Are ‘PRIMES’ our new reality?

Jordan Harrison’s 2015 Pulitzer Prize finalist for drama and his 2016 Horton Foot prize “Marjorie Prime” is making its San Diego premiere at North Coast Repertory Theatre through Feb. 5^th.

It’s a bold new idea that might strike a few nerves within the audience. No one likes to talk about memory or loss or for that matter dementia within the family. Some of the memory loss we all might be experiencing like the name of someone we really knew in our favorite movie but can’t seem to pull up right now seems perfectly reasonable to me.

Dee Maaske as Marjorie Prime

Nothing defines us more than the memories we carry within us.  In my family, my brother and I have different memories of the same occasions that happened in our family growing up. That too seems reasonable. But what happens when we don’t have that memory to rely on or anyone to fill in the blanks?

When that all goes away, what do we have left? That’s one of the pressing themes in Harrison’s play among other things. How it affects those around us and dealing with it is also of great concern.

For Tess (Elaine Rivkin) and Jon (Gregory North) Marjorie’s (Dee Maaske) daughter and son in law the impact of Marjorie’s memory loss is monumental, as you will see watching the play unravel or rewind in some instances.

It is a bit confusing at the outset (and for yours truly continued somewhat throughout) and what’s not revealed at plays end, will be the topic of conversation for many on the way home, as it was for me.

Steve Froehlich, Dee Maaske, Elaine Rivkin and Gregory North

The setup is such that it takes us further into the future introducing us to Walter (Steve Froehlich) a perfectly coifed handsomely dressed young man looking right out of an 80’s playbook.  He is as they might say in the industry, ‘an artificial intelligence composite’, or robot, made up of pixels programed to simulate Marjorie’s late husband when he was younger, maybe in his thirties. He is Marjorie’s PRIME.

Walter is parroting information about Marjorie’s past that Marjorie’s son-in-law Jon has fed him. Jon as a diary of sorts with all kinds of facts (he’s been married to Tess for over thirty years) and when the information needs updating, Walter gets it.

Dee Maaske and Steve Froehlich

Walter tells Marjorie stories to make her feel better. In other words, Walter is Marjorie’s memory. The professionals agree that this is the exact therapy Marjorie needs to keep her mind active and another source of company beside her hostility ridden daughter.

Marjorie will occasionally ask questions of Walter and the answers are spoon fed to her. “I could tell you a story. You liked that the last time.” “I’ll have to take your word for it.” In their reality, Walter can tell her as many versions of the story that she would like to hear.

Most of the time spent with Marjorie is all well and good. But there is trouble in Prime-ville between Tess and Jon that all is not as it appears. It seems that other ‘Primes’ come in and out of the picture and more morbid facts and family secrets come out at some of the most unexpected times. 

Information about Tess’ brother Damian, for example reveal the good the bad and the indifferent about the family dynamics and why Tess is so depressed and argumentative. No one talks about the down side of Damian’s life, rather in glowing terms. When we do learn of his suicide it hits us between the eyes as the truth about his short life is finally let out of the bag. More family secrets leak out over the course of the play.

Piecing the story together kept me wondering if it was just me, or the fact that dealing in the abstract is not one of my stronger assets. Slowly approaching an age closer rather than further away from Marjorie’s and noticing that oft times I have to run through the alphabet to remember a name or place caused me to have a few concerns of my own while sitting through Harrison’s play.

Gregory North, Steve Froehlich, Elaine Rivkin Dee Maaske (in foreground)

Director Matthew Wiener keeps us on our toes throughout, with a well -balanced cast making a case either for or against the need for a prime. Dee Maaske is charming and convincing as Marjorie. She grows in the role and one can definitely empathesize with everything about her that she has lost and will never get back.

Steve Froehlich is well programmed as Walter, her substitute husband. He is used as a tool to keep her interested and possibly prolong her life. While not doing too much when things do not revolve around Marjorie, he is always engaged.

Elaine Rivkin and Gregory North make a believable couple with North’s Jon a bit more compassionate toward his mother-in-law than her daughter. Tess has more at stake here than Jon, having grown up with Marjorie and all the family secrets that kept the family in a state of repression and depression for years. She plays into her grief well.

Marty Burnett’s set in Tess and Jon’s living -room is pretty much bare bones necessities with open kitchen, overall all generic looking with an easy chair off center for Marjorie’s comfort and a couch backing up against the kitchen counter and hallways of to the side.  

Elaine Rivkin abd Gregory North

It is enhanced by Matt Novotny’s colorful lighting design with changing seasons, beginning with all things bright and alive and colorful and ending with the dark empty layers of winter. Elisa Benzoni’s designed the costumes and Melanie Chin the soundscape.

Harrison’s “Maple and Vine” that made its Southern California premiere in 2014 is a look back at the past (1955) to a time when things were simple and ‘authentic’. Now he’s bringing the future to us in ways that might just become the norm in years to come. You be the judge.

1955 was a good year for me. Just sayin’.

Harrison’s play has also been adapted for the screen. It will be premiering at the Sundance Festival next year.

See you at the theatre.

Dates: Through Feb. 5th

Organization: North Coast repertory Theatre

Phone: 619-858-1055

Production Type: Comedy/Drama

Where: 987 Lomas Santa Fe Drive, Solana Beach, CA 92075

Ticket Prices: Start at $46.00

Web: northcoastrep.org

Photo: Aaron Rumley

“Beau Jest” returns to Lamb’s Players Theatre for a fun filled evening.

When my three daughters were growing up they used to stand in front of the open refrigerator and ask me if there was anything good to eat. My reply always was, “Have some ‘nice fruit’. Nice is the operative word in James Sherman’s comedy “Beau Jest” about a nice Jewish girl whose parents want her to marry a nice Jewish boy.

That’s the simple version. The more complex version is played out on Lamb’s Players Stage in Kerry Meads broadly directed, sometimes over the top but fun filled comedy through Feb. 12^th. Keeping in mind that nothing is as simple as it appears, particularly when it comes to who ‘the nice Jewish daughter marries and who the nice Jewish boyfriend’ is.

In 1994 Lamb’s Players introduced “ Beau Jest” to audiences in a San Diego Premiere. It opened off-Broadway in 1991and came up against some critical criticism but endured in spite of it and at any given time, Regional Theatres might have it listed as part of a season. Will it appeal to non -Jewish audiences? You be the judge.

Jason Heil and Erika Beth Phillips

Here’s how it stands. Jewish Sarah Goldman (Erika Beth Phillips) is in love with her non-Jewish beau Chris Kringle, yup, (Jason Heil) over her parents’ Miriam and Abe Goldman’s (Sandy Campbell and John Rosen) objections. In a ploy to keep them happy and divert attention from her non- Jewish boyfriend, she tells them that she has broken it off with Chris and has a new Jewish boyfriend.

As it happens, her ‘new Jewish boyfriend’ is a hire from an Escort Agency whose name is Bob Schroeder (sounds Jewish) but she introduces him as David Steinberg (Ross Hellwig), the doctor…brain and heart OY!  

Erika Beth Phillips, Ross Hellwig, Sandy Campbell and John Rosen

Enter Mom and Dad and therapist/judgmental brother Joel (Omri Schein) for a Shabbat, Dad’s birthday dinner and to meet the new beau. All hell breaks loose as Bob/David takes on a crash course in (for lack of another word) ‘Tradition’, as in on the job training.     

When not ‘escorting’ women to the opera or dinner or what have you, Bob is also an actor therefore much of his performance as ‘the Jewish boyfriend’. Knowing the blessing over the wine at a Shabbat dinner, is a flashback from roles in musicals he was in, such as “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Cabaret”.

Putting too much horseradish on his Matzo though at the Passover Seder, should have been a direct giveaway. “They’ll know. They can spot a Jew a mile away. It’s like radar.” He did take acting classes at Second City where he learned to improvise he reassures her. They (mom and dad) bought it hook, line and sinker. Omri’s Joel had different thoughts and his body language showed it well.  

Sandy Campbell, Ross Hellwig, Erika Beth phillips John Rosen Omri Schein (back to audience)

While neatly packaged and in a fast paced production Mead’s ensemble has found a good balance. John Rosen’s Abe reminded me of one my uncle’s when conducting the Passover Seder; one page of reading from the Haggadah and then close the book and ready for the meal. Nice try! Nice going also that John's impressive Hebrew and some Yiddish adds even more authenticity to the part.

The chemistry between Sandy Campbell’s, Miriam and Rosen’s Abe worked for me. Abe is committed to kvetching about parking in Sarah’s Chicago neighborhood and she refuses to have Sarah ‘warm the kugel’ in the oven as opposed to the microwave. It’s a long- running , sometimes tireing joke.

Ms. Campbell’s Jewish Mother steely appearance as the enduring wife and mother committed to being silently subservient on the one hand but emotionally in charge on the other is almost surreal as it showed up on opening night. She nailed it. 

Ms. Phillips is a bunch of nerves on steroids as she runs around like a chicken with her head cut off trying to please everyone and can’t seem to find a balance for herself. Making her parents happy is a full time job.

Erika Beth Phillips and Ross Hellwig

Steadying the situation Hellwig takes almost everything in stride as his David/Bob falls slowly in love with the family and their daughter.  Unfortunately Jason Heil has little to do but declare his love for Sarah and show his aggravation toward his replacement. All convince.

In a compelling second act turn about, after Abe finds out that David/Bob is not Jewish, his rant brings about chest pains, 911 emergency and a ‘come to Jesus’ (pardon the expression) moment for the entire group.

Jemima Dutra’a outfits depict the late 80’s and all look upper middle class. I especially loved the eye- glasses, but the sweaters worn by Omri's Joel...well. And the glasses? I did have a pair exactly like those. Mike Buckley’s set is functional and bright and Deborah Gilmour Smith’s mix of Klezmer, “Fiddler On The Roof” and Barbara Streisand music couldn’t help but put us in the mood.   

Omri Schein, Erika Beth phillips and Ross Hellwig

No question, “Beau Jest brings out some stereotypical mishegas (Craziness) about the Jewish experience. It’s fun, entertaining and will definitely take your mind off the mishegas going on in Washington.  

See you at the theatre.

Dates: Through Feb. 12th

Organization: Lamb’s players Theatre

Phone: 619.437.6000

Production Type: Comedy

Where: 1142 Orange Ave. Coronado, CA

Ticket Prices: Start at $24.00

Web: lambsplayers.org

Photo: John Howard

Get Thee To The Welk On Time

If you’re not humming “The Rain in Spain”, “On the Street Where You Live”, “Get Me To The Church On Time’, “Wouldn’t it be Loverly”, “With a Little Bit of Luck” or  “I Could Have Danced all Night” it’s because you haven’t been up to Welk Village to see the latest incarnation of the Lerner and Loewe classic “ My Fair Lady”.

Director Kathy Brombacher, former Moonlight artistic director and more recently appeared as Mrs. Higgins in the 2014 production of the Moonlight’s “My Fair Lady” is now directing this all time favorite.

Ralph Johnson and Lance Arthur Smith

The story aside Welk’s production is filled with some wonderful surprises. Lance Arthur Smith is a perfect new face added to the collective composite of Henry Higgins, the noted phonetician and boy genius at detecting accents and their place of origin.

Remember, he’s the one that bumps into the street urchin/flower girl Eliza Doolittle (Shaina Knox) who is selling her flowers while he is hailing a cab outside Covent Garden. It’s there that promises he can ‘cure’ her of her Cockney accent in six months and ‘pass her off as a Duchess”.  

Shaina Knox and Randall Hickman

Taking him up on his promise Eliza shows up the next day at Higgins home promising she can pay for speech lessons so she can get off the streets and be an assistant at a proper flower shop.

Add to the mix Colonel Pickering (that gentle soul Ralph Johnson), his linguist friend who watches first hand the methods Higgins uses for ‘the cure’, Eliza Doolittle’s father, “ the recalcitrant Alfred Doolittle” (Randall Hickman), Higgins’ mother Mrs. Higgins (a hurricane force to be reckoned with M Susan Peck), the romantic interest Freddy Eynsford-Hill (Ben Williams) and Higgins’ maid Mrs. Pearce, (a built in role for Susan Boland) and you have an interesting blend of characters making this another highlight must see heading into 2017.

Hickmand and ensemble

A talented ensemble includes a bevvy of maids, servants and street folk that change roles, dance, sing and bring this robust production to a satisfying conclusion that everyone lives happily ever after. Well…. (“I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face”). Choreographer Orlando Alexander gives the cast a bit of a workout.    

The dynamic duo of Lerner and Loewe’s “My Fair Lady” based on G.B. Shaw’s “Pygmalion” hit the Broadway stages in 1956 and set a record for (then) the longest run of any major musical theatre production in history.

Shaw in his writings has never been accused of being ant-feminist but Lerner’s book and Loewe’s lyrics don’t really back that up. The way Higgins talks to and treats Eliza is one for the misogynistic books. If Smith’s Higgins weren’t such a twit with regards to Eliza, one might take a liking to him, but he shows too much disregard for women in general and Eliza in particular. “Why Can’t a Woman Be More Like a Man”?  Smith even sings well, something many including the original Rex Harrison did not do. He spoke the lyrics.

Shaina Knox and Lance Arthur Smith

But Smith has something else going for him. As much as a boor as Higgins can be, Smith has a gentle, smooth and easy- going, easy flowing manner about him that pushes Eliza to the limits almost effortlessly.  His style isn’t quite as offensive as most, and as his slow coming to grips with his need for Eliza to be around him grows he becomes a bit more, not much, likeable.

Ralph Johnson just walks into the role of Colonel Pickering, a gentleman’s gentleman that he is (offstage) with ease and distinction. And he can still belt one out of the ballpark. “You Did It”,  “The Rain in Spain”.

Lets talk about Randall Hickman as Doolittle, shall we? Hickman is about as perfect in this role as he was Mama in “Hairspray”. With his gravely (a la Harvey Fierstein) voice, his bigger than life presence fills the stage in every sense of the word. “Get Me to the Church on Time”, “With a Little Bit of Luck”.  

Shaina Knox had a bit of a problem on opening night being understood with her Cockney accent in our initial meeting with her but easily transitioned, after her many sessions with Higgins, into a beautifully spoken, well-mannered woman who could, yes easily pass herself off as a Duchess. And her voice; it soared. Brava!

Always fun to watch “Ascot Gavotte” or a day at the races shows off the spiffy costumes arranged by Janet Pitcher. They are beautiful for the period especially those formal ones that always look so regal. Karen Scott’s wigs also help in pinpoint the time (London 1936).

The indoor sets look great and surely utilitarian but the backdrops look worn and weary. At times Justin Gray with his three musicians overpower the singers on stage. More than ever though I always have trouble with the sound coming from the pit; this is no exception.  Rest assure, Lerner and Loewe’s “My Fair Lady” is one of those classics that will be around for years. And yes, you should see this one.

See you at the theatre.

Dates: Through April 2nd

Organization: Welk Resort Theatre

Phone: 1.888.802. SHOW

Production Type: Musical

Where: 8860 Lawrence Welk Drive, Escondido, CA 92026

Ticket Prices: $51.00… add $21.00 for optional preshow meal.

Web: welkresorts.com

Venue: Lawrence Welk Theatre

Photo: Ken Jacques Photography

“The Roommate” at SCR a bittersweet comedy of errors.

Some years after my husband passed away, I met a young woman in one of my classes looking to move from her ‘’old apartment’ to a ‘new place’. As an empty nester in every sense of the word, I offered a room in my house.

I was in my fifties she was younger and from my many conversations/interviews with her, she seemed on the level and had a good job. She was an assistant warden at the Federal Prison downtown… and no, she did not have a gun that she brought home (I did ask). That would have been a deal breaker. But she did have a piano that was never played in my house (just for the record) but I did make room for it.

It was pretty much a cut and dry deal. I thought the money from the rent she would give me would finance the many future trips I wanted to take.

It was an amenable arrangement. We were both workingwomen and our paths crossed mostly in the morning before she went to work and I went on my morning walk. She was home from her job before my classes ended in the evening. We chatted briefly and at best shared perhaps half dozen meals.  After about five or six months into our roommate situation, she got a job promotion in Long Beach and I was an empty nester again. Bada -boom!

Linda Gehringer and Tessa Auberjonois

Jen Silverman’s “The Roommate” directed by Martin Benson is now making its West Coast Premiere at South Coast Repertory Theatre through Jan 22^nd.  This set of roommates isn’t quite as cut and dry as my ‘roommate’ experience. In fact she set the stage for some fun and games experiments yet left a bittersweet moment that had me wanting to know more.

Sharon lives in Iowa and Robyn is escaping….ooops resettling from the Bronx, to of all places…Iowa. Why, you might ask from the Bronx (“Isn’t the Bronx dangerous?”) to Iowa? Good question, although the answer is somewhat perplexing: “I lived in Iowa for three years in grad school…I knew I was going to write about Iowa”. (Silverman)

Playwright Silverman (who has yet to approach the bewitching old age of fifty) tries to answer that question and more in about 85 minutes or so. Her abbreviated approach to write such an essay on what she claims is a much overlooked segment of the population, or in her own words, “I wasn’t seeing roles in which older women who were total badasses”, does resonate truth. My one disagreement with the playwright is the overworked word, ‘older’. Fifty is the new thirty and would that I could revisit it again. 

Teresa Auberjonois and Linda Gehringer

Sharon (Linda Gehringer) and Robyn (Tessa Auberjonois) have about as much in common as the fish that swim in the ocean have with the birds that fly the skies. Some exceptions however, both are looking for change, both have children (sight unseen) that undervalue their mother’s roles in their lives and both have secrets that will be revealed over the course of the play.

We first meet up with them when they are unloading boxes of Robyn’s stuff from her car to Sharon’s front porch (“Is your porch safe?” ”Do you lock your doors?”). It is here we find out that Robyn is a vegan, drinks Almond milk, smokes (oops Sharon forgot to ask about that) pot, writes slam poetry, was a potter who made voodoo looking dolls, her grandmother was from Iowa and she’s gay!

On the other side of the coin, Sharon belongs to a book club or reading group, is a mother, is a retired wife (her husband left her), has a little night -cap now and then as opposed to smoking medicinal herbs a la Robyn’s style and can't understand why her son never visits. 

The good news for Sharon is that she is more accepting to try new things than Robyn. Into the play we catch the both of them sharing a joint, practicing a little con job on Sharon’s friends (you’ll have to see the play to get that one) and sharing adult children stories.

Linda Gehringer

Sharon has more curiosity about Robyn than vice-versa, ergo she learns more about her roommate’s dark past than her roommate is willing to share simply by snooping around Robyn’s ‘things’.

The story takes some bizarre twists and turns, some believable -some off the wall especially Sharon’s willingness to go along and even embrace some of Robyn’s illegal activities, once she learns of them.

The good news is that both gals are up to the task. Gehringer has the ‘deer in the wilderness’ look most of the time, but with a mischief looking smile from ear to ear.  Auberjonois is cool, calm and collected, always willing to let her mate try something new to break open her closed down self.

Technical qualities always rank high at SCR and new plays are well worth the 90 -minute drive north. John Iacovelli designed a well- detailed two-story farmhouse with front porch and working kitchen.

Brian Gale’s lighting design is stunning bringing forth light from darkness into Sharon’s kitchen, Michael Roth designed the original music and soundscape and Angela Balogh Colin’s costumes define the character’s look to a tea; Sharon with mismatched skirt, blouse and sweater and tennis shoes and Robyn in jeans, earth shoes and flamboyant and colorful looking shirts.

Both women do their best with the material given them. Both are able to bring out the humor, the unfulfilled dreams, the loneliness, the ‘other’ and the willingness to try to make it work for them. They also push the agenda forward that the playwright had in mind with an authenticity that comes along with the ideas. And there are some pretty decent ideas. For me though it was the distressing emptiness that left me sad, in some ways, to see it end as abruptly as it did.

Silverman has a point. The Golden Girls might just have been left out of the conversation had not she opened up the dialogue.

It’s worth a try.

See you at the theatre.

Dates: Through Jan. 22nd

Organization: South Coast Repertory Theatre

Phone: 714.708.5555

Production Type: Comedy

Where: 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa, CA.

Ticket Prices: Start at $22.00

Web: scr.org

Venue: Julianne Argyros Stage

Photo: Debora Robinson/SCR