sang twisted tunes that satirized war, pornography, race, kink, death, religion, the environment, education and politics. I've been a fan of Lehrer's creative musical musings for many years. So I decided to chat with comedian and actor Allan Murray who tickles the ivories and brings Lehrer and his acid-tinged ditties to life during this year's Hollywood Fringe Festival in his World Premiere of THE LAYERS OF TOM LEHRER.

The whole “Peanuts” gang is here—Lucy, Linus, Snoopy, and of course, that wishy-washy blockhead, Charlie Brown. He’s never pitched a winning baseball game and he can’t muster the courage to talk to the Little-Red Haired Girl. But all his best qualities—and those of his clever friends—get celebrated in this delightful musical filled with such gleeful tunes as 'My Blanket and Me,' 'Suppertime' and 'Happiness.'

With a lovely intro by Janet Roston, the Director, Choreographer and Artistic Director of Mixed eMotions Theatrix, standing outside on a beautiful California sunny day atop the Glendale Library and Arts Center grounds in Glendale, we are given a verbal road map about what we are about to see. The setting alone makes me want to take the trip already. Such a beautiful location to watch dancers experience the freeing and exhilarating feeling of dancing or flying through the air with the freedom of no walls, barriers or roadblocks in and around natural surroundings with beautiful architecture and sculptured landscaping to form patterns around.

Dogs Are Better Than People, written and performed by Sarah Hunter, and developed and directed by Jessica Lynn Johnson, is an eccentric romp through drinking, bad men, and fabulous dogs who each tell Sarah’s story. But why, you may ask, does Sarah Hunter truly believe that Dogs are better than people? I spoke with her to find out