A Show Bizzy Weekend

I have often said that Monday and Tuesday are my real weekends.  Two or three show weekends have become the norm lately, especially now that I write for two newspapers.  See the show at night, write the review the next day.

Some shows are more difficult to review than others.  Friday night's The Impromptu at Versailles, a Davis version of a Moliere comedy was one of them.

The Art Theater of Davis was formed three years ago, to fill a niche Director Timothy Nutter felt was lacking in a town with a musical theater company, a Shakespeare company, a company that does both musicals and comedies, but none devoted to producing contemporary modern drama (tho it is unclear how the 17th century Moliere fits into that mold!).  They have done Chekhov, Ibsen, Noel Coward and now Moliere.  Each represents a big hole in my education, as I never studied, read, or even attended works by these authors (well, except for Noel Coward).  

So when I sit down and start to write the review, I know I am at a disadvantage from the get-go, compared to my co-critics, who have been reviewing these kinds of plays for years.  It doesn't help that I struggle to understand what the playwright is getting at.  (This goes for most Shakespeare too).

I do a lot of research and somehow manage to cobble something together which I hope will pass, and then when I read it in the paper a few days later, doesn't really sound like I don't know what I'm talking about.  I've been foolin' 'em for 16 years now.

With plays like August: Osage County, which I saw on Saturday, it's different.

I had not seen this play before, nor had I seen the movie, which, when I saw the play I was happy about.  Much better to have all of the "revelations" surprise me.  

The theater company producing this is Capital Stage, my favorite little theater in Sacramento, and they gathered the cream of the crop for this production.  The lady standing up, Violet Weston, the pill-popping matriarch of the family was played by one of Sacramento's leading actresses, Janis Stevens.  She has done several one-women shows, including Vivien, a show about Vivien Leigh, written especially for Janis,. which she eventually took to New York, where she was nominated for several big awards.  

She also played Katharine Hepburn in Kate, and Maria Callas in Master Class.  But in this show she starred and was a powerhouse.  

Writing the review for this play was easy, but first, since I had enjoyed the play so much, I decided to watch the movie on Netflix.  I enjoyed it as much the second time and felt that Stevens' performance could be favorably with Meryl Streep.

Last week I had more or less of a "vacation."  Only one show to review, and that was Pirates of Penzance, the review for which I could probably write in my sleep.

It was fun review, especially since it was a good production.  I think I managed to get it written in half an hour.

Next week I have the weekend off since I am going to Santa Barbara for my turn to see the kids (Walt went down a few weeks ago for Lacie's birthday).  

But tomorrow is Monday, the first day of my weekend.  I won't even have a car since it's going into the shop to be checked before I take it on an 800 mile trip.

Looking Back

When you answer memes as often as I do, and read other pages which print memes, and read prompts when you are running dry on ideas, invariably at some point you would come across the question "if you could go back in time and change something in your past, what would it be?"

I usually answer a question like this by saying that if I had the choice to go back and change anything, I would not.  I say that every experience in my life has contributed to the person that I am today.  I think of the things that came as a result of very bad things that maybe I could change by going back, but would I want to?

If it had not been for Gilbert's death and the year of studying death and grief after he died, I would have fallen apart when David died.  But I'd been through grief and I knew that no matter how much at the depths you are, you will get better in time.  You are never "over it" but life goes on.

If it had not been for Paul's death, I would never have met Steve and what a loss that would have been.  When I think of all the wonderful people I have met as a result of having Steve as a friend, the good and bad experiences I've gone through as a result of being Steve's friend (the worst, Dickie's death, the best, watching Steve collaborate with Ned and seeing their work performed on the stage of Davies Hall in San Francisco (Yeah, OK, Ned's part was minimal, but still he helped).

If I had the choice before Paul's death of having him die or meeting Steve, of course I would have chosen to keep Paul alive.  But to choose now to go back and reverse all that...I don't know.  Steve changed the person that I was then and to choose to undo those changes...  It would be a difficult decision.

So I try to remain open about the "if you could go back" question.... Until today.  Today I figured out what I would do if I could go back to some period in my former life and change something.

I went to Atria to pick up my mother's laundry today.  I have been working on a big project and so I kept up a chatter about the project and how much I was enjoying (mums the word until it's finished) and so our visit went very well.  

I told her about my internet experience with Jeri recently, where I was watching streming video from Berklee and texting her while she was on the other side of Boston, in the orchestra pit for a production of Drowsy Chaperone and then I had to leave to go review A Chorus Line.  

My mother and I talked about how much I'd loved theater all my life.   I remember going to shows in high school, and ushering as many shows as I could in college (so I could get free tickets).

She said she guessed I'd received the theater genes from my grandparents, who were in vaudeville.  As I have written a few times, my grandmother was a dancer in a chorus line and my grandfather was an Irish tenor in a quartet (The Columbia Four). 

They left show biz when my father was born and my grandmother never talked about it and when my grandfather was offered a recording contract, she refused to let him go to New York to discuss it.

I knew as soon as we began talking about things what I would want to do if I could revisit any part of my life.

I would like to go back, knowing what I know now, and interview my grandparents about being in vaudeville.  I want to know how old they were when they started performing, if they had any experience before joining a vaudeville company and how they were "hired." 

What did their parents think of them performing in what may have been a questionable profession at the turn of the 20th century.

 

I want to know what it was like traveling up and down California with the Dillon and King company. Who were their friends in the company? What did they do when they weren't performing? How much did they get paid?

They never, ever discussed being in show business that I can remember. I'd like to know why.  It's clear they stopped performing because they decided to live as a family, not as itinerant show biz types, but what was that decision like?

Were they happy to give up, or sad to leave the life?

So many questions I have now that will never be answered.  But the next time someone asks me what I would do if I could go back to some period in my life and change something, you'll bet I'll be answering that I have a bunch of questions to ask my grandparents, especially in light of how I have lived my life and how our family has lived their lives.

Hot and Cold Running Show Biz

Most of the time in the summertime things are relatively comfortable for a critic. You may have a brief walk in hot and/or humid weather from wherever you park your car, but then you get to a nice air conditioned theatre, you pick up an icy cold bottle of water, and you sit for a couple hours under the cool air and by the time you come out, the sun has gone down, the cement has cooled and it's a comfortable walk to your air conditioned car.

In my first couple of years as a critic, I hated the nights when Music Circus opened a show. Music Circus, for many, many years, performed in a big circus tent. The audience sat in things that resembled movie directors chairs. There were swamp coolers that blew cold air in that got to maybe a couple of rows, but it was hot and uncomfortable and the chairs were murder, especially on generous butts.

California Musical Theatre, of which Music Circus is the summer wing, built this big expensive new theatre, still in the shape of a circus tent, but with comfy seats, real walls and, best of all, working air conditioning. It made reviewing those summer shows much more appealing.

But today I couldn't escape the heat. I had made arrangements to meet Jared Martin, a young filmmaker I interviewed a year or so ago about his first film, The Lost Boys of Sudan. Jared has a new film showing in the upcoming Sacramento Film Festival and I had made arrangement to meet him at a table outside Peet's Coffee, where we met last time, for another interview.

Of course when I made the arrangement, I had no idea how hot it was going to be today. I tried to find a table indoors, unsuccessfully, so I sat outside and waited for Jared, sweat pouring off my face. We had a nice discussion about his new film, Smiley.

It was delightful to spend some time with this talented young man again and to get caught up on what his original film has done (talk of it being picked up by a cable channel; some interesting folks finding it on YouTube, etc.)

It wasn't the most comfortable interview I've ever done and I noticed that when we parted, he went into Peet's with a cup in his hand...I'm sure I could have suggested moving inside where it was cool and he would have been as happy as I would have been!

I really wasn't looking forward to the evening, when I was set to review three one-act plays for Barnyard Theatre. Barnyard Theatre is a real barn...

...which, like Mickey and Judy before them, a group of theatre kids turn into a working theatre in the summers. This is the 7th season and they have done marvelous creative things here, but it is a barn, which is open to the elements, and the goats, sheep, horses and chickens who live here when the actors go home. The theatre company sprays patrons with bug spray to help with the mosquitoes who are frequent guests as well.

I had visions of sitting there, sweating, outside watching the first of the three plays, which was held under a tree near the barn,

and then sweltering as we entered the barn for the second of the three plays.

Actually, as the sun began to sink into the Vaca Mountains, it became damn chilly and I was glad that the entire show was only a couple of hours long, and sorry I hadn't brought some sort of wrap with me.

But the plays were good and told unusual stories that you don't often see, so it was worth it.

Today is supposed to be another triple-digit day, but we're going to fight the heat by going downtown to see Toy Story III. Controled temperatures...and I don't have to write anything about it!

Play It Again, Sam

I just love retrospectives. There was a PBS special about the Best of Broadway on tonight. Not nearly long enough, but what a show. It repeated excerpts from some of the greats of Broadway doing their famous show-stopping numbers with the Boston Pops, under the batons of Arthur Fiedler, John Williams and Keith Lockhart.

There was Ray Bolger, looking and sounding old and a bit shaky at rehearsal, but young and vibrant performing his classic "Once in Love with Amy" from Where's Charlie?

Tears in my eyes watching John Riatt doing "Hey There" from Pajama Game with daughter Bonnie. Ben Vereen at his prime, Sammy Davis Jr., Pearl Baily doing "Hello Dolly," Elaine Page as Evita, Tyne Daly doing "Trouble" from Music Man and Carol King, who could sing the phone book and be riveting.

Carol Channing, of course, doing "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend."

The newer greats of broadway -- Audra MacDonald singing "When I Marry Mr. Snow" from Oklahoma and Kristin Chenowith doing "Glitter and Be Gay" from Candide. Both women are now doing TV shows ("Private Practice" for MacDonald and "Pushing Up Daisies" for Chenowith). I'd forgotten how glorious both voices were, though I listen to Chenowith all the time on my album of Wicked.

And of course there was Bernadette Peters, who not only performed , but was also a co-host of the show.

The show ended with The Big Voice herself, Ethel Merman, doing a medley of many of the songs she introduced on Broadway which have gone on to become classics.

I was so grateful that we live in an age where performances like this have been recorded and stored so that future generations can watch them and see what all the fuss was about.

The age of videotape, of course, is not quite so friendly to Politics as it has been to show business.

There is a new McCain doubletalk video over on my "Look at these Videos." McCain's problem is that he apparently never heard of YouTube or web videos. Otherwise why would he blatantly contradict himself over and over and over again? The best thing about these videos is that they are simply video clips of statements he has made, on both sides of just about every issue. Check it out....and if you haven't seen the earlier one, which I titled "McCain--Hoist on His own Petard," scroll down and check that one too.

There is another video you should watch. It's on this web site and I'd embed it, but you should read the description that goes along with it. This was taken by a woman who videotaped a group of "Yes on 8" demonstrators. The video is pretty bad, but for a group of loving folks who just want to preserve the sanctity of marriage.... well... watch the video.

I'm wondering what the children are learning about this election. The lies continue to pour forth, mostly unchecked by the people spewing them. The Yes on Prop 8 ads are hitting hard that if it doesn't pass, "gay marriage" is going to be taught in the public schools. First of all, I'm wondering what that means exactly. Does it mean that children will learn that the law allows people of the same gender to marry? Well...the law does. Are they supposed to lie? And even if Prop 8 should pass (please, dear God no!), the airwaves have been flooded with these ads of cute little kids talking about how boys can marry boys and little girls can marry princesses. The "Yes" people have spreaad that lesson far more thoroughly than schools ever would!

But the No on Prop 8 folks have now come out with an ad featuring the state Superintendent of Schools who calls the Yes ad a blatant lie and says that the proposition says nothing about "teaching gay marriage" in schools and that schools are not required to "teach marriage" at all.

Thanks goodness, good or bad, it will all be over in less than two weeks.

And just to totally confuse the tagging of this entry, may I introduce Terra.

Terra is about a year old and on about the 4th of October she was attacked by some bigger dogs and hurt pretty badly. She was taken to the vet and stitched up but the wound is still pretty nasty looking (though Ashley tells me it's MUCH better than it used to be.

She's going to be here for a bit and is settling in right now. We've agreed to keep the cone on her head until the wound heals a bit more (though I haven't figured out how to keep her from scratching it with her hind foot when I'm not watching her--Ashley is going to try to find her a sweater or t-shirt that will cover it up).

A new adventure in fostering begins. She's a sweet little thing who is trying to figure out all the changes in her life and decide who are the good guys and who are the bad guys.

A Show-Busy Day

I'm not sure when, exactly, the tradition of "family movie night" began, but it's been going for several years now. Whenever Jeri comes home, we get together for "family movie night."

This year it had to be "family movie afternoon," since I had to review a show that night, but there was no question what we would see. Of course we would see Sweeney Todd! What else would a showbiz family go to see?

My mother, Jeri and Phil had spent Christmas night at Ned & Marta's and arrived here in the late morning, giving my mother a bit of time to play with Half Pint before continuing on her way home. Jeri and Phil stayed here.

We went to the early show of Sweeney Todd, and found it be as bloody as we expected, but well done. I'm still not sure how I felt about Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, but Johnny Depp made a great Sweeney. Kind of Edward Scissorhands on crack.

And is there a more malicious villain than Alan Rickman?

So we had our family movie afternoon...there must be something that can be said about the family that sees slasher films together!

We came home and I think we each took a bit of a nap. Jeri, Phil and Walt were going to dinner at the home of some friends; I was going in to Sacramento to meet Peach for the "final tour" of Riverdance.

("Final" is a relative term. The "final tour" will take 3 yrs in the United States, there is another "final tour" touring Europe and they have yet to take the show to South America or Africa, both of which are planned. There is some sort of permanent thing which may be set up in Dubai and they want to return to China. So I think nobody needs to weep any tears for the demise of Riverdance just yet!)

Peach had not seen the show live before and loved it and we had the additional treat of getting the backstage tour from our cousin Kathy's husband, Fred, who works the stage door. I've been in the Sacramento Community Theatre countless times, but never stood on the stage and looked out onto the 2,400 seats before. Pretty impressive.

Everyone at home had gone to bed by the time I returned, so the dogs had settled down and my return got them all revved up again. But as I write this, it appears I am the only one awake in the house. The others are going to Santa Barbara tomorrow, but I will stay home because Cousins Day is on Friday and we have a lot to talk over with our respective Christmases! It seems I had the best of the bunch...but I'll hear more about that on Friday.

PHOTO OF THE DAY

From Christmas night.
You should also check the Photo of the Day from one year ago.