“NOISES OFF” HAS SEEN ITS DAY

 Michael Frayn’s 1982 “Noises Off’, currently at the Old Globe on the Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage  through Aug. 10th is billed ‘as the funniest show ever’. 

It’s a farce; it’s loud and can be  side splitting funny at times. To love farce, patience and perseverance are needed to endure the door slamming, which is essential, as is the hysterical, over the top behavior beyond any logical reasoning. 

Farce isn’t about logical reason. It’s about repetition, which makes farce, farcical because by definition farce is about “absurdity, slapstick and exaggeration” of which this show has more than enough.

“Noises Off” is a play within a play that captures a touring theatre troupe’s production of “Nothing On”  in three stages: dress rehearsal, the opening performance, and the performance toward the end of a disastrous run.

The Cast of Noises Off

When we first meet the cast, which is excellent, they are in their final dress rehearsal. If you know anything about the theatre you can tell at a glance that they are clearly not ready for prime time. In fact, they are not quite ready for anything, not even entrances and exits, of which there are OH! so many. 

To be brief if I may: Mrs. Clackett/Dotty (Linda Mugleston) is in charge of Belinda (Bryonha Marie) and Frederick’s (Jefferson Mays) house while they are on holiday; young Brooke (Michelle Veintimilla) is Garry’s (Nehal Joshi) sex toy  girlfriend. Gary is a real estate salesperson who can’t remember his lines. Both find  themselves in Fred and Belinda’s house for a little romp in one of the (ahem) empty bedrooms. 

Abby Leigh Huffstetler (top of Stairs) Orville Mendoza, Jefferson Mays, Linda Mugleston and Beyonha Marie

They think no one is home and will have the house to themselves.  SURPRISE! Belinda and Fred sneak home hoping for some much needed R&R only to find Brooke and Garry running about like banshees. Chaos ensues; the two couples who think they are alone go on a door slamming junket trying to find each other that’s ear splitting.

Poppy (Abby Leigh Huffstetler) is the assistant stage manager who is blamed for just about everything and blurts out that she’s pregnant with Lloyd’s baby. Selsdon (Orville Mendoza), likes to have a nip or two or three between his time on stage and waiting in the wings. Lloyd Dallas (James Waterston) is the director who is trying to hold his motley group together and is carrying on extra affairs with Poppy, Dotty and Brooke while planning for his next directorial job, the staging of “Richard III”. 

Jefferson Mays

Along with  flubbed lines, missed cues, falling trousers, tax evasion, sardines (yes sardines) real and imagined affairs and a director, ready to tear his hair out, a disappearing, deaf as a coot alcoholic and would be thief, lost contact lenses, and an out of control stage manager who thinks the director is in love with her,  hilarious behind the scene peek that is pee in pants funny, it is more slapstick and buffoonery than farce. 

In Act II Todd Rosenthal’s huge set is turned around while we see the mishigas and craziness from a backstage perspective. We can see and hear the actors on stage somewhat but the fun is in watching the antics of the actors backstage as they wait to go on stage. 

Michelle Veintimilla, Nehal Joshi, Linda Mugleston, Bryonha Marie, Jefferson Mays and James Waterston 

Some pretty raunchy and very funny stuff happens while the actors are waiting their turns to go on. Between all the hysterical running to and fro up and down stairs, (just watching Jefferson Mays hopping two flights of stair with his trousers down by his ankles is worth the price of a ticket) in and out of rooms and misunderstood conversations, the play within the play now on stage is headed for disaster. The actors are also on the verge of hating one another. 

Act III takes place a month later and the tour has about run its course. We are now looking at the front of house and watching a performance of “Nothing On”, the same performance we saw during the tech’s, only this time the scene deconstructs and all hell breaks loose while the actors lose it.

They can’t remember their lines. Brooke can’t find her contact (it seems to be just in one eye), Selsdon is drinking more than ever, the actors are at each other’s throats, Lloyd is after assistant stage manager Tim (Matthew Patrick Davis) to get some flowers for Brooke, the scenery starts to fall apart, costumes (Izumi Inaba) are manhandled and the unruly becomes the norm. It’s quite funny and clever to see the deterioration and roll back of the act unfold. Sound design by Connor Wang and stunts by Jacob Grigolia Rosenbaum are to be commended. 

Jefferson Mays, Linda Mugleston and Nehal Joshi

As Stephen Sondheim asks in one of his most popular of tunes (“Send In The Clowns”), “Don’t You Love Farce?” My answer is “Well, sometimes”. In this case, not so much. 

This production under director Gordon Greenberg is certainly  funny. In fact, so funny that at times I was unable to hear all the lines since  the audience was just eating it up. I don’t have a problem with the direction or the acting. My problem is with the play itself. The gags are old, the play is old and has seen its day. At one time it might have been the funniest show ever… but not so much now. 

Enjoy. 

See you at the theatre.

When:  Runs through Aug. 3. 7 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays

Where: Donald and Darlene Shiley Stage, Old Globe Theatre, 1363 Old Globe Way, San Diego

Tickets: $54-$143

Photo: Rich Soublet II

Phone: 619-234-5623

Online: theoldglobe.org

“A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE” SIMMERS WITH PASSION UNDER THE SURFACE.

 Backyard Renaissance Theatre Company is staging a sizzling production of Tennessee Williams “A Streetcar Named Desire” through July 12th. 

Starring Megan Carmitchel as Stella Kowalsky, Jessica John as her sister Blanche DuBois and Francis Gercke as Stanley Kowalski, Stella's husband, this dynamic trio shouts excellence.

Megan Carmitchel and Jessica john

Under Rob Lutfy’s self -assured direction, Williams’ ‘Desire’, which has not been produced in San Diego since 2008, sheds a different, more sexy, physical and sensual undercurrent on its characters.

Jessica John and Francis Gercke

This is not your 1947 movie that made Marlon Brando a star. No! This is an in your face production, where in the end, you are exhausted; spent and heartbroken to see this wounded image of a woman, hoping to find a place for herself among a dysfunctional family far from the illusionary life and grand plantation, Belle Reve, she once called home. She is also broke and out of work as an English schoolteacher.  

With no place else to go Blanche  is forced to live with her sister and her husband in a rundown section of New Orleans in a two bedroom downstairs apartment (Yi Chien Lee) with little or no privacy.

Francis Gercke and Megan Carmitchel

Blanche is constantly criticizing Stanley’s brawny behavior, calling him bestial and animal like.  She  aggravates him with every move she makes, cascading around like the Southern bell she used to be. Would that she could know the consequences of the nit picking! And little did she understand the deep feelings Stella has for Stanley. 

Markuz Rodriguez, Megan Carmitchel, Layth Haddad, Jessica John

Francis Gercke and MJ Sieber

In her own self -absorption, she missed the clues around her and fell into a trap of her own making. Stanley was not done with her yet.

With a  solid gold cast, BYR has stretched the limits of what a perfect production can be when the entire cast is in harmony with each other and under  Lutfy’s direction one doesn’t just watch the characters in ‘Streetcar’ develop, one feels it from the knot in your stomach to the hair raising follicles in your arms.  

When Gercke’s Stanley tells Blanche to stop calling him a Polack, every vein in his forearms to his neck strains with rage. Blanch looks horrified and  in her own inimitable southern belle way,  excuses herself to the bathroom to take a relaxing bath. 

As talented and gifted as John is, she has sunk her teeth into this roll and never looked back. Her heartbreaking recollection of how her first husband killed himself, to her softness in almost desperation, having her own ‘gentleman caller’, one of Stanley’s poker buddies, Mitch (MJ Sieber), to her falling deeper into the abyss when Stanley rapes her to her submitting peacefully the doctor at the end of the play, it’s difficult to top her performance. 

Jessica John and MJ Sieber

Megan Carmitchel’s Stella is also at the top of her game as she struggles with  Blanche’s love and Stanley’s possessiveness, trying to balance the two, like being on a seesaw. Unlike Blanche, Stella takes Stanley’s abuse only to come back for some heated sex. The passion between them sizzles. 

Gercke never tries to imitate Brando. That would be his undoing. No, Gercke’s Stanley goes deeper than the S T E L L A A call of the wild. Gercke’s Stanley is a planner, always thinking of what harm he can do to Blanche’s psyche. 

Rounding out the cast, the ensemble includes: Markuz Rodriguez, Dianne Yvette, actor/singer Faith Carrion, Layth Haddad, William Huffaker. They play multiple roles 

Megan Carmitchel, Francis Gercke and Jessica John

    

Lighting designer Curtis Mueller brings both light and darkness as needed, costume designed by Hannah Meade and Jessica John Gercke, and dialect instructor Susanne Sulby gets an A+ for John’s southern accent and co sound designers Evan Easton and composer Steven Leffue create an impressive soundscape including that never ending ‘Streetcar Named Desire’.

Just as an FYI. The production runs a bit over three hours with two fifteen minute intermissions. It’s worth it ‘because I can’t imagine anyone else taking on this great of a project. 

Jessica John

Hat’s off to Backyard Renaissance Theatre. 

Enjoy

See you at the theatre.

When: Thursdays through Saturdays; 3 p.m. Sundays. (Also 7:30 p.m. Wednesday July 2 and 7 p.m. Monday July 7; no performances July 4-5). Through July 12.

Where: Tenth Avenue Arts Center, 930 Tenth Ave., San Diego

Photo: Daren Scott

Tickets: $20-$50

Phone: 760-975-7189

Online: backyardrenaissance.com

“BIRTHDAY CANDLES” AT NORTH COAST REP. TOUCHES HOME.

 North Coast Repertory Theatre in Solana Beach is presenting Noah Haidle’s “Birthday Candles”, a tender little memory play about traditions and growing older gracefully. 

In Director David Ellenstein’s deft hands six actors portray twelve characters as they age before our eyes with not so much as a costume change (Danita Lee). 

The first time we meet Ernestine Ashworth (Margot White) she is celebrating her 17th birthday and her mother, following family tradition, is baking her a birthday cake. 

Over the course of 90 minutes Ernestine will celebrate almost 100 birthday’s, each scene exploring her roles as daughter, wife, (she marries her childhood sweetheart) mother, grandmother, neighbor, great-grandmother, and stranger.

Martin Kildare and Kate Karel

All the characters come and go in a flash as time passes: the children grow older, move away, get married, and have their own children. 

Each year they come with their families, to Ernestine’s house for the celebratory making of the birthday cake all the while, White is baking a golden vanilla birthday cake right in front  of our eyes. 

The children bicker and play. Lackadaisical Billy, (Matthew Grondin) the oldest practices the piano until one day is proficient. They all get older, move on, go to college. Daughter Madeline (Katie Karel) suffers from depression, Ernestine’s husband Matt (Martin Kildare) has an affair right under her nose but neighbor Kenneth (James Newcomb) has always loved her from afar. He gives her the first of many(103) Goldfish for a present.

Margot White and James Newcomb

Time passes, and through it all Ernestine wages forward as many of her loved ones pass away and before we know it she is over 100 and just at the end of her own life. While it is sad that she is ready, she is smart enough know when to make her exit. 

The cleverness of “Birthday Candles” is that no one changes costume, but do change demeanor or slip on a pair of glasses,  or look a little shrunken, perhaps walk a bit slower. The only character who looked dapper to the end was Kenneth, always with a flashy bow tie (Danita Lee).

James Newcomb and Margot White with one of the many goldfish

Thinking about “Birthday Candles” made my heart flutter when Ernestine turned 88; my magic number. Getting older is no easy fete. Every day is a challenge and Ernestine was up to it.

Mary Burnett, as always does wonders on the long stage at NCR. There is an all -white working kitchen, with cupboards filled with spices and all the accouterments needed for baking, a stove that works  and a mix master that blends the ingrediencies throughout as the play gives us snapshots of each passing year. 

Did I mention that at the end of the play the theatre was selling birthday cakes and cupcakes that were all baked by Margot White?

Matthew Novotny designed the lighting and Ian Scot, the sound.  

“Birthday Candles” carries a serious message of looking at the bright side of life, but it’s done in a light hearted way. 

Enjoy!

See you at the theatre.

When: 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday; 2 and 7 p.m. and Sunday through July 6th. 

Photo: Aaron Rumley

Where: North Coast Repertory Theatre, 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach

Tickets: $57-$79

Phone: 858-481-1055

Online: northcoastrep.org

THE GLOBE’S “THE JANEIAD”: A STUDY IN COMPASSION, GRIEF AND RENEWAL.

 I can remember exactly where I was on Sept. 11th 2021. It’s etched in my brain as it is for almost everyone old enough to remember or has seen the repeats on TV. 

In Anna Ziegler’s new play “The Janeiad”, premiering at the Old Globe through July 13th, Jane is a married woman with two children living in Brooklyn. She sends her husband Gabe off to work on this particular morning, and never sees him again. He never comes home, and nothing of his or him is ever recovered. Gabe worked in The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan, when two planes flew into them and obliterated everything and everyone who worked there including 343 members of the New York Fire Dept. and New York Fire Patrol. 

Nadine Malouf and Michaela Watkins

That’s when Jane gets the phone call from Gabe who tells her that he is stuck in his building in the South Tower and sees smoke, but worse, looking out the window….and then the phone goes dead. 

Ten years later, Jane (Michaela Watkins)  is still in a daze; in limbo, living in the same Brownstone she and Gabe had occupied, keeping busy mostly by waiting for Gabe (Ryan Vasquez) to return home. She's living between waiting and sleeping. She sends her children off to school and she puts hr cluttered house in order.  She has fallen asleep in her favorite blue chair (Tim Mackabee) while reading the Odyssey, her book club’s choice. 

Michaela Watkins and Nadine Malouf

Juxtaposed into this picture, Penelope (Nadine Malouf), wife of Odysseus appears and shares with Jane that she too had waited for her husband, who went off to war. She waited for twenty years when he finally showed up; no explanations. She encourages Jane to have patience, and ‘wait’. “I don’t want to wait.” “But you will, and it will need 20 years of patience and trust.” 

Throughout the years of waiting, and wading through life, Jane gets an assortment of visitors and phone calls, from her rabbi, her sister, a family friend,  her distant but bossy mother, her cleaning woman who comes once a week, her Yoga instructor and her inquisitive realtor, among others.

Nadine Malouf Michaela Watkins and Ryan Vasquez

Director Maggie Burrows, who deftly directs “The Janeiad”, has her hands on the pulse of both Jane and Penelope as Penelope circles the Sheryl And Harvey White Theatre (in the round) seamlessly changing characters ( Including those mentioned above) with  a different accent, or slight costume change. Malouf is simply outstanding as she toggles back and forth between being Jane’s best friend to her enabler to lending an understanding ear to be, as she claims, ‘her north star’. For twenty years, Jane has been living between two worlds. 

One day, twenty years later, Jane has a visit from a young man wearing a mask claiming to be from Greenpeace. Could it be? Once again Jane is thrown into a conundrum. On the one hand she knows that Gabe is dead, on the other hand , this young man finally claims to be Gabe. He looks like Gabe once the mask is removed; he remembers some things about his family; he looks at photos and pictures and asks questions; just enough to question his reality.

Michaela Watkins,  Ryan Vasquez and Nadine Malouf (in background)

Does he come back to bring closure? Is he real or is it an apparition of him that she sees? As an audience member, I was almost convinced that he was real. Or maybe I wanted to believe he was real?  In some ways a myth or another’s story of survival can help us move on.

Time moves forward. Dates are announced through NPR news bulletins on a portable radio: September 11 until, September 12., until it’s September 11th again. (Melanie Chen Cole) as Jane relives the moment. Once in a while children’s voices can be heard from off stage but are never seen.

All three actors are nothing less than excellent. If an actor can convince  this reviewer to almost believe that this ‘dead’ character is alive after all, I say more power to them and not just in the mythological sense, but in their own reality. 

David Reynoso designed the costumes, although they were all contemporary and like time, never changed. The only thing that does change especially for Malouf is the sound of her voice; the intonations. 

La Chi Chu designed the lighting oft time throwing us in the dark depicting a quick scene change or character change. 

Grief can come in many colors. After the sudden death of my husband I saw sightings of him wherever I went. Once I thought I saw him on our living room sofa. Once I dreamed that he called me on the phone to give me a phone number of where he could be reached. He told me not to worry, that he would be OK. I asked my “Dream Guru” to interpret my dream and she told me that the phone number had a New York prefix, and that he was OK and not to worry. After that, the dreams and sightings began to fade and I realized, finally, that I would never see him again and had to move forward with my life. 

And so it was with Jane. After a series of conversations with Gabe, the realization that he was dead finally occurred to her and she knew she had to get on with her life and stop living in two worlds or maybe not. She exits the room ready for what’s next:  “and then” she exclaims. 

 

How does one leave the theatre without thinking about a play like this? Ms. Ziegler and I had a brief chat outside the theatre, after the show and I couldn’t help but tell her how much I admired her thinking and how she made me think about the power of compassion, grief (mostly my own) and the healing process. It was haunting! It was healing! It was excellent! 

Enjoy. 

See you at the theatre.

 When:  Runs through July 13. 7 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays

Where: Old Globe Theatre’s Sheryl and Harvey White Theatre, Balboa Park

Photo: Rich Soublet II.

Tickets: $38 and up

Phone: 619-234-5623

Online: theoldglobe.org

“MOULIN ROUGE” DAZZLES BUT LACKS COHESION

 The long awaited North American tour of “Moulin Rouge”, winner of 10 Tony’s including Best Musical, has finally arrived at San Diego’s Civic Center just days ago. 

Set in Paris, 1899, Moulin Rouge, the nightclub was famous for the likes of bohemians, aristocrats, artists, the brilliant and starving artist Toulouse-Lautrec, (Jahi Kearsh) various down and outers and street walkers. 

Into this gathering, lovesick and passionate American writer, dreamer Christian (Jay Armstrong Johnson) and star performer of the Moulin Rouge nightclub, Satine (beautifully charming Arianna Rosario) meet, fall in and out of love but are stopped in their tracks by the very wealthy and menacing (read Devil) Duke of Monroth ( Andrew Brewer) who pimps Satine off the highest bidder.

While the story lacks cohesion and it is rough around the edges the overall production to look at is dazzling: The choreography (Sonya Tayeh) phenomenal, sexy tangos, high kicking Can Can Dancers, the entire cast and company are pretty much in constant motion, but the sad love story itself is just choppy and in the end several in the audience were chuckling rather than feelings bit of pathos for the lovers. 

I don’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t a jukebox musical. Hits from the last  150 years; I recognized one from Nat King Cole, Mama Mia, Voulez-vous coucher avec moi ce soir? Quite a mashup from Adel to Lady Gaga, David Bowie to  Mick Jagger and  Elton John.

With Alex Timbers directing and Justin Levine’s musical Supervision, co orchestration arrangements and additional lyrics, Derek McLane’s scenic design, Catherine Zuber’s costume design, Justin Townsend's  lighting, Peter Hylensky’s sound David Brian Brown and Sarah Cimno’s hair and makeup and based on the 2001 film of the same name, this Moulin Rouge might satisfy some, but sadly, this reviewer was not one of them.

See you at the theatre.

Enjoy.

When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays; 7:30 p.m. Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sundays. Through July 6.

Where: San Diego Civic Theatre, 1100 Third Ave., Downtown

Tickets: $56.25 and up

CYGNETS “OKLAHOMA” NOT YOUR AVERAGE RUN OF THE MILL ROGERS AND HAMMERSTEIN MUSICALS.

Call it what you will: a rehashing, a renewing, a reimagining or a revival, Cygnet’s last show at The Theatre in Old Town,  “Oklahoma” by Rogers and Hammerstein II, still has the original Hammerstein lyrics and Rogers’ book and music. What’s different is it brings out a darker, oft more modern take on our star crossed lovers of Oklahoma,  Curly and Laurey. 

Cowboy Curly McLain (Michael Louis  Cusimano last seen on Cygnet’s stage in “Natasha, Pierre” in 2024), is one hell of a handsome leading man with vocals and smooth guitar playing.

Ariella Kvashny and Michael Louis Cusimano

He and Kvashny (Laurey), who make beautiful music together, (“People Will Say We’re In Love”) have this on again off again relationship, but it’s clear she only has eyes for Curly even though she flirts with hired hand, Jud Fry, (Jacob Caltrider), a misfit in both the cowman and farmer’s world. It’s a three way relationship that can only end in tragedy.

With music by Richard Rogers and book and lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II (the first of their collaborations), the story unfolds in what was Indian Territories before Oklahoma became a state, pitting the farmers against the cowboys (“Farmer and the Cowmen”) as the basis for the big picture. (“Kansas City”, “Farmer and the Cowman”. “Oh, What a “Beautiful Mornin’” and of course “Oklahoma!” are but some of the great Rogers and Hammerstein tunes from this show that are forever etched in our collective memories. 

Paul Morgavo, Eli Wood, Jaxon Smith, Marc Caro-Willcox 

It’s tough keeping a good show down and every now and then it’s good to bring it back to the fore for some good old fashioned folk lore, lively entertainment and just plain great music. It opened on Broadway in 1943. 

Director Sean Murray, swaggering in his red cowboy boots and big black cowboy hat, directs this new take on what some are calling part classic and part reimaged, in combining the old with the new. And it works, overall!

Love stories and comedy (some tongue in cheek) abound in the triangular relationships between cowboy Curly McClain and farm girl Laurie Williams and the petulant Jud Fry, and Ali Hakim, Ado Annie and Will Parker. 

Based on the Lynne Riggs play “Green Grow the Lilacs”, “Oklahoma”, when it was still called Indian Territory,  sails or should I say dances (Jill Gorrie choreographs this show with original choreography based on Agnes de Mille) and sings its way through one musical number after another (some seventeen).

Jacob Caltrider

There is darkness:  In Jud’s smokehouse, where Curly seeks out Jud and taunts and teases him (“Poor Jud is Daid”) and a Dream Sequence with Laurey, who imagines the conflict within herself, recoils.  (“Dream Ballet” choreographed by Jordan Miller).

There is also much lightheartedness:  The silly romantic comings and goings of Ali Akim ( Ricky Bulda)  and Ado Annie (Jazley Genovese  (“I Caint Say No”); the on again off again romance of Curly and Laurey and the cowboy/farmer riff; the auctioning off of the goodie baskets, (“Farmer and the Cowman”).

Company

Ranking high on the Richter scale of outstanding performances Jacob Caltrider whose  presence wasn’t as much frightening (as others I’ve seen) but was rather sympathetic.  Looking young and vulnerable, he is almost awkward as he peruses Laurie, but changes on a dime when Curly gets in his way. 

Eli Woods’ Will Parker shines through in every direction with his strong dancing and acting. Wood’s trips all over himself trying not to get shot by Annie’s father, Andrew (Manny Fernandes) who is doing his due diligence, shotgun in hand aimed at Will, in case Ali, the traveling salesman,  (Ricky Bulda) does something to dishonor his daughter’s reputation. 

Ariella Kvashny, Michael Louis Cusimano

Cusimano and Kvashny, where the chemistry is there and the romance rings true to form, allow  the ongoing struggle between Jud Fry and Curley to reach a climax while both vie for her attention as it  reaches  a predictable, yet hokey take on the way the law worked then. It was interesting to watch as Aunt Eller held court.  (I hate to say it, but some things never change in some states.)

Linda Libby is Aunt  Eller, Laurey’s aunt who sings, dances and is part of the chorus. Along with the band on stage, she  is the first person we see sitting in her rocking chair , churning butter. When next Curly comes from the back of the house singing “Oh, What a beautiful Mornin’”, followed by “The Surrey With The Fringe On Top”. 

Linda Libby

As I mentioned at the outset, this is not your run of the mill Oklahoma, where everything happens around Aunt Eller’s farm house (scenic designer Mathys Herbert). If anything, this is truly an ensemble work of art where each character has his/her own place on stage and dances, sings, and acts to the hilt. 

Patrick Marion is musical director as well as playing Accordion and Mandolin. Kyle Bayquen on Bass, Erika Boras-Tesi on Cello, Sean LaPerreque on Violin/Viola, Dave Pschaida on Percussion, Cliff Thrasher on Sub Cello and Michael Reyes on Guitar/Banjo. All excel. 

Linda Libby Holding it together

Credit Lighting designer Anne E. McMills, Sound, TJFucella, Props, Jessica Cuoto, Wigs and Makeup Peter Hermann and Zoë Trautmann, Costumes to make this one of the most ‘interesting’, ‘different’ and colorful production of an ‘oldie but goody’ that’s OK  LA HOMA…OK! 

See It!

See you at the theatre. 

When:  Runs through Aug.31st. 7 p.m. Wednesdays-Fridays; 2 and 7 p.m. Saturdays; 2  p.m. Sundays.

Where: Cygnet Theatre, 4040 Twiggs St., Old 

Town San Diego

Photo: Karli Cadel

Tickets: $30 and up

Info: 619-337-1525

Online: cygnettheatre.org

 

DEANDRE SIMMONS SHINES AS DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING IN NEW VILLAGE ARTS “THE MOUNTAINTOP”.

 At New Village Arts Theatre in Carlsbad, under the direction of Durwood Murray, Jr., and starring DeAndre Simmons as MLK JR. , Katori Hall’s Oliver Award Winning play “The Mountaintop”, is in a stunning production.

The 1963 shooting of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Baptist Minister and civil rights activist, whose passionate 1963 “I Have a Dream” (before 200,000 at the Lincoln Memorial in D.C.) and “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” sermons put him in the spotlight as #1 shaker of the Civil Rights movement. He was on the rise to becoming one of the greatest outspoken orators of his time. 

DeAndre Simmons

His ‘Mountaintop’ sermon was delivered at a rally in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee in 1963. The very next day he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with the striking workers. To say that his life was in danger at all times would be an understatement. “Fear is his companion, his lover”. 

In what Hall conjures as a conversation between King and the pretty little chambermaid, Camae (Taylor Renee Henderson) sent (supposedly) by the hotel upon his request for room service, the play unfolds somewhat like a TV sit-com. 

The play opens as King (Simmons) is ushered into the room by his most trusted deputy and best friend Ralph Abernathy, whom he immediately sends out to get a pack of Pall Malls. Left in the room alone, he deadbolts the door pulls the curtains over the windows, turns on the lamp and he starts reciting the beginnings of his next sermon. (“Why America is going to hell…”) He then calls for room service.

When King gets a good look at the young lady holding a cup of coffee, with a newspaper covering her head against the evening’s rainfall, his eyes just about pop out of his head.  Both have no trouble flirting as in “I like what I see’ at a glance. This is her first day on the job. She tells him that while the coffee is on the house, any advances that he can pay her for ‘gettin’ my press ‘n curl wet out in this rain” would be appreciated. 

They jibe and play. He wants cigarettes with his coffee, she scolds because he doesn’t take care of himself. We glance at his frailties, his non-violent marches; does she like him better with or without his moustache? They debate seriously about the work he has yet to finish.  

He is paranoid about his room being bugged and she reminds him that he has FBI files thicker than a bible. His concerns about his role here on earth as a leader and Civil Rights Activist are contrasted against his playful self as a womanizer; a fragile human being who flirts with the chambermaid while speaking to his wife and children on the phone, has holes in his socks, likes to add a little something to his coffee and chain smokes.

Finally, after some bantering about his being afraid of the thunder and lightning she holds him close and refers to him by his childhood name. He’s suspicious she was sent to spy on him, but she admits that she was sent to help him make it through the night. 

 For those in the know, history left its mark for all to see as the television cameras rolled outside on the balcony of room 306 at 6:01 PM, April 4th 1968. Yours truly will never forget those moments.

Both Simmons and Henderson play beautifully off one another. Simmons is natural and easy; not trying to impersonate King or look larger than life. 

He was after all flesh and blood with many shortcomings.  Henderson is playful funny and delightful, cautious and with a purpose.  The chemistry flows from one to another and the laughs and chuckles are frequent as one might see in a sit–com.

But this play is anything but funny. It is thoughtful, riddled with emotions; enough for  the ending words of King to bring a tear or two to everyone’s eyes especially with his booming opera trained voice:

“God said I gotta get you ready to come on home”. And while he begs for more time she has to convince him that someone else will have to pick up the baton. 

“Will I die at the hands of a white man, too. Yes. Speak by love. Die by hate. Where will it be?

On the balcony just right there. How? Surrounded by those who love you. Will you be there to clean up the mess? It would be a honor, Preacher Kang”. 

Director Durwood Murray, JR, making  his directorial debut, surly knows his way around a theatre stage. Every movement, intonation and look is picture perfect.

Christopher Scott Murillo’s set is a copy of Room #306 at The Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tenn., with  a visual of the balcony behind the windows. Credit to projection designer, Michael Wogluis, props, Carter Vickers, sound Andre Buck, JR, lighting, Mashun Waits, and costume and wig’s Kevane La’Marr Coleman.

How many times must we live through these throat-paralyzing sequence of days of gun play, grief and muffled drums?” (Life Magazine, June 14, 1968.

This question, written after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy (on June 5th 1968), followed by the assassinations of Martin Luther King, and of course before that, John F. Kennedy in 1963, and the attempt on the life of President Ronald Reagan in 1981 seems eons ago. We are still asking the same question today after 26 young children were gunned down at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in New Town, Conn! 

If you are old enough to remember the Texas School Depository Building, the Grassy Knoll, the Lorraine Hotel, and The Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles and outside the Washington Hilton Hotel, I’m sure you are aghast at what’s happening in 2025.

I’ve seen “The Mountaintop” several times in the past. This one, by far, stands above the rest. 

Enjoy. 

See you at the theatre.

When: 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Sundays. Through June 22

Where: New Village Arts, 2787 State St., Carlsbad

Photo: Jason Sullivan

Tickets: $25-$50

Online: newvillagearts.org