Globe’s “Trouble in Mind” Proves Most White’s Still Don’t Get It!

 “Trouble In Mind” was slated for a Broadway opening in 1957 but the all -white producers were a bit jittery about the way it ended. They wanted it to end happily and didn’t like the title. At the time playwright Alice Childress would have been the first African-American woman to have a play produced on Broadway. Childress, true to herself, couldn’t bring herself to make the changes. Her play was put on the back burner for half a decade.  Loraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin In The Sun” took its place.

Cast of "Trouble in Mind

Now in the production’s original, uncut, as Childress would have it, The Old Globe Theater under the deft direction of Delicia Turner Sonnenberg “Trouble in Mind” is getting its just due.

‘Mind’ is a play within a play called “Chaos in Belleville”, a melodrama/satire/comedy about anti-lynching (say that with tongue in cheek). The action takes place backstage in the rehearsal space of a Broadway Theatre in New York. Aptly decorated and designed by Lawrence E. Moten III and lit by Sherrice Mojgani to look like the backstage of a theatre with all colors and sorts of lights, a few scattered chairs and stage door, the space for the actors comes alive when they begin reading through the script.  

This is a big day for Wiletta Mayer who enters the stage wearing one of Nicole Jescinth Smiths stunning costumes. She has finally landed a leading role in this new play that was to begin rehearsals for a Broadway opening. Some of her former black coworkers are also on the scene. They too are anxious to be in this ‘new’ play but are less inclined to stir things up by voicing their opinions to the director, but not Wiletta.

Ramona Keller and Kevin Isola 

“White folks can’t stand unhappy Negroes chides Wiletta, so laugh”, she instructs the newbie’s like Michael Zachery Tunstill as John a recent college graduate, but don’t tell Al. “White’s don’t like Blacks to be too smart” she schools. 

In the past Wiletta (a strong, extremely talented singer and actor, Ramona Keller) was of the mindset of pleasing her white director Al Manners (Kevin Isola), a total Dick, by using an upside down psychology that he has bought into. For the most part, eyes rolled, but they went along to get along.

 Wiletta also played all the stereotypical black housekeeper roles she was handed and is ready to move forward. She played the game. As things shape up now though it appears she is still slated to doing laundry and singing spirituals. Now she is playing a sharecropper’s wife whose son John is being hunted down to supposedly be put in jail for protection. His crime:  he wanted to voted in the local election.

Ramona Keller, Michael Zachary Tunstill and Victor Morris

 Let’s call it what it is, he’s being ‘lynched’ and she’s supposed to be OK with that according to the script. How she and Manners interpret her role becomes the center of conflict while the give and take of her fellow actors take turns one would not expect. 

The mostly all Black cast includes Victor Morris as Sheldon Forrester. He’s played opposite Wiletta many times. In ‘Chaos’ he’s her husband and is reduced to nothing but whittling pointlessly on a stick and nodding “Yes sir. And Thank you, sir”, but when Forrester tells the cast that he actually saw a lynching when he was a boy, silence fell on the house and cast members. 

Others in the cast include Millie Davis (Bibi Mama) Wiletta’s oft time rival for the same parts, Judy Sears (Maggie Walters-Old Globe and U. San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatere Program) a young google eyed white actress from Connecticut who is to play the sharecroppers daughter. 

An almost unrecognizable  Mike Sears is Bill O’Wray a so uptight actor that he won’t even go to lunch with the Black cast. Other white actors include Jake Millgard who plays the stage manager Eddie, Tom Bloom plays Henry the electrician turned doorman and gofer. He and Wiletta go way back. 

Ramona Keller, Michael Zachary Tunstill, Mike Sears and Bibi Mama

Yes, there is humor, bantering, friendly give and take between Wiletta and Millie that I must confess oft escaped me because of sound irregularities (Luqman Brown) and my not being able to catch every word.  However, the contrast between friendly banter between  director and star turns ugly and biting. By just watching their body language and the many standoff’s, especially toward the end of the rehearsals, no love is lost. 

It’s Keller’s Wiletta and Isola’s Al that the show really belongs to. The fact that Al is such a racist just by way of his directing methods, interruptions from Wiletta and the fact that he is distracted by calls from his ex that he explodes in anger revealing his true racist feelings. With that (and no spoiler) Wiletta answers in kind. It’s not pretty but if we’re keeping score …

Maggie Walters, Ramona Keller, Bibi Mama and Michael Zachery Tunstill

The play gives us another point of view of the ‘Negro experience’ as witnessed by African-American actors wanting to play more than the stereotypical housekeeper, maids, whittling yes’m, males and or runaway young men slated for a lynching or being called Magnolia, Chrysanthemum, Crystal, Pearl or Opal. 

What we do have is more satire and just plain stupidity by the white writers that makes one’s blood boil. The play is about the lynching of a young man in the south who angers the ‘white folk’ because he decides to vote in the local elections. Sound familiar? 

We’re not talking 1957 (Civil Rights Act enacted in 1957) when Ms. Childress, whose play won an Obie Award off Broadway, positions her play. We are talking 2022. “Trouble in Mind” is even more timely now than it was in 2018 when Moxie Theatre was led by Sonnenberg who directed it then as well. It was powerful then, but packs a KO today. 

“Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it”…George Santayana

When: 7 p.m. Tuesdays and Wednesdays. 8 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays. 2 and 8 p.m. Saturdays. 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through March 13.

Where: Old Globe, 1363 Old Globe Way, Balboa Park, San Diego

Tickets: $29 and up

Phone: (619) 234-5623

Online: theoldglobe.org

Photo: Rich Soublet II)

COVID protocol: Proof of full vaccination is required or negative test result from a COVID-19 PCR test taken within 72 hours of showtime. Masks are required at all times.

OnStage Playhouse’s “Admissions” Right Up There in High Quality Acting and Truths We Dare Not Admit.

Playwright Joshua Harmon best known to yours truly as the one who got it all wrong in his play “Bad Jews” seen some years back at Cygnet Theatre. Just the title alone sent chills up my spine. How does one define bad Jew?  And whose job is it to decide? The play didn’t sit right with me then and in retrospect it still not one of my best theatrical experiences.  But what do I know? It was a smash hit and remains the best- selling play in Studio history- called ‘wickedly funny’. 

But he got it right and hit the nail on the head with the current offering at OnStage Playhouse’s 2018 play  “Admissions” deftly directed by artistic director James P. Darvas. and starring an overall excellent cast with Wendy Waddell (Sherri) and Tom Steward (Bill) as the as husband and wife team acting as headmaster and dean of admissions at a small, nearly all white college at Hillcrest, a mid-tier New Hampshire prep school. This time Harmon zero’s in on race, you know, the word Whoopi Goldberg has a hard time defining!

Anna Sandor and Wendy Waddell

Exquisitely mounted on the small stage at OnStage (Filipe Ramirez), the play opens in Sherri’s office with quick tempered Sherri questioning, or more like admonishing her administrator Roberta (Anna Sandor) for not including more students of color on the school’s latest brochure. “Equality”, Diversity” and Inclusion” (E.D.I.) she rants have always been my goal. According to Sherri, for fifteen years she has taken the school from 4%students of color to 18%. Both she and her liberal minded husband, Bill have always fought for E.D.I. that is especially where the school is concerned. 

Outside the walls of Sherri’s office, and in their living quarters, their son Charlie (Devin Wade) is expecting to get into Yale. He and his best buddy, lifelong friends, both filled out applications for admittance to Yale (the big important Ivy League school). Grades aside, his BFF Perry is of mixed race and everyone, (Sherri, Bill and Charlie) is convinced that Perry checked off the box that said Black. Their conclusion: Perry got accepted because he pulled the black card and Charlie was put on the back burner. 

What? What?

Moving on to world war three, Sherri and Perry’s mother Ginnie (Holly Stephenson), best of friends for years get into a kerfuffle that that puts their friendship at risk and the true feelings Sherri harbors. Their friendship ended right before our eyes. But not before Charlie went into a ten minute tirade as to why he should have been selected, even going so far as to bring affirmative action, diversity and the Holocaust for reasons he did not get accepted.  After some dubious denials, both Sherri and Bill, contrary to their liberal cloth, seem to agree with their son.

Tom Steward and Devin Wade

Hypocrites all, each character gets to say his or her true feelings when the you -know what- hits the fan. Waddell, who always brings a strong performance to all of her works, succeeds in convincing us that as the pendulum swings back and forth, what she says as opposed to what she thinks she thinks are at odds with themselves. And if that sounds confusing, you can imagine how Sandor’s Roberta felt after she was raked over the coals for not showing enough black faces in her quest to even out the pictures in the admissions catalogue.  “Do you care if the school is diverse?”

Tom Steward gives a masterful offering when trying to talk his son out of his turn about on what his future plans are (no spoiler) calling him “an overprivileged brat” and Devon Wade’s performance as Charlie, the slighted and rejected teenager has to be one of the most passionate pleas I’ve heard on why he’s right about his right to be accepted into Yale. Both Holly Stephenson and Anna Sandor add to the overall depth of the 75 minute show. 

The cast is all white and one must wonder how many seeing the show when it first premiered in NY in 2018 at Lincoln Center were multi- racial or was it before so much emphasis was put on racial balance in school ‘admissions.

My white friends, he’s talking to the liberal white in all of us.

Ginnie Stephenson and Wendy Waddell

“Whiteness: white privilege, white power, white anxiety, white guilt all of it...this play is trying to hold up a mirror to white liberalism, while remaining very conscious of the fact that this is just one narrow slice of a much larger conversation.”   * Studio Theatre.

Credits: Lighting design to Kevin”Blax” Burroughs, sound to Estefania Ricalde, costume design to Pam Stompoly- Erikson, Estefania Ricalde stage manager and photo credit to Ana Carolina Chiminazzo.

You won’t want to miss this production to see where you stand, on a scale of 1 to 10, on the racial equality conundrum and of course the fine production. 

When: 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays. 2 p.m. Sundays. Through Feb. 27.

Where: OnStage Playhouse, 291 Third Ave., Chula Vista

Tickets: $22-$25.

Phone: (619) 422-7787

Online: onstageplayouse.com

COVID protocol: Proof of full vaccine required or negative result from COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of showtime. Masks required indoors.

 

“1222 Oceanfront: A Black Family Christmas” Charms and Delights New Village Arts Audiences

 What does a ‘nice Jewish girl’ do on the first night of Chanukah?  She goes to a Black Family Christmas (Party). Well…? 

Dea Hurston, philanthropist extraordinaire has chosen to branch out and pursue her passion for writing. And lucky for us in the theater world she did. Along with her creative team and collaborators  Milena (Sellers) Phillips, Frankie Alicea-Ford and Kevin “Blax” Burroughs — her first play, a musical and a winner from the start, “1222 Oceanfront: A Black Family Christmas” is currently  in a world premiere production at New Village Arts partially renovated theatre in Carlsbad through De. 26th.

Kory LaQuess Pullam and Deja Fields

What makes this different from the many Christmas plays I’ve seen?  Well, for one the characters are black save for one adopted son Javier (Frankie Alicea-Ford) who is Latinx and gay... and whose boyfriend Brian (Durwood Murray) is gay, black and Jewish, that’s different. It doesn’t get any more inclusive than that by anyones standards. 

Milena (Sellers) Phillips, Victor Morris, Kory LaQuess Pullam and Deja Fields

 

The house is decorated (Savannah Brittian) with symbols that include Kwanza Candle in the kitchen and masks, art work from different black artists. The interior of the house is beautifully crafted, warm and homey looking.

All in all, the family included in Hurston’s play, as mentioned above, is pretty much seen through a black perspective. But the overall message is that family is family and with few exceptions the Black family has it’s up’s and downs, crisis and suspicions, secrets and confessions, love /hate relationships, and its share of misunderstandings.

The Black family has lived on 1222 Oceanfront before the price of houses went skyrocketing and is now worth millions. When Dorothy Milena (Sellers) Phillips and her late husband James bought the house even as it was out of their price limit, they went ahead anyway. As the time moved closer to their moving in, the neighbors were bitching because a black family was going to be in the neighborhood. 

The Black's needed a way to come up with enough money for a down payment since the price of interest was also going up. With the help of their extended family the money came through and Dorothy hosted the family Christmas two day gathering for the length of the loan that was thirty years. Over those years traditions were made. 

Portia Gregory, Durwood Murray and Deja Fields

The traditional foods were Italian because they could only afford pasta and the fixings. Dorothy’s famous lemon aide was a specialty for her now grown son, James, JR (Kory La  Quess Pullam). In fact, he looked forward to having some as he and his now wife Aada (Deja Fields) were heading to Carlsbad for the holidays. All he talked about was his lemon-aide and the special relationship with his mother. For Aadya, she couldn’t get Dorothy to recognize her if she stood on her head and whistled Dixie. She was in marketing and Dorothy could never understand how she earned her money. 

As the show opens, Lizzy (Portia Gregory) Dorothy’s sister comes to the dinner with her specialty and food and presents.  She’s also carrying the ashes of her late husband, June, kept in Santa doll large enough to stand alone on the fireplace mantel so he can be included. Gregory is a hoot and a howl as the know it all sister who introduces Dorothy to her co -worker Victor (Victor Morris). 

Portia Gregory

Both work at the Post Office and Lizzy wants them to get together. Victor is no shrinking violet either. He’s a towering good looking ‘cowboy’ who adds a whole new dimension to the dynamics of the family. The show takes some dizzying twists and turns but that's what makes it so authentic and oft times funny. 

It’s not every day that a new musical comedy/drama is as ready for audiences as 1222 Oceanfront. With most original music (Beautiful Christmas Day”, “Christmas Morn”, “Merry Christmas to Me”, “Cowboy Christmas”) by co- creator Milena (Sellers) Phillips and of course the usual traditional Christmas music, (“Silent Night”, “Hark The Herald Angels Sing”) it has a real holiday feeling especially under the deft direction of Delicia Turner Sonnenberg. 

Milena (Sellers)Phillips and Victor Morris

Phillips also has some pretty sensual moves when she remembers dancing with Victor on a Vegas trip. Dejay Fields is outstanding as a singer and dancer, who, along with Pullman make a strong and very good looking couple. The fact that everyone could sing and the entire cast looked like they were fully involved makes for a truly magical evening. Look for it to become a holiday regular. 

The creative team includes stage manager Beonica Bullard, Set and properties, Savannah Brittian, Sound designer, Violet Ceja, Lighting designer, Daniel Johnson- Carter, Costume designer Channel Mahoney & Joy Yvonne Jones Choreographer, Lisa M. Green and music adaptation & direction by John-Mark Mc Gaha.  

So, back to the question of what does a nice Jewish girl do on the first night of Chanukah?  She goes to the theatre to see a black play filled with charm, love, comedy and drama and the everyday vicissitudes of the Black Family. 

And she lights the candles the for the remaining nights!

Enjoy!

When: 2 p.m. Wednesdays. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays. 8 p.m. Fridays. 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturdays. 2 and 7 p.m. Sundays. Through Dec. 26.

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

Tickets: $20 to $59

Phone: (760) 433-3245

Photo: New Village Arts

Online: newvillagearts.org

COVID protocol: Full vaccination required with at least 14 days from second shot, or negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of performance date. Masks required indoors for all.

Not So Starry, Starry Night for Van Gough in Kimber Lee’s “to the yellow house”

When we think of Vincent van Gough, we think of beautiful sunflowers in full bloom and in different phases of ageing, post impression landscapes, and still life’s, oil paintings, (about one hundred sixty that we know of) portraits, and self -portraits, to say the least. His art is world renowned, and priceless. We know that now. But in Kimber Lee’s “to the yellow house” now in a world premiere production currently at The La Jolla Playhouse through Dec. 12th , sunflowers and the like were the last things on his mind.

Unfortunately for van Gough he suffered through long dark periods of depression and self- doubt.  He was plagued by every negative force that came his way throughout his life especially in the period, two years before his death in 1890, when he was searching in vain for new beginnings while living with his beloved brother and best friend Theo in the yellow house in Paris that Theo rented for the two of them. 

Brooke Ishibashi, Deidra Henry and Paco Tolson

Lee wrote the play after she read “van Gough: The Life”. “For me, this play is about somebody on a journey of figuring out “how do I do this thing that everyone keeps telling me I can’t do?” “The time structure that exists in the play-it’s essentially a memory play-….”

In a two plus hour homage to van Gough, director Neel Keller and Lee trace his tracks from his arrival in Paris at the yellow house and follows his struggles to begin anew and find himself. van Gough hopes, with the help of his brother Theo who is an art dealer, he might get a leg up to show his dark and lackluster paintings but Theo offers nothing but negative comments about his paintings. Frankie J. Alvarez as Theo, Vincent's loving brother who provides financial support is a study in stability, the complete opposite of his brother's instability.

van Gough looks for companionship and friendship from like-minded friends like Paul Gauguin, (Marco Barricilli) and Emile Bernard (DeLeon Dallas).  Through it all Gauguin would be his long lasting friend while the other two were more hail fellow well met friends yet bring some much needed humor to their roles.

Frankie J. Alvarez and Paco Tolson

Deidre Henry is an outstanding Agostina, Vincent’s par amour, Café owner and biggest fan and Brooke Ishibashi is a baker in progress at the café and the first contact Vincent makes when he ventures into town. The seven member ensemble adds more depth and humor to the struggles of Van Gough’s already unsettled life. 

Takeshi Kata’s -two tiered set gives way to dark scapes across the entire stage, with the intent of the audience seeing what Van Gough sees. “I want you to feel what I feel and see what I. see”.

David Israel Reynoso’s costumes are period are right with some color to the overall darkness especially on the women’s costumes. Palmer Hefferan’s sound design, Nicholas Hussongs realistic projections, Masha Tsimring’s lighting, and Alberto “Albee Alvarado wigs and Justin Ellington’s original music fits in with the mood of the story. They all add up to a realistic look and are true to the vision of the playwright's work.

Paco Tolson 

With a strong cast and a steadily convincing, overly morbid and grouchy to a fault Paco Tolson as Vincent, the production tends to be repetitive and depressing, in tune and tone with the moods of van Gough. With tightening and some culling “to the yellow house” will be a find in the annals of serious, historical and educational drama.   

Hat’s off to Kimber Lee for showing us a part of the determination that resides in us all. van Gough never lived to see his masterpieces. He continued to sketch and paint until the very end when he was destitute and finally took his own life, but he never gave up pursuing his dream. 

As a nice touch, volunteers were giving out sunflower masks to the audience. 

‘to the yellow house’ plays through Dec. 12 at La Jolla Playhouse’s Weiss Theatre.

Shows Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.; Wednesday at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; Thursday Friday at 8 p.m. and Saturday at 2 and 8 p.m.; Sunday at 2 and 7 p.m.

Tickets: lajollaplayhouse.org

Proof of vaccination and masks mandatory.

Photos: Rich Soublet II

 ‘to the yellow house’ plays through Dec. 12 at La Jolla Playhouse’s Weiss Theatre.

Ticket information: lajollaplayhouse.org

Proof of vaccination and masks mandatory.

 

“She The People” by Second City Raises a Glass to Women

                   

It was difficult to divide the opening night audience at the San Diego Rep. of “She The People” now on the Lyceum Stage through Dec. 5th as to what genders outnumbered what genders. Clearly the six women ensemble came to bury the male ego not to praise it. (All in fun of course). 

The women in the audience along with a few good men (very few) clapped, yelled and ya hood and were all over each and every act the group performed from taking turns as a group, sanctifying and praising the progress women have made over the years and pointing out there are still miles to go,  mountains to climb and finally leading up to a strong monologue from the first Woman President (Kazi Jones). 

The six women do what Second City has done since its inception in 1959 when the ‘comedy revolution/’began in Chicago; they make people laugh. It is comedy for women written by women. The show includes sketches, music and audience participation. One of my favorites, the game show “You Oughta Know’ where the chosen audience member, who was a good sport, couldn’t identify who the Sec. of State was but knew about the Kardashians.

“She The People” created and originally Directed by Carley Heffernan features for this San Diego showing Lexi Alioto, Kennedy Baldwin, Katie Caussin, Kazi Jones, Yazmin Ramos and Laurel Zoff Pelton. Elisa Wattman is at the piano and is also Music Director. 

Sketches include a number about anyone can have a  ‘gay baby’, women doing commercials demonstrating a shampoo under a waterfall tickled my funny bone and how women want men to look at their faces not their bodies so why not come out as a dinosaur and finally, but not the least last, championing for  having pockets in all women’s clothing.  

With so much material to spoof and jab at and with the men in power still dictating what women can and cannot do with their bodies and the chances of women getting equal treatment like pay in the workplace, “She The People” will never run out of material. 

And while the show was overly over the top, oft times crude and  funny as hell it is just what we need now. Some of the spoofs went fleeting by so fast that yours truly had a difficult time catching up with a few because some skits began while the audience was still laughing at the past skit.  My brain doesn’t work that fast. Sorry ladies, slow down a bit for the old fogies. But do enjoy the experience. 

Some names you might recognize from Second City over the years include Tins Fay, Joan Rivers, Gilder Radner and Amy Sedaris. And yes, there were men in the group as well: John Belushi, John Carey, Martin Short, Alan Arkin and Dan Aykroyd to name a few. 

“Second City: She the People” will run through Dec. 4, with performances at 7 p.m. Sundays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 8 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays. 

Photo: Timothy Schmidt

Tickets are $25 to $91. 

Proof of full vaccination or negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of show time required. 

Masks are also required indoors. 

For tickets, call (619) 544-1000 or sdrep.org.

 

For A Bit of Twisted Holiday Cheer, “For Whom the Southern Belle Tolls” Might be Your Cup of Merriment.

The cast and director, Phil Johnson of Roustabout Theatre Compny and Christopher Durang seem to have a symbiotic relationship in Roustabout’s treatment of its current production “For Whom The Southern Belle Tolls” now at Moxie Theatre through Dec. 4th. 

I say that with tongue in cheek, because, well they all seem to be savoring every tasty morsel of dark humor where Durang spoofs the four or so little playlets with glee, the most polished is the parody on  Tennessee Williams “The Glass Menagerie”. 

The four cast members Wendy Maples, Walter Murray, Omri Schein and Wendy Waddell are all plugged into Durang’s warped humor rapid fire conversation and for ninety crazy minutes, you will laugh yourself silly. Lest we forget, director Johnson can be just as goofy as the rest especially if you remember him with Schein in “Withering Heights” and “She Rantala from Outer Space”. 

l to r Wendey Wadell, Omri Schein, Wendy Maples and Walter Murray

In the first skit married couple Marsha and Jim (Waddell and Murray) are locked into a 13 year ho hum marriage with littler or nothing to talk about when Murray gets a phone call from a long ago high school girlfriend. She wans to come out and visit and ‘talk’ about old times. When she arrives, he’s baffled because he barely recognizes her (she’s gained lots of weight and has had several surgeries on her face) and doesn’t remember ever being close to her. 

Maples is all over Murray with not very convincing push backfrom him much to Waddell’s chagrin. Of the trio, Maples shines as Waddell moans and groans perfectly as the injured wife and Murray frowns and looks surprised loving the attention.

Schein makes several appearances on stage, one as a waiter in a Tea Room annoyed at Murray for not liking borscht but ordering scrambled eggs instead.  In another he plays a writer who is approached by an agent (Maples) to write a play about a Rabbi who wants to marry a priest played by Waddell. That was too funny but Renetta Lloyd’ and Roz Lehman’s costumes of the Orthodox Rabbi stole that segment. 

Omri Schein, Wendy Maples, Wendy Waddell and Walter Murray  as Tom.

The most developed and black as black comedy can get is the takeoff on Williams’ “Glass Menagerie” where Schein is now Lawrence not Laura. Amanda (Waddell) calls him a cripple. Instead of her/his menagerie of animals, Lawrence plays with his cocktail swizzles. He calls them by name driving his mother crazy with his potpourri of illnesses and his refusal to meet anyone.

Murray plays Tom Lawrence’s brother who at Amanda’s urging brings home a lady caller named Ginny (Maples looking like Rosie the Riveter) for Lawrence.  She turns out to be a lesbian. And then Tom the breadwinner goes to the movies every night and brings home his own gentlemen. 

It’s all so…loud as Ginny (Maples almost screams her lines because she’s hard of hearing.  At the end of that segment yours truly was ready to give her my hearing aids. And through it all, Waddell’s Amanda is still the ‘charming’ southern bell who once had seventeen gentlemen callers in one day. But if looks could kill both her children would be dead. 

Omri Schein, Walter Murray Wendy Waddell and Wendy Maples

With an all talented cast and Johnson directing, the laughs came so fast we were barely able to catch our breaths. And for a seasonal show NOT about Christmas this one fits the bill taking our minds off the holidays and the worlds woes for at least ninety fun filled minutes.

Alyssa Kane’s simple set worked well as the quick scenes kept everything moving at rapid speed and Chloe Oliana M. Clark’s lighting is right on.

In case you are interested in any of Durang’s plays try reading or seeing if possible, “Beyond Therapy”, “Sister Mary Explains It All” and “Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike”, the last was seen here at the Old Globe some years ago. 

Enjoy!

“For Whom The Southern Belle Tolls” plays November 20, 21, 23, 27, 28 and Dec. 2-4 at Moxie Theatre, 6663 El Cajon Blvd. 

Talkbacks will be held after the Nov. 21 and 28 matinees.

For tickets: https://www.theroustabouts.org/

Photos: Roustabouts Theatre Company

Proof of COVID-19 vaccination and masks required.

“Hairspray Returns to the Big Stage at the Civic and Knocks the Audience Off Its Feet

 “Hairspray”, Broadway’s Great Big Fat Gorgeous Hit (Clive Barnes) is back for yet another go around at the Civic Theatre through November 21st. Winner of eight 2003 Tony Awards including Best Musical and directed by our own Jack O’Brien of Old Globe fame, the Broadway cast starred Marissa Jaret Winokur as Tracy Turnbald and Harvey Fierstein (the King or Queen of drag and the quintessential Edna Turnbald) as her mother, Edna. Both won Tony’s for their respective roles.

Niki Metcalf as Tracy

“Hairspray”, based on the New Line Cinema film written and directed by John Walters who was also the creative consultant for the musical, with Mark O’Donnell and Thomas Meehan who wrote the book, original score by Academy Award nominated Marc Shaiman, and lyrics by Scott Wittman and Marc Shaiman, takes place in Baltimore, 1962 where things ‘they were a changin’. 

Welcome to the 60’s sung by the Dynamites Caira Asante, Mea Wilkerson, and Renee Reid. And as an afterthought this is what was happening in the ‘60’s. 

Words like Afro, Beehive, Extensions, Perm, Pig Tails, Pompadour, Skunking and Teasing were made popular. The Civil Rights Act, Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho”, JFK, Bay of Pigs, Peace Core, Cuban Missile Crisis and the death of Marilyn Monroe were a few items that made history in the early 60’s. That we were in for some trying times would be an understatement for years to come.

For Baby Boomers I and younger who may not remember the ‘60’s here are a few dances that thrived then: ‘Stricken Chicken’; ‘The Madison’; The Locomotion’; ‘The Handjive’; ‘The Bug’; ‘The Pony’; ‘The Mashed Potato’ and ‘The Twist’. Lord knows what the dances are called now and that would be dating me past the Polka, the Tango, Cha Cha and the Waltz. 

With a sustained energy by the entire cast compared only to the EveryReady Battery, O’Brien dusted this new touring show (first stop here) off with some updated language and a few political and local references as the production moved along like clockwork.

Overall though, the cast is one of the best balanced I’ve seen with the likes of  Niki Metcalf as Tracy Turnblad the overweight girl with the two tone bouffant, teased to hilt who gets the hunk Will Savarese as Link Larkin the wannabe Elvis look alike), or that her best friend, Penny (Emery Hendreson) supports her to the hilts: “My mother’s going to kill me for going to jail without her permission”.)

Tonisha Harris, Niki Metcalf and Andrew Levitt

 Then as now written into the show, Tracy’s one goal after being able to dance on the famous Corny (Billy Dawson) Collins Show with its white dancers and white producer Velma (Addisonj Gardner and her conceited daughter Amber (Kaelee Albritton) is to integrate the show with the matter of her being overweight right in front of us to judge or not how capable plus sized folks can perform and compete with anyone. 

Hats off to Niki for the dynamism she brings to the show along with her fellow actor Brandon G. Stalling as Seaweed J. Stubbs andother exceptional dancer and ultimately Penny’s boyfriend.

Cast

The underlying theme of integration was a biggie then but since the  Black Lives Matter  movement, the energy in the theatre on opening night proved to be a winning point and especially when her newly found friend Mototmouth Belle (bring the house down Toneisha Harris, “I Know Where I’ve Been”) will eventually host the Collins show once a month on ‘Negro Day’. 

Then there is the matter of Tracy’s parents. Her mother Edna (drag queen star Andrew Levitt aka Nina West) is one of the most beautiful and loving Edna I’ve seen as she tries to protect her daughter from getting hurt, while her dreams of becoming a famous designer are coming to fruition.

Her husband Wilber (Christopher Swan) is just the right person to fit the bill in their loving and caring relationship. Their big production number “Timeless To Me” is worth the whole show. It’s fun, loving, caring and just sweet. It brought tears to my eyes. It sums up the feeling of the show.

Some credits are due: Scenic design by David Rockwell, Sound design by Shannon Slaton, Wigs and Hair design by Paul Huntley and Richard Mawbey, Video designs by Patrick W. Lord and  Conductor Patrick Hoagland was in the pit and life was beautiful for 2 plus hours.

The New York Times said about the show: “If life were everything it should be, it would be more like Hairspray.”

Photo by: Chris Bennion and Jeremy Daniel

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday. 8 p.m. Friday. 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday.

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

Tickets: $35 to $120

Online: broadwaysd.com

COVID protocol: Proof of full vaccination required or negative COVID-19 PCR test within 72 hours of showtime or rapid antigen test performed by a medical professional within 12 hours of showtime. Masks required indoors.