Curtain Calls

By Charlene Baldridge

Week Ending August 27, 2010

Brenda winds down with SummerFest and catches her first Luscious Noise, while Charlene played catch up with MiXtape, and began trying to cram all the fall openings into the calendar. No time for personal play yet, because Charlene's been in the throes of the usual monthly deadline plus final copy-editing of a book. No wonder her eyes are tired, eh?

Last week in the preface she promised stuff that she did not deliver. We apologize. Somewhere between "get ready" and "go" Charlene sent an entire review to oblivion and Brenda, the patient one, had to rewrite it. Numerous planes were circling the field of our productivity, and though we managed to bring them in, some ideas were left in mid air. Charlene promises she will try to do better this week.

The Asian Blanche

THE SHOW: Amy Cho's BFE, directed by Peter James Cirino for San Diego Asian American Repertory, in residence at La Jolla Playhouse's Theodore and Adele Shank Theatre

THE STORY: Isabel (Elise Kim Prosser) has agoraphobia and watches TV all day. She lives (in her satin nightgown) with her brother Lefty (Albert Park), who supports Isabel and her 14-year-old illegitimate daughter Panny (Carolyn Henderson), whose birthday she has forgotten. Panny's only social outlets are her blond girlfriend Nancy (Jeanneal Gunning) and her Korean pen pal, Hae-Yoon (Trinity Tuyen Tran) who we see on video. Also on video, fairly constant shots of the action as well as Isabel's fantasies of Douglas McArthur (Michael Tutino), whom she believes was the lover who impregnated her. In reality, there is a serial killer in "the middle of nowhere" town (Arizona), and the most recent slaying was that of a girl at Panny's "Podunk school."

Carolyn Henderson and Tony Perez

When he's not working as a security guard at a major department store, Lefty creates miniature avatars and paints them with brushes that have as few as two hairs. This impresses a lovely African-American clerk (Lynae DePriest) with whom he falls in love. Meanwhile Panny wrong-dials a 20-year-old named Hugo (John Alspough) and a phone friendship springs up. Tony Perez plays a man Panny sees shoplifting at the Walgreen's where Nancy works.

The play is excruciatingly funny until it is not. Mom is certainly the Asian equivalent of Blanche DuBois, except there's nothing subtle and genteel about her when she interacts with a man. Poor pizza guy hasn't a chance. Lefty volunteered to take care of his sister and her illegitimate child and now he's stuck with a mentally ill sis and her teen-angst progeny.

THE PERFORMERS are more than adequate in this difficult, cinematic work. Henderson excels as the nervous Panny, who sets up, then lives her story. Prosser has some excellent moments as the agoraphobic mother, and both Park as Lefty and Alspough as Hugo are appealing as the men in Panny's life, loving uncle and seemingly kind, though older phone pal. When she leaves the relative safety of home to meet Hugo at Walgreen's, Panny is headed for annihilation. As her assailant, Perez is handsome and so scary. The denouement is fraught with suspense, and the aftermath, tragic for the play's three lonely characters.

THE PRODUCTION: Scenic designer C.L. Ward's set is a life-size jigsaw, made up of sculptural rolling pieces that when rolled into place make up the various scenarios that change frequently. Cinematic scenes, and we've seen lots this week, do try one's patience. Mandy Nelson is costume designer; Kelli Jean Groskopf, lighting designer; and Kevin Anthenill, sound designer. Samuel Dent and Park provide the media design, which is constant. Director Cirino does what he can to keep things rolling smoothly. Kudos to the company for memorizing all those color-coded "marks." As Spencer Tracy once said, "Know your lines and don't bump into the furniture." In this case the "furniture" is the thing.

THE LOCATION: 7:30 pm Thursdays-Saturdays and 2:30 pm Sundays through September 19 at the Theodore and Adele Shank Theatre, UCSD Theatre District, La Jolla Playhouse, 2910 La Jolla Village Dr. Reservations email sdaarttix@gmail.com or phone (619) 940-5891.

NOTE: AART is the third local theatre company to participate in La Jolla Playhouse's Resident Theatre Program, which gives an annual residency to a gypsy theatre. The first two resident theatres were MOXIE Theatre and Mo'olelo Performing Arts Company. Also note, "BFE" cannot be translated for your delicate eyes, but it has to do with the Arizona town's "podunkness" and a well-known four-letter word.

BOTTOM LINE: a worthy effort

This review dispenses with format.

MiXtape takes a bit of getting used to from the standpoint of era, but it is cleverly done (written by Lamb's familiar Jon Lorenz, who also provides musical arrangements and musical direction, and staff member Colleen Kollar Smith, who also acts as choreographer). Once the viewer/listener realizes that these are brink-of-midlife peeps looking back on their high school and college days and the music and accouterments that accompanied their lives, one finds perspective. What really matters is personality, and this company has it in the personas of its performers, Season Marshall Duffy, Louis Pardo, Leonard Patton, Michelle Pereira, Spencer Rose, Lance Arthur Smith, Spencer Rowe and Joy Yandell.

Spencer Rowe, Season Duffy, Louis Pardo and Joy Yandell  Photo: J.T. Macmillan

Many are known from previous shows at Lamb's and around town, notably Rowe for his appearance as Eddie in the Old Globe's Lost in Yonkers. But who knew he could sing and move like that? His persona is consistent throughout, tough, a bit disengaged and über-masculine. With a great but adaptable mop of naturally curly hair, Pardo makes an impressive debut with a persona so vulnerable that looking into his eyes causes one to well up (I know that kid!). And he can dance and sing. Aided by Jemima Dutra's outrageous period costumes and some fabulous wigs, Lance Arthur Smith displays a fine comic sense and his usual musical excellence. Leonard Patton is so accessible and so vocally fine he can be in my dream company any day.

The ranks of women: Marshall is maturing nicely and seems really to enjoy herself and all her wigs. She is fine and sassy. I know I've seen Yandell before, but she is impressive and affecting in this show, both with her amazing dancing and the quality of her vocalism. Pereira, a true alto, has much to add vocally, though she seems a bit pale and earthbound in company of the others. Wuebben is a seasoned performer also in the ranks of my dream company. She can do no wrong.

Though there is no book other than a few funny and heartfelt observations, the company manages to create dramatic possibility and interest merely by looks, attitude and movement. Credit director Kerry Meads for this. The structure of the piece bothers me a bit. Act II devolves into a kind of "let's give everyone a solo" mentality that never really allows that to happen. Performers appear like wraiths from the superstructure of Mike Buckley's amazing set, all metal and neon, ramps, platforms and stairs.

Joy Yandell, Spender Rowe and Marci Anne Wuebben Photo: J.T. Macmillan

To its credit, the book mentions but does not pontificate on drug use, AIDS, the Nixon-era Challenger disaster and the reunification of Germany.

Among the (117!) songs or fragments thereof are "Material World," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "Sunglasses at Night," "Mad World" and "True Colors." The company does some fine a cappella singing. The band occasionally dons wigs (love the Rod Stewart fright wig and the Richard Simmons ‘fro). The fun is catching those icons and superstars you recognize. If you're not of the era or your kids aren't of the era, just sit back and enjoy the spectacle and the sound that fill your ears. No hearing aids needed.

The band-Andy Ingersoll (conductor/keyboard), Rik Ogden (guitar), David Rumley (drums), Oliver Shirley (bass) and Nick Spear (guitar)-is extraordinary.

Personal note: My youngest child left for college in 1978 so I recognize some of this music, but not much. I do, however, appreciate the excellence of its performance. I certainly recognize the jazzercise and the gigantic early cell phone, though I availed myself of neither.

MiXtape continues (in extension) through October 24, 7:30 pm Tuesdays-Thursdays, 8 pm Fridays and Saturdays; 4 pm Saturdays; 2 pm Sundays, at Horton Grand Theatre, 444 4th Avenue, San Diego, www.lambsplayers.org or (619) 437-6000

BOTTOM LINE: Best Bet

Robin and the 7 Hoods through August 29 at Old Globe Theatre Tuesdays through Sundays, www.theoldglobe.com or (619) 239-2255

Song of Extinction through September 4  at ion theatre company's BLKBox @ 6th & Penn, 3704 6th Avenue, Hillcrest, www.iontheatre.com www.iontheatre.com or (619) 600-5020

The Norman Conquests through November 7 at Cygnet Theatre's Old Town Stage, www.cygnettheatre.com or (619) 337-1522

MiXtape (reviewed above) through October 24, www.lambsplayers.org or (619) 437-6000

NEWS AND VIEWS

I attended Write Out Loud's TWAIN TOLD TALES Monday, Aug. 24, and as I listened to Twain's sparkling language and amusing stories, I was reminded of the August 21 story "Why Johnny Can't Deep Read," heard on NPR's "All Things Considered." I was also dismayed over a news report told me by my crackerjack former editor Anne Terhune, who after commiserating with me over some dreadful edits made in a story by an "editorial assistant" who doesn't know that a viola is not a violin, told me that the Sweetwater district high school has jettisoned literature in favor of newspaper editorials, advertisements and non-fiction reading to better prepare students for college. A college prof quoted in the article said that students would read classic literature later, on their own. Annie says, "Yeah, like that's gonna happen in most cases."

In the National Public Radio story host Audie Cornish talked with Google CEO Eric Smith, who had lamented the decline of "deep reading" as long ago as last March. Smith said, "Everyone I work with spends all their time in short form-short message, short communication." See below for the definition of deep reading and more: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129348373

The next WRITE OUT LOUD program keeps deep reading alive, at least as it falls upon the ear, with the first public reading of Richard Platt's Ripples from Walden Pond: an Evening with Henry David Thoreau, with Francis Gercke as Thoreau. 7 pm Monday, October 4. www.writeoutloudsd.com or (619) 297-8953.

DANCE DEPARTMENT

Ata recent luncheon get together, Malashock Associate Artistic Director Michael Mizerany told me about Malashock/Raw, pieces that he, John Malashock and Bradley Michaud are setting. Michael promised that it's not as raw as some of his work, but it will be more raw than Malashock's usual fare, hence the appellation, along with an obvious connection with the comestibles. The press release describes "works that are fearless, dynamic, and exhibit both athleticism and sensuality seldom seen on the San Diego dance stage." Malashock/Raw will be produced November 11-14 at Sushi. Meanwhile, look for the annual "Malashock Thinks You Can Dance!" fundraiser at Birch North Park Theatre October 9. The next episodes of Malashock's Chagall will be seen October 20-21 at Oceanside Museum of Art. Details at www.malashockdance.org

Michael Mizerany

BRENDA IN THE BASEMENT

Brenda attended San Diego Symphony Pops Classical night, heard Priti Gandhi save the day at SummerFest, and attended the third and final La Jolla Music Society/SummerFest Schumann lecture (Russell Steinberg) and concert.

First though, she satisfied her longing for new classical music with La Jolla Music Society's SummerFest Commissions, a program titled "Premieres and Reprises" presented August 20 at Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego's, (MCASD'S) Sherwood Auditorium in La Jolla. Charlene's friend Robert Tannenbaum, an opera director who now lives and teaches in Munich and is in town for his annual San Diego sojourn, accompanied her. We had early supper at Roppongi and then attended the concert prelude, which was a performance of Antonin Dvorak's String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Opus 105, one of Robert's favorites. It was played by The Hausmann Quartet, a marvelous group that will be in residence at San Diego State University in the coming academic year.

WHEN IS A PREMIERE NOT A PREMIERE? When it's a West Coast premiere

UCSD composer Chinary Ung was on hand for the West Coast premiere of his commissioned work AKASA: "Formless Spiral," which received its world premiere at Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival the previous week. The work is so sultry in its unspecific ethnic references that Tondeleyo could jump out of the woodwork at any moment, called forth by David Cossin's percussion and violist Susan Ung's playing, vocalizing and whistling. Also vocalizing and playing simultaneously were Cossin, pianist Stephen Gosling, pipa player Wu Man, and cellist Felix Fan. In his program note the composer says that the chanted text is "mainly phonemes and syllables with some Pali and Sanskrit, and, here and there, phrases of words in Khmer." That would be the "middle" language of India, Hindu and Buddhist liturgy, and Cambodia. According to a friend who heard AKASA in Santa Fe last week, it sounded much better in Sherwood. I quite enjoyed it.

Also present for his premiere work Epitaphs for String Quintet (played by the composer on viola and the Orion String Quartet) was composer Brett Dean, whose magnificent, complex and deadly difficult work was most affecting in its emotional reactions to the "being without" of companions in life. Despite the elegiac quality of the work's five sections, Dean (b. 1961) proved to be ebullient, articulate and deeply humorous and described his new work as one that falls into his "prickly pear" genre. One could also thus describe the composition's "falling off" qualities. As he says, it is "the apotheosis of the glissando." That's life.

Christopher Rouse's String Quartet No. 3, also premiered earlier this month in Santa Fe, seemed eminently accessible even though the composer describes it as "a schizophrenic having a grand mal seizure," which he further embellished in his talk, revealing it is a drunken schizophrenic (nothing tops this in my life experience, dude. Even though Rouse further describes his work as his most challenging and uncompromising so far, the audience of new music aficionados received it warmly.

IT WAS A MEZZO WEEK

Here it is past mid-August and Sunday night, and Charlene finally sent me to San Diego Symphony Pops where I spent a "Night in France" with Principal Pops Conductor Matthew Garbutt and mezzo-soprano Crystal Jarrell. She sang arias from Werther, Romeo et Juliette, and Samson et Dalilah (the luscious, seductive "Mon coeur souvre ta voix"). The orchestra played such light classical fare as nine movements from Jacques Offenbach's Gaite Parisienne, and Georges Bizet's Suite No. 2 from L'Arlesienne.

Petite is the word for our dinner, $18 meatloaf from Wolfgang Puck. The server asked, "Is there anything else" and I almost asked "Yeah, the rest of my dinner." The sauce was delicious but woman does not live on sauce alone. Be forewarned: a bottle of water is $4 a pop. Guess one pays for the ambience, which head honcho E.B. Ward Gill calls the best outdoor pops in the nation. Next week we plan to eat at the Crab Shack or buy other vendor food. Will let you know how that goes.

Meanwhile, back at SummerFest Saturday night, mezzo-now-soprano Priti Gandhi saved the day. Priti debuted as a soprano last season, singing Musetta in La Boheme at San Diego Opera. During the coming season she sings another role in the upper register, Michaela, the country girl, in Carmen.

IT WAS A MUSIC WEEK

Wednesday night, Brenda attended her first Luscious Noise evening at Anthology. The program and the food and the company were wondrous. San Diego resident David Burge's work for marimba, "When Love Prevails," was played very well by Jason Ginter, whom I am told is a percussionist in the San Diego Symphony. The music was set on dancers Amanda Daly and Rebecca Correia. I was so involved in their little dance story and the fact that these slim young women looked 40 pounds heavier on screen, that I was totally distracted from the music but I can tell you that Ginter's playing of the final chords was lovely.   John Stubbs and violinist Jiaun Yang Photo William Zauscher

Among my favorite things: the way the first musical number, the opening sextet from Strauss's opera, Cappricio, melted right into a video excerpt from the opera, in which musician Flamand and poet Olivier debate the relative importance of music and words, while theatre director La Roche, mouth agape, dozes an a chair. Also on video, Natalie Dessay displaying vocal chops and comedic virtues in a scene from Ariadne auf Naxos, set under a pier with a VW bus in the background. Impressario John Stubbs and his fabulous orchestra, rife with prime SDS musicians, also performed the first movement of Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 9, "Summer" from "The Four Seasons" by Vivaldi (with Jisun Yang playing solo violin), and my favorite, the Adagietto from Gustav Mahler's Fifth Symphony. As played by harpist Julie Smith, I heard the harp part as never before. Mahler played by chamber orchestra...who knew?

Luscious Noise instigator Stubbs conducted the program, which is certainly a miracle of coordination.

There is no printed program: titles and personnel are showed on the big screen above the performers. Kyle Ross Covington played and foot-tapped four to the bar in Leonard Bernstein's "Elegy for Mippy II," written mid-century for Bernstein's beloved dog. Jessie Chang and Dr. Pei-Chun Tsai  turned in a breath-taking section of Strauss's Violin Sonata.

How they ever got all that on one tiny stage is a miracle of planning. In between the live performances were films of scenes from Strauss operas, even one of Carlos Kleiber conducting Strauss in Vienna.
The orchestra was marvelous. Could you believe Mahler with 13 players and harp? Small miracles make for a great evening of music.

Luscious Noise plays at Anthology, 1337 India St., San Diego. Next program is in October. Don't miss this marvelous musical experience. Call (619) 595.0300 or visit www.AnthologySD.com

MORE MUSIC NEWS

"Be yourself; everyone else is already taken." Oscar Wilde

This phrase was contained in an email from composer Jake Heggie (Dead Man Walking and Moby-Dick), who is the most himself of anyone I've ever met. Don't forget, his new CD, "Passing By, Songs of Jake Heggie" comes out on AVIE September 14. Four tightly wrapped advance copies arrived in my mailbox Wednesday. "Our" song, "Motherwit," is in the "Facing Forward/Looking Back" section, sung by Frederica von Stade and Susan Graham. I am beside myself (aren't I usually?) with joy! Also this news, the CD is up on Borders' web site.

Jake Heggie and Charlene Baldridge at the world premiere of his song cycle, Winter Roses, with poetry by Charlene

That's all for now, folks. See you anon.

Charlene Baldridge, member of San Diego Theatre Critics Circle, freelance arts writer, and critic for sdtheatrescene.com 

Email me at charb81@cox.net