STAGE in Pasadena: Winter Schedule

WINTER SCHEDULE

31 December 2008: Glendale Centre Theatre – Barefoot in the Park

This Neil Simon classic was made into a movie with Jane Fonda (before her Vietnam protest and aerobics video) and Robert Redford (before Sundance and the Sundance Kid). Ends 7 February.

10-25 January: A Noise Within - Waiting for Godot

A reprise of this wonderful production. I might even go see it again!

10-25 January: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion – The Magic Flute

15 January: Mark Taper Forum – Pippin

This small but popular musical is directed by Jeff Calhoun and produced with Deaf West Theatre. Ends March 15.

16 January: The Sierra Madre Playhouse – Murder on the Bounding Main

This comedy mystery takes place on a ship. Ends 21 February 2009.

21 January: Ahmanson Theatre – Minsky’s

A racy new musical set in a time when entertainment was about legs and laughs is what the Web site professes. Ends 1 March 2009.

21 January: Pasadena Playhouse – Stormy Weather

Leslie Uggams as Lena Horne. Written by Sharleen Cooper Cohen. Ends 28 February 2009.

18 February: David Henry Hwang Theatre – Ixnay

This play by Paul Kikuchi is about a Japanese American who refuses to be reincarnated as a Japanese American. Ends 15 March 2009.

21 February: The Theatre@Boston Court – Tartuffe

21 February – 15 March: Dorothy Chandler Paviilion – Das Rheingold

Moliere’s classic re-envisioned by director Josh Chambers. Ends 22 March 2009.

6 March: The Sierra Madre Playhouse – Picnic

7 March: A Noise Within - Taming of the Shrew Ends 17 May.

William Inge’s classic about love, lust and a wandering man who causes trouble in a small town. Ends 11 April 2009.

20 March: Pasadena Playhouse – Mauritius

Written by Theresa Rebeck and directed by Jessica Kubzansky, this follows a woman and her relatives trying to get the rights to a rare stamp collection. Ends 26 April 2009.

21 March: A Noise Within – Ghosts

Henrik Ibsen’s play is billed as a haunting tale of unrequited passion and revelation. It ends 9 May.

4-25 April: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion - Die Walkure

11-16 April: Dorothy Chandler Pavilion – The Birds

18 April: A Noise Within – The Rehearsal

In Jean Anouilh’s play a count looks for salvation in the purity of a young visitor.

9 May: The Theatre@Boston Court – Courting Vampires

A world premiere written by Laura Schellhardt and directed by Jessica Kubzansky. Is about a young woman who falls victim to a fatal blood disease and a vampire is involved (but probably no garlic).

13 May: David Henry Hwang Theatre – Marry Me a Little & The Last Five Years

Two musical plays about love for the price of one. Ends 7 June 2009.

No current production schedule for:

The Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena

Furious Theatre Company at the Carrie Hamilton Theatre in Pasadena.

StillSpeaking Theatre in San Marino

Review: Earth and Sky @ Sierra Madre Playhouse

It is a dark and stormy night in the “contemporary urban underworld,” somewhere in the USA where cellular phones do not yet exist and young part-time librarians and full-time poets solve mysteries. Yes, you do have to suspend your disbelief for Douglas Post’s “Earth and Sky” as the production at the Sierra Madre Playhouse veers from parody to serious pseudo-reality noir.

Set designer David Calhoun constructed a wonderfully gritty black-and-white cityscape where young poet Sara (Kristi Leigh Snyder) falls in love (and soon into bed) with restaurant owner David (Richard Trujillo), who is up to his neck in debt. David is murdered and implicated in a nasty kidnap, rape and murder. Sara doesn’t believe the story told about her love by two old-school detectives, the always-eating Kersnowski (Dennis Delsing) and the skirt-chasing Weber (Brian Francis).

Post’s script divides the action between the past and the present. The progression of David and Sarah’s two-month romance plays backwards from their last phone conversation to their first meeting while Sarah’s sleuthing is in chronological order. Under the direction of Jerry Morrison, Delsing’s Kersnowski and Francis’ Weber are almost parodies of TV show detectives. In their black, crumpled raincoats they seem to be slumping into Columbo territory, but Columbo would have asked costume designer Lois Tedrow why Sara was dressed in a thin fluttery dress if the weather is so damp. Think wet T-shirt contest and you’ll understand how practical that is.

Luckily, there is no water, just a lot of atmospheric sound effects courtesy of sound designer Barry Schwam, but what is also not seen is the development of Snyder’s Sara from a timid librarian to the strong woman who recklessly and stupidly strides into meetings with hit men (Terrence Gehr Cody and Thom Sanford). She seems too intelligent to be going alone, out on a dark and stormy night to meet known killers such as king of the slice-and-dice Eisenstadt (Cody).

Yet the delicate development of a trusting relationship between Trujillo’s David and Snyder’s Sara has some truth to it, especially when we finally see their chemistry during their initial meeting — both tentatively reaching out and yearning for a true connection, made all the more poignant because we already know how it ends.

“Earth and Sky” continues at 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and at 2:30 p.m. Sundays.through Aug. 9 at the Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre. Call (626) 256-3809 or visit www.sierramadreplayhouse.org.

*reprinted from the Pasadena Weekly

Theatre Opening – “Earth and Sky” @ Sierra Madre Playhouse

If you know me, then you know that Law&Order holds a special place in my heart along with Sherlock Holmes. Murder, mayhem and the men and women who deal with the perps always interest me.

On Friday night, 27 June 2008, at 8 p.m., the Sierra Madre Playhouse’s production of “Earth and Sky” by Douglas Post opens. This like “Beau Jest” is a love story, but one most tragic. Sara falls in love with David. David gets murdered and Sara wants to find out why. Curiosity killed that cat; will it also kill Sara?

Better Late than Never Review – “Beau Jest” at Sierra Madre Playhouse

Introducing your new romantic partner to your parents can be stressful and has been the topic of numerous plays and movies. James Sherman’s “Beau Jest” (not to be confused with “Beau Geste,” the movie or the 1924 novel about a noble gesture resulting and the foreign legion) is a predictable, situation comedy given a charming and lively production at the Sierra Madre Playhouse.

Sarah (Meg Wolf) is a lovely kindergarten teacher with a boyfriend problem: Her current beau, Chris (John Lysaght), isn’t Jewish. She is and her parents (Rosina Pinchot and Howard Krupnick) expect her to marry a nice Jewish boy, hopefully a doctor. She’s told her parents that she’s dropped Chris in favor of Dave, a Jewish surgeon. The problem is: Dave doesn’t exist. She hires Bob (Travis Nefores), an escort and actor, to play the part. Yet he also isn’t Jewish.

Says Sarah in a panic, “You’ve heard of gaydar? They have Jew-dar.”

Bob as Dave passes the parental Jewdar and not only charms his way into the family, but also into Sarah’s heart. Sarah’s divorced brother, Joel (Jonas Gabriel) is more skeptical.

Wolf’s Sarah is sweet in a messy frenetic way, and she’s a marshmallow, too soft to hold true to her own feelings and convictions. Lysaght strikes the right note as a defensive boyfriend, put off by the imposter and his own desire to be the official boyfriend. Nefores as Bob has a calmness that strikes one as being natural kindergarten teacher material and a good counterpoint to Wolf’s nervous Sarah. Pinochot and Krupnick are believable as a couple who have replaced small talk with bickering and complaining.

Under Stan Kelly’s direction, we feel that all the characters love Sarah and that Sarah, in her own way, loves everyone. This fun, little trifle is family friendly was a delightful surprise. It’s a shame this little gem of a production didn’t get more publicity. My apologies.