STYLIZED LA JOLLA PLAYHOUSES “THE RECIPE” A RECIPE FOR SUCCESS.

 

The La Jolla Playhouse is currently mounting the “Recipe” a world premiere production by Claudia Shear based on the book “Dearie” by Bob Spitz.  

World premiere productions are a tricky lot. Seeing a show for the first time about a well -known celebrity can be problematic as well, especially if that celeb. is a famous chef, say like Julia Child.  However, in director Lisa Peterson’s hands, one had feeling that you knew Child or someone like her all your life.  

(One of my daughters is a Chef and I usually leave the cooking shows to her.)

For someone who would rather eat than cook or bake or who would rather watch tennis than a cooking show, I must admit (other than being too long at 2/12 hours) I found myself pleasantly amused at the comings and goings of the life of Julia Carolyn McWilliams (Christina Kirk), who when we meet her  was living in Massachusetts and attending Smith College. She graduated in 1933 with a History major.  

As we will soon learn, Julia was the dorm comedian, and the tallest one of the students in her immediate group. For that matter, she was so that tall that references were made throughout to her height, at 6’3inches, especially when it came to dating. She was also fun loving, directionless, independent, not interested in going into her father’s (Michael Parks) business, and putting herself down as a mechanism to avoid disappointment.

As her whirlwind life unfolds on the Sheila and  Hughes  Potiker Stage we are taken from Boston, to Washington, where she lands a job as a typist in the State Department; then transferring to hot and humid Ceylon during WWII as a secretary for  the intelligence services. 

  

Ariel Shafir, Rami Margron, Norbert Leo Butz and Christiana Kirk

In Ceylon  she meets freelance photographer and worldly gourmet,  Paul Child (Norbert Leo Butz) where the two fall hopelessly in love and her life takes on new meaning. 

They marry, and after Paul takes on a job as part of the U.S. Information Service, attached to the American Embassy they move to France by way of  Washington, D.C. Once in Paris, Child finds her calling and she enrolls  in the famed Parisian cooking school, Le Cordon Bleu after eating “fish on a dish” while eating out with Paul. One might say it was bashert (meant to be)

Christiana Kirk and Norbert Leo Butz

Act II;  and in another whirlwind of flurry, her career takes off slowly after joining a cooking club, meeting two would be friends, Simone Beck or Simca,  (Jill Abramovitz) and Louise (Saisha Talwar) who convince Julia to collaborate with them on a book that will later be called “Mastering the Art of French Cooking”.  

Choreographed with precision and stylized timing, twirling and pizazz  by David Neumann, with sets and scenic design by Rachel Hauck, consisting of sliding panels that are dropped down or ushered in in with a flair and a flourish by the company dressed as waiters and waitresses,  all give  the production a stylized, airy  and whimsical feeling.  Keeping the look in the highlight is Ben Stanton’s effective lighting. Linda Cho’s period costumes are always up to par and Tom Watson’s wig and hair designs create the 30’s,40’s, 50’s look to a T.  Combine the whole with André Pluess’ sound design and original music, by Andre Pluess and we are looking at a possible Broadway run.

Christiana Kirk and Norbert Leo Butz and Cast 

The frosting on the cake, however is the chemistry between two time Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz as Paul Child and Christina Kirk as Julia (McWilliams Child ). It is  authentic, fun to watch  the two grow as a couple and work their way through some rough spots in their marriage; he even complaining about her cooking before she went to Le Cordon Bleu. 

There is also a  synergy between the entire cast and crew that says chemistry. Several of the cast play multiple roles and are in the ensemble: Amanda Naughton, Kenneth Ray, Rami Saisha Talwar, Germainne Lebrón, Torkan Omari and Jill Abramovitz. 

One thing I joke about with my friends is, “If a recipe has more than three ingredients, I don’t make it. So is the case of the length of a play. Longer is not often better. “The Recipe”, to be more tasteful to audiences, will have to be cropped and trimmed to be more palatable. Running at almost three hours, may turn some away. 

“The Recipe” wraps up the Playhouses the 25th -26th season. 

 

Enjoy.

See you at the theatre.

When:  Runs through March 22; 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays; 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays; 1 and 7 p.m. Sundays

Where: La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Drive, La Jolla

Photo: Rich Soublet II

Tickets: $99-$114

Phone: 858-550-1010

Online: lajollaplayhouse.org/show/the-recipe