THE FABULOUS FABLES OF AESOPS …Santa Monica

According to legend, Aesop was a slave in ancient Greece who won honors, and his freedom, from telling stories that resonate with moral truths. There have been picture books, plays, TV shows, movies, anthologies, albums – you name it – retelling these delightful fables. In fact, my composer husband’s contributions can be seen on You Tube in: Ralph Martell’s, Aesop’s Fables in Song. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOxy7NNfgooB-w8Dy07DJ2Q.

 

Jo Galloway

Arturo Lopez

Now, ShoWorks Entertainment, after a successful Indiegogo campaign, is bringing this live-action, long-running success in South Africa, to California. Originally created by the late performer/teacher/producer/director Keith Galloway, this bright and colorful children's musical has been delighting audiences there for the last 30 years.

Actors, Jo Galloway, Arturo Lopez, Emmanuelle Girard and Chris Worley, perform in these tales, chock full of song, dance, and humorous predicaments. We meet animals engaged in human-like situations that are sure to resonate with both children and adults alike.

Emmanuelle Girard

Chris Worley

There is my personal favorite, The Lion & The Mouse; the ever so pertinent, The Tortoise & The Hare; and a few I hadn’t heard before, The Fox & The Miser, The Wolf & His Shadow, and The Peacock & The Crow. 

Then, of course, the ever popular winter’s tale, The Ant & The Grasshopper!

So, go and enjoy, but don’t forget to bring the grandkids!

At The Edgemar Center for the Arts, 2437 Main Street, Santa Monica, through July 31st. Tickets: 310-392-7327 or online at www.edgemarcenter.org

Also listed in the July issue of NOT BORN YESTERDAY.

ECCENTRICITIES OF A NIGHTINGALE …in Venice

Tennessee by David Levine

  

This is the revised version by Tennessee Williams of his 1948 hit play and film, Summer and Smoke. As always, his portraits of women are impeccable and, in this ultimately heart breaking drama, we might be meeting the young Blanche Dubois. 

Alma Winemiller is a chaste minister’s daughter, deeply in love with John, the rascally boy next door. Now a young doctor, he tries to convince her that lovemaking is a way to achieve spiritual wholeness, but she resists his obvious attempts to seduce her. However, this passionate young woman finds she cannot suppress powerful desires and throws herself at him with humiliating consequences. As in Williams other plays, we see how love leaves us vulnerable to complex and sometimes cruel relationships.

Geraldine Page’s portrayal of Alma in the 1961 film version of Summer and Smoke, earned her an Oscar nomination but, when Williams revised it in 1964, he wrote in an author’s note that he preferred Eccentricities, saying “It is less conventional and melodramatic.” Well, you decide.

Dana Jackson directs a cast that includes Ginna Carter as Alma; Andrew Dits as John; Brad Greenquist as Rev. Winemiller with Mary Jo Deschanel his wife; Rita Obermeyer is John’s mother; plus Paul Anderson, Joan Chodorow, Choppy Guillotte, Amy Huntington, and Derek Chariton.

Producer Sara Newman-Martins, Executive Producer Marilyn Fox. Set by Kis Knekt, sound by Ken Boot and Christopher Moscatiello, costumes by Christine Cover Ferro.

 

At The Pacific Resident Theatre, 703 Venice Blvd. Venice, through August 14. Tickets: (310) 822-8392 or online at http://www.pacificresidenttheatre.com.

Also listed in the July issue of NOT BORN YESTERDAY

42ND STREET …in Hollywood

 

Come and meet those dancing feet! They will amaze and delight you in this rip roaring revival of the 1980’s Broadway musical, based on the classic 1933 movie. You know the story: starry-eyed young singer-dancer comes to Broadway hoping for a big break, the leading lady is out of commission, the girl goes on in her place, and a theater legend is born. “You’re going out there a nobody, but you’re coming back a star!” the director booms, and 83 years later it still gives you goose bumps.

 

You’ll want to sing along to such hits as “We’re In The Money,” “Lullaby of Broadway,” “Shuffle Off To Buffalo,” “I Only Have Eyes For You” and of course “42nd Street.” The music is by Harry Warren, lyrics by Al Dubin. Originally directed and choreographed by Gower Champion, it was an instant hit and ran on Broadway for over 8 years.

Leading the terrific cast, Matthew Taylor is the bullying director, Kaitlin Lawrence the diva, and Caitlin Ehlinger the chorine wannabe. Able support by LaMont Brown, DJ Canady and Britte Steele. 

 

Plaudits to director Mark Bramble (original co-author with Michael Stewart) and choreographer Randy Skinner; to Roger Kirk for mind-blowing costumes, and to the dancers, who appear and disappear, then after only seconds off stage, reappear in new costumes tap tapping gloriously.

A Troika Entertainment LLC production. At the Hollywood Pantages Theatre, 6233 Hollywood Blvd (near Vine)  Through June 19.

Tickets: (800) 982-2787 or www.HollywoodPantages.com/42nd Street.

BIRDER …North Hollywood

  

A Birder is someone who seriously pursues bird-watching and, in this comedy, a middle-aged accountant starts getting messages from the finches nesting by his kitchen window. When a male finch looks him in the eye and sees through his upper middle class façade the guy bursts into tears. He keeps his anguish secret from his free-spending wife, who he is supporting way beyond their means, but from then on his life unravels. He quits his job, goes bankrupt, and is too fearful to tell anyone.

To while away the hours he starts bird watching with a local birder and, through the example of his new friend, realizes that downsizing has life-enhancing rewards. Although the characters are believable, the situations author Julie Marie Myatt puts them through seem too contrived. To suggest that communicating with birds might be a transcendental experience just doesn’t click. A dog might see into your heart and make you rethink your lack of joy, but a finch? A sparrow?

 

The cast, under Dan Bonnell’s smooth direction, perform admirably. Chet Grissom is the perplexed hero and Laurie Okin his acquisitive wife. Webster Williams is the philosophical bird-lover with Monique Gelineau his flirtatious daughter. Crash Buist is the brazenly over-confident youth of the future. Commissioned and developed by Center Theatre Group, Birder is produced by Donna Simone Johnson and Ann Hearn.

At the Road on Lankershim, 5108 Lankershim Blvd. NoHo, through June 19. Tickets 818-761-8838 or www.RoadTheatre.org. Photos by Michele Young.

A SENIOR’S GUIDE TO THE FRINGE …in Hollywood

If you love live theater you don’t want to miss this year’s Hollywood Fringe Festival. It’s a plethora of riches, celebrating freedom of expression and collaboration in the performing arts community. Participation in the Hollywood Fringe is completely open and uncensored. By opening the gates to anyone with a vision, the Festival exhibits the most diverse and cutting-edge points-of-view you can imagine. With nearly 300 shows by passionate entrepreneurs you get to choose your favorites.

Along Theatre Row the numerous small houses will be buzzing with activity. Its like the early days of the Off Off Broadway movement in New York when I first cut my teeth playwriting & directing. There’s a free booklet listing all the shows, some with photos, with clear descriptions of what they’re about so you can choose your favorite topic. There are memoirs, biographies, theatre, comedy, cabaret, magic, dance, fantasies, musicals, horror, sex, drugs, and rock n roll!

Ben Hill

My personal selections so far this year include Broadway veteran Tony Tanner’s Who Are You Anyway?; Stephen Adly Guirgis’ black comedy Den of Thieves; solo shows on Richard Pryor Pryor Truth, and Stokely Carmichael Power!; there's women who shoplift Sticky Fingers; a comedy Charlotte’s Shorts; Post Mortem Movement’s I Was Hamlet, and, written and directed by myself, Ariel Labasan in Yuri Speaks Out!  Here’s a link to the web-version of the Guide: http://www.hollywoodfringe.org/guide.

  

Now in its 7^th year, with Ben Hill as Festival Director, the Hollywood Fringe is one of the largest open-access Arts Festivals in the world, with the 2015 Festival generating $400,000 in ticket sales. June 9-26. Tickets through www.HollywoodFringe.org.

Also posted in the June issue of NOT BORN YESTERDAY.