Embarrassment

This week I embarrassed myself.

I haven't embarrassed myself in public this bad since the time I kicked the zebra keychain.

It was Tuesday, so we had gone to Music Circus, this week for Gypsy, a magnificent production starring three-time Tony nominee Carolee Carmello as Mama Rose.  Don't tell Jim Brochu, but I liked her better than Ethel Merman, for whom the show was written.  Merman had such a sharp edge to her, which Rose needs, but Carmello's heart shone though more, I thought, and she could belt out those familiar tunes with the best of them.

I didn't embarrass myself until intermission.

With this  "whatever it is," it is difficult to stand up.  I have to push up; I can't pull up.  I don't know why, but that's what it is.  We've talked about putting a safety bar in the downstairs bathroom but that won't do any good because I would have to pull myself up on it and that's the least efficient way of getting to my feet.

As I've explained before, it's not that my legs or knees hurt.  In fact they feel perfectly normal, but it's like when my brain sends the signal to stand up, it doesn't reach the knees and they do nothing.  Usually by rocking back and forth 3 or 4 times, the message finally gets through and I can stand up...again, with no pain, just with struggle.

This makes it difficult when sitting in the middle of a row in a theater when half the row wants to go out for a potty or snack break.  I hate making people climb over me because I hate it when I have to climb over people.  Last week, Jeff didn't use his second ticket so there was an empty seat next to e and I could kind of turn my body and make a slightly larger space to squeeze through.

I was feeling good about things this time, though.  I noticed I was walking around the house without a cane more that day and though I still needed help getting into the car, I felt certain I could stand up to let folks pass.

Oh, what a mistake.

Not only could I not stand up, I also couldn't swivel around to let them climb past me that way.  There were six people standing there waiting to get out and I couldn't get up.

I tried and tried and tried and nothing worked.  Walt helped by trying to lift me, Jeff tried to lift me and even people standing in line tried to lift me.
 
What made it worse was that I had worn a lovely pair of black velveteen slacks, which are now a little too big for me, so that the waist band is loose.  The velveteen material acts like Velcro against the cloth theater seat so if I can move my body, the slacks stay where they were, so with all the pushing and trying to stand up, the pants kept slipping down and Walt was trying not only to help me up, but to keep my pants from falling!

They eventually got me standing up and I apologized profusely to the people I had inconvenienced and then while they were all having a good time peeing and eating outside, I walked back and forth the length of the row, with no problem at all.  No pain, no weakness, no nothing.

Back for Act 2 and I spent the act worrying about what would happen at the end of the show. 
Sacramento generally drives me nuts because it seems that EVERY show gets a standing ovation at the end, whether it deserves it or not (England is so much more dignified!).  Whether you liked it or hated it, you have to participate because you can't see what is going on on stage unless you join the standees.  But this works to my advantage because the second the people stand up, I start struggling to my feet and generally by the time the last actors have left the stage, I am standing up.

But for some reason, the way the bows were staged for this show, nobody stood up until Rose took her bow, and then everyone leaped to their feet.  Not only was it not enough time for me to get to my feet, again my legs did. not. work. at. all.

We went through it all again.  Jeff tried pulling me up, I tried pushing up, Walt tried pushing me up while holding my pants from falling off and everyone around me tried to help.  Some little woman in the row behind leaned over and pushed and kept saying "Come on!  I know you can do it!"

I eventually did get up.

The frustrating thing about this is that when I left the theater, I sat on a bench outside waiting for Walt and Jeff to come out and when they did, I stood up just like a normal person.  I hardly even needed to push up at all.  So what the heck happened in the theater seats?

It may have been sitting in one spot for more than an hour with my knees bent, but I had a clue of the problem yesterday when I tried to get up from my desk chair.  I have a chair on wheels and I roll it back against my work table so that it can't move and I push myself up.  Sometimes it takes rocking back and forth 3 or 4 times before the knees engage but generally I have no problem.  But yesterday it was like being at the theater.  I tried everything and the knees resolutely refused to move.

I did finally, with a few tears and bad words, manage to stand upright.  For awhile I thought I'd have to sit there until Walt got home from the store. As soon as I'm upright, I'm absolutely fine.  Shortly after I got up, I needed to look something up on the internet, so I went back in the office and cringed when I had to sit down again, but I noticed before I sat down was that the chair was at its lowest setting, so it was like sitting in a hole and maybe I was trying to push up from too low a position.  It made me wonder if that is the case with the Music Circus seats too.  When I raised the chair to its highest position I was able to push up with no problem whatsoever.

I'm now thinking of trying to find a cushion to bring with me next week and see if that will help me stand up.  I will definitely NOT be wearing the velveteen pants!

The Anniversary that Wasn't

Yesterday was our 53rd anniversary.  Walt's sister, who loves knowing what people are doing to celebrate events, called in the afternoon to wish us a happy anniversary and I think was disappointed that I had nothing to tell her.

The previous day had been so Kaiser and house heavy that we just didn't think about the fact that the next day was our anniversary.

We don't do anniversary gifts, but always exchange cards and Walt, who is suffering from the cough I had earlier this month and not feeling at all well, forgot to get me a card.  I had a card for him, but only because I buy cards ahead of time and sometimes have more than one anniversary card in the card drawer.  I don't know how long ago I bought this particular card, but was glad I had it.

In the morning Walt took a nap, since he felt so crappy and I spent a good part of the morning writing the review for the show we saw the other night.

I finished up our cottage cheese and strawberries for lunch, so Walt went out to buy more, and when he got home, he was exhausted, so he went down for another nap, and I slept too.

Neither of us was particularly hungry at 5:30, which is when we would have to eat if we were going to have dinner, so we both picked at leftover and then headed off to Sacramento again to see Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.

It was billed as a "daring, dazzling choreographic extravaganza" and they did not lie.  Short on plot but oh...that dancing!

I particularly liked the "girl flipping."

I'm getting to where I hate going to shows like this because at intermission people want to leave their seats and go out to get refreshment, which means I have to get up to let them out, but my knees sometimes don't want to unbend and they have to figure out how to get around me.  I hate this.  Poor Jeff, my colleague, who is not a small man, had to literally climb over me.  Not sure which of us was the more embarrassed.  He later helped me stand up. 

During the finale, I was hoping for lots of applause and a standing ovation (which they got) so I could struggle to my feet...which I was able to do eventually, though with all the jostling of the crowd leaving the theater, I felt very unsteady and had to hang onto Walt.

We got home, had ice cream bars, watched jeopardy and went to sleep.  Happy anniversary!

Today I have an appointment with a neurologist.

This is what marriage is like when you reach a certain age!

It Rains on Stage

The Music Circus (now "Broadway at Music Circus") has been a Sacramento summer tradition since 1951.  Inspired by a similar company in New Jersey, Sacramento's Eleanor McClatchy wanted such an experience for Sacramento-area folks and, in partnership with the New Jersey folks, Sacramento Music Circus, the first professional musical theater in the round west of the Mississippi and only 4th in the entire country made its debut.

They built a >2000 seat circus tent, filled it with a theater in the round and director-type chairs and set about "bringing Broadway production values" to the productions.  The tent came down in August and didn't go up again until the following June.

Sacramento.  Summer.  What could possibly be a problem?  Well, the often 100 degree temps for one thing, no air conditioning, and some of the most uncomfortable chairs around.

But the audiences loved the shows and kept coming, fans in hand, the ice cold drinks at intermission.  Some even brought pillows to sit on.

We rarely went because the prices were just too high, but Jeri worked two summers on the tech crew and I actually got to be part of a production of Annie, when they needed a "local dog" who would have a very brief part in the show (not Annie's dog, Sandy).  They found the perfect dog in Davis, but his owner didn't want to drive the dog to Sacramento every night, so I volunteered to be the doggie chauffeur.  I got to hang backstage with "Sandy" and we became good friends.  As soon as the Davis dog did his bit, I picked him up and brought him home again.  It was great fun.

That was before I became a critic. Now I see all the shows (for free) and, thank goodness, in my second year of critic-ing, they removed the tent and built a real building.  With real seats.  And real air conditioning.  I haven't heard a single person long for the good-old days, as we relax in our comfortable chairs and sometimes shiver at the cold air blowing on us.

In the early years they often had a guest star, someone who had been a star in the movies or on TV but was out of the spotlight and reduced to doing things like...Music Circus.  The first year I reviewed, they were doing one of my favorite shows, Show Boat and the guest star that year was Alan Young who played second banana to Ed, the talking horse in Mister Ed.

It was an embarrassment to watch him.  I swear he played Captain Andy, and appeared to be drunk.  There was a chorus girl attached to him at all times, leading him around to his next scene.  The only "realistic" scene was one in which he was supposed to be drunk.

My cousin Kathy was working for the company at the time, as its bookkeeper and told me they had to send someone to his hotel, across the street from the theater, to bring him to the show each night because otherwise he could not find it.  It was the only show I think I ever gave one star to.

Now they still have imported talented, but rarely someone whose name you recognize.  They are all talented Broadway performers and the quality of the shows is excellent.

The 2018 season began last night with Singin' in the Rain, a fairly accurate recreation of the 1952 movie musical.

And yes, it rained on stage.  

The rain sequence was one of the best and, because I know the movie so well, I recognized that there were probably some tweaks, but the bulk of it was Gene Kelly's original choreography.

Noah Racey, who played Don Lockwood, had great fun kicking rain out into the audience.  The folks in the front row had been supplied with plastic covers to protect their clothes.

The whole cast was wonderful and all of the things you remember most about the movie were in there.  Matt Loehr played Don's best friend Cosmo Brown and did all of those wonderful dance numbers that Donald O'Connor made iconic.

The chorus numbers were great, especially the finale with everyone in colorful rain slickers, carrying umbrellas

I loved everything about this show and had a good time writing the review, even though I was up until after 2 doing it.  Our ride home was very long due to work on the freeway and the causeway between Davis and Sacramento, generally a 10 minute drive, took 45 minutes.

Adventures in "The Home"

I had quite an extensive "home" experience over the weekend.  And only one day was at Atria.

On Thursday night, we reviewed a show called "Jack of Diamonds"

This was a very funny show which takes place in an upscale retirement community.  It was like walking into Atria.  There are five residents and a Nurse Ratchet-type caregiver, who runs the place like a prison and obviously hates where she has to work (that part isn't like Atria). 

The five have invested their life savings with a friend and hear, over the TV, that he has been arrested in a Ponzi scheme and that they have lost all of their money.  The plot involves trying to figure out how to stay where they are and, when the crook turns up, pretending to be catatonic, at the home, trying to decide how to kill him.  It was a so-so show, but we laughed a lot.

But what made it special for me was the residents who were so familiar from my years around Atria.  And I also got a brainstorm.  One of the characters suffers from narcolepsy and passes out periodically, for short or longer times.  It was exactly like what my mother has done.  She has not had a spell like that in a long time, but if she has one again, I will definitely suggest that possibility to the doctor.

 

The second play was Marjorie Prime, which takes place in 2050 when science has perfected the ability to make holograms which can hold someone's memory.

Marjorie is 85 and has dementia.  Janis Stevens, perhaps the best actress Sacramento has, has perfected the persona of an older woman who still has a thin grasp on her memories, but realizes they are slipping away. Her body language, the way she holds her hands, the way she speaks is spot on.  It was like talking with my mother.

The only "off" thing about it was that while Marjorie's demented moments were perfect, she also had moments of greater lucidity, when she could discuss some of her memories.  Presumably, as her dementia increases she will lose this ability.  If I try to remind my mother of events from her past, she is more likely to say "I know you're talking, but I can't understand a thing you're saying."

However, in the play, the holograms are programmed to hold all of the memories of the one who is slipping away and has the patience to tell her the same stories over and over again, hopefully bringing back some of the life that she no longer remembers.

And then I went to Atria and found all the people in the cast of Jack of Diamonds.  My mother and I sat in the common room with Tony (I still don't know if he speaks or not) and watched people bowling.  My mother got a headache the instant someone invited her to join the game. 

She left me and went out into the patio.  I followed and sat with her in the shade at the other end.  Then she got up and walked back to where we had started.  I was about a minute behind her and when I opened the door to go into the common room, she was so surprised to see me...and where had I been?  She was so glad to see me again.

If I could get a Mildred Prime, I might actually consider it.

Theater Etiquette

Now that so many of us have big theater-sized TV screens and can stream first run movies in the comfort of our homes, I think people are forgetting how to attend theater.

We went to see Finding Neverland last night.  It's a show I've been looking forward to.  Jeri and Phil treated us to a production of it when it was in previews in Cambridge, MA and I fell in love with the show.  I was sure it was going to sweep the Tonys--and then it didn't even receive a nomination when it got to Broadway.  It ran for 17 months and had 9 nominations for 3 different awards, but no awards itself.

Now it's on a US tour and the production was excellent, though they seem to have changed a lot from what I remember from Cambridge (and comparing the list of Act 1 songs between Cambridge and Broadway, it seems that they threw out most of the songs and substituted new ones! Act 2 songs remain the same.)

The show was at the Sacramento Community Center, the big theater across the street from the state capitol.  On-street parking is impossible and the parking lot a block from the theater is so expensive that Walt has tended to park several blocks away in a different parking lot where the cost is more affordable.

However, I can't really walk that far, so he lets me off at the theater when we get there, and then I sit and wait for him outside the theater after the show, which works well for us....or maybe more for me.

Anyway, last night I was sitting with a friend, who was also waiting for her husband to pick her up.  She also has back problems which make longer walking painful, though I have to say that last night I put on my special magical cream and took two Advil before we left for the theater, and then sat down half way between where Walt lets me off an the theater itself, and I had no pain at all.  Must remember to do that from now on.

Anyway, my friend came out of the theater and said it was the oddest evening she can remember.  The theater allows drinks to be brought in, but no food (I've always wondered about the whole "food in the theater" thing.  I am not a tiny person, but believe it or not, I can actually sit for two hours without needing food to keep me going!). But I guess for some people food is part of the whole theater experience.

 

Apparently the woman behind my friend didn't know she should not have food in the theater because she had something that contained a jalapeno pepper, which my friend decided she must have thought was a pickle or something.  She bit into the pepper and then spit it out--onto my friend's back!  Just spit it into the air without thought about where it was going.  She didn't apologize or anything.

Then on her other side my friend said was a father and a daughter and the daughter had a bag of food, including Twizzlers and crackers.  At the end of the show, there were so many cracker crumbs on the floor that my friend slipped and almost fell (which I'm sure did wonders for her back).

The food experience is unusual, though not exceptional.  People do sneak food in, though they are told that no food is allowed in theater.

But the worst thing is talking.  People used to talking in normal voice to the people sitting beside them in their home, think nothing of talking to each other in normal voice to the people sitting next to them in the theater, disturbing everyone around them.  They just aren't aware that they are doing it and pointed glares from other patrons don't seem to faze them.

Sadly, boorishness is not a new thing.  I remember years ago, back in the 1970s, when D'Oyly Carte, the mother company of Gilbert & Sullivan, was making its last tour through the United States.  They were doing three shows in San Francisco and a bunch of us from The Lamplighters bought tickets.

It was a performance of HMS Pinafore and a woman sitting behind us with her young daughter talked to the little girl throughout the entire first act.  When one of our group, a man not noted for patience....or tact...took her to task at intermission for her talking and how it disturbed everyone around her, she said "Well, how else is she going to know what is going on if I don't explain it to her?" and seemed irritated that we would even think of scolding her.  Though she either moved for Act 2 or quieted down.

Collision

We almost had a head-on collision the other day.

I had gone to Atria to pick my mother up for her new orthopedist appointment, to have her cast replaced (because the swelling has now gone down and the cast was too loose).  I've noticed new people in the memory unit lately.  Like the lady who always sits in the foyer in her wheel chair asking everyone when someone is going to pick her up.  They always tell her "tomorrow" and I suspect nobody ever comes to pick her up.

There's also the very nice lady who carries around a stuffed kitten wrapped in a blanket, holding it like a baby, who walks close to us so that she can escape out the door if we leave (the aids are good at redirecting her).

My mother's "friend" Loretta, who lives across the hall from her seems to have a new roommate.  As I went to my mother's apartment she was coming out, with her walker, arguing with the helper she had that she did not want to be walking with the walker.

I got a jacket for my mother and walked down to meet her, halfway to the back door.  By the time we got her jacket on her, the walker lady had walked the length of the hall and was on her way back.  She saw us standing there, aimed her walker directly at us and sped up  We had to grab my mother out of the way or she would have run right into us.

Exciting times at "the home."

The doctor appointment went well, though she still doesn't know why she's there or why her arm hurts.  

 (I loved the tattoo on the guy who put on her new cast)

 

 She seemed more fragile and more depressed than the last time, which doesn't surprise me.   This accident has done something to her stamina.

 

We dropped her off at home and then the next day I went to visit and be there so Jeri could call her.  I told her that Jeri would be calling and she didn't know who that was (she also thought I was a "nice lady").  I said that Jeri was her granddaughter and she said "I didn't know I had a granddaughter; I guess I've never met her."

While waiting for Jeri to call, she seemed to fall asleep.  I let her sleep and by the time Jeri called, she was out.  Like one of her passing out spells.  I couldn't wake her up, so Jeri couldn't talk to her.  After we hung up, I tried again to wake her up, to no avail.

I went to the person who run the memory unit and suggested to her that they leave her be and check on her in an hour.  I fully expected to get a call telling me they had sent her to the ER, but no.  I guess she woke up on her own.

I told Walt I've decided that these spells are "practice dying" spells and that one day she just won't wake up again.  If only she could end her life that peacefully.

---

We were back in the theater Saturday night, after about a 3 week hiatus.

We saw The Nether, a play by Jennifer Haley. "I don't know what I just saw, but I loved it," Walt said when it was over.

I checked with the wife of one of the other critics for her opinion.  "I hated it," she said (which didn't surprise me!)

"I'm sure glad you're writing this review and not me," said another critic.

Another recently retired critic expressed disappointment that he had nobody to write a review for because he found it an enjoyable challenge.

This is a kinda sci fi story taking place in some dystopian world, when technology has evolved enough to allow people to enter a virtual realm on the internet and interact with the virtual people there.

The site was set up by a confessed pedophile, who finds this a way to release his urges without any danger to any real children in his real life.  Apparently part of the experience is having sex with children and then killing them.  But since they are androids, they can regenerate and you can do it again.

It's all very creepy, but written so well and acted so well that I found myself enjoying it, though it does open up the doors for all sorts of discussions about morality!

Monsters and Candy

To Hrothgar was granted glory in war.....

Sound familiar to anyone?  It's the first line of "Beowulf," the oldest surviving long poem of Old English literature, consisting of over 3,000 lines.  We read it in school, probably 9th grade, and to this day I remember that opening line--but absolutely NOTHING else.  I didn't even remember what the poem was about, so when I agreed to review a Panto version, I had to do research.

Panto (sort for pantomime...though this is not silent) is a type of musical comedy stage production designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is still performed throughout the United Kingdom, generally during the Christmas and New Year season.  It is a very physical production that uses dance, tumbling, and buffoonery.  There is always a man dressed as a woman, there is a lot of candy thrown out to the audience, and balls given to the audience to toss at the performers.

I started doing research on Beowulf, but what I found was so convoluted that i decided to see if there was a movie on Amazon.  There was.  All I can say is Angelina Jolie and Anthony Hopkins must really have needed money when they agreed to do this film! Hrothgar (Hopkins) and his kingdom are being attacked by first gremlins and then a dragon, Grendel.  Beowulf the HERO comes to the rescue and when he starts fighting Grendel, Grendel's Mom (Jolie) gets pissed and joins the fight.  Somehow it didn't seem to be the stuff of panto. especially when I saw all those gremlins.

To my credit (I think), I did watch the whole movie, but it's 2 hours I'll never get back again.  It seemed to be mostly screams and growls and very little dialog.  But at least I had a vague idea of what the story was supposed to be.  I have to admit there were some pretty impressive special effects, especially when Beowulf, hanging from the dragon Grendel's body by a chain manages to punch a hole in the dragon's chest and reach in to stab the heart.  When his knife wasn't long enough, he cut off his other arm, to make his body hang longer and then grabbed the heart in his hand and squeezed it.  I'm not used to movies like this!

So I didn't know what to expect when we arrived at the little 100 seat black box theater in West Sacramento.   There are 13, or more or less, people in the cast.  The narrator is not listed and there were at least two more people on stage than in the program.

The "horse" in the picture doubles as the dragon with a few scales added to the sides and face of the horse.  The character on the right is the dragon's mom (in case you couldn't tell)

It was definitely for kids, but cute and not boring.  The audience yelled at the cast, they tossed balls, ate peppermint candies and in the end two young kids from the audience came on stage and made faux pigs in a blanket as a contest.

More enjoyable than I expected but I definitely didn't need to waste two hours watching that movie!  I think I could have figured things out for myself.

This is how the kitchen looked when Ned left last night, so Walt and i went to Denny's after the show to have dinner, where I managed to totally embarrass myself by spilling a PINT of water and ice on myself.  The waitress brought A paper napkin to mop it up, then a very thin non-absorbent cloth while I'm sitting there with water pouring down my sweater and into my lap.  It was a cold ride home.  Fortunately we had a towel in the trunk of the car.

Fortunately Ned left me a way to get to the coffee pot so I could heat up yesterday's coffee this morning--getting to grind coffee beans was a bit more complicated, so we just went with re-heated.)

But the ceiling is now painted and this morning he is going to install the ceiling light.  Fiat Lux!!!

I showed this picture to my mother when I went to visit yesterday afternoon and she told me that it looked "cute."  I am not sure she even knew what I was showing her.

From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

You could not have asked for two more different plays than what we saw this weekend.  The firsts was a bizarre comedy, The Servant of Two Masters.

It is an updated version of the Goldoni commedia dell'arte comedy, written in 1555.  It is rife with modern references to things like the current administration and the local basketball team. 

You know it's a farce from the beginning because of all the doors on stage, which, of course, make for a long chase scene at the end. 

The situation is that Truffaldino (the guy in the picture) is servant to a master who is visiting the 1987 Jersey shore.  While there he gets the chance to hire on with a second master, and figures he can get paid by both and keep each from knowing he is also working for the other.  Only his first master, Florindo, is hunting for the love of his life, Beatrice, unaware that Truffaldino's second "master" is actually Beatrice disguised as her dead brother, looking for Florindo, the love of her life.  (got that?)

Bert Anderson, who played Truffaldino, was fantastic, a towering presence who often reminded me of Jim Brochu.

It's all very silly and ends with both lovers trying to commit suicide by drowning themselves together (not realizing who the other one is).  In the audience there were seats set aside as the "splash zone," as the two made quite a splash, jumping into a container of water.

It was just non stop slapstick and, truth be told, I am not a big fan of slapstick, so my tolerance was wearing thin in the second act, but the audience howled throughout and I gave it a 5-star rating.

You could not get a more different play than Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf the next afternoon.

The show started at 3 p.m. because it's 3-1/2 hrs long, with two intermissions.

Though this Albee play is an American classic, I had never seen it, nor had I seen more than snippets of the Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton movie.  I thought of calling it a modern day Bickersons in my review, but then thought perhaps most of my readers wouldn't know the radio couple who kept people laughing at their constant fights back in the 1940s.

Though very long, it was never boring, that's for sure!  Pictured are Elizabeth Nunziato as Martha and Jason Kuykendall (Elizabeth's real-life husband) as Nick, the George Segal role.

There are some weird things about this play.  It starts at 2 a.m., as George and Marta return from a party, awaiting guests who were also at the party and whom Martha invited to join them at their home.  Who goes visiting at 2 a.m.?  But.  Whatever.  It's  3 hours of fighting, name-calling and drinking with a heartbreaking ending.  It was excellent.

It was 9 p.m. before we left and so we went to Mel's diner for dinner before going home.

I was glad there was nothing on the schedule for Sunday and I could sit and work on the reviews, and also watch Moana, the movie, in preparation for being with the grandkids on the weekend!

---

By the way, if you have nothing to do at 7 p.m. Boston time (4 p.m. California), Jeri's annual concert of pieces she has written and performs with piano accompaniment is going to be streamed live at http://www.ustream.tv/channel/berklee-colvin.  If you like the clarinet, you should enjoy it!

Theater Weekend

I did something I've never done before on Friday night.

 

We were going to the Woodland Opera House to review Noel Coward's Blythe Spirit.  I thought it odd that the sandwich board outside the theater showed posters for two shows, but one was the family series show and I figured they would run that at the matinee on Saturday, and the Coward at night.

I never thought anything else when they handed me my program and I went to sit down in my seat.  I noticed that the slick program had a photo from Anne of Green Gables and I still didn't get it, thinking how clever they were to use one program for  two shows. 

It wasn't until I turned the program over, expecting to see Blythe Spirit on the backside that I realized I was a month early for that show and I really was there to see Anne of Green Gables, the family show. No wonder the theater was full (which it would not have been for a Noel Coward) and that so many people brought their kids.  I felt pretty dumb.  But I stayed for the show and wrote a review, even confessing my mistake.

There were friends sitting in front of us who asked me at intermission and at the end of the show what I thought (I said "Well, it's no Noel Coward").  I hate that.  I hate being asked my opinion because often I don't really formulate an opinion until we're on the drive back home and I dissect the play with Walt.  It's why I never go out at intermission and rarely stay for an "after party," if there is one on opening night.  It's fine when I'm there with the little clique of critics and then we stand around discussing the show, but I hate it when someone in the audience knows who I am and asks my opinion before I have formed one!

On Saturday, we didn't go to a show, we went to a reunion of members of the Davis Comic Opera Company.  The company had a 33 year run here in Davis, finally shutting down in 2006. 

The first show took place shortly before we moved to Davis.  We were subscribing to the Davis paper at the time, to get a feel for the town, and I knew I wanted to be involved with DCOC, and had one of my more embarrassing moments, when I showed up at what I thought was a company meeting, hoping to talk with the director about volunteering to help with publicity.

It turned out it was an audition and rather than admit I made a mistake, I auditioned.  Everyone was there with their music in hand.  I had nothing, but stumbled through "Little Buttercup" horribly.  When the director called me later to gently let me know I had not made it into the show, I told him I never intended to be in the show, but just wanted to help with publicity.  I went on to do publicity for many years and Walt soon joined the tech crew.

They managed to get several old-old timers at the reunion along with more recent alums and there were the usual groaning board of snacks.

All of those who have died were remembered in a tree with all of the names (and tags to fill out in case someone had been missed).  It's sad to realize how many of those we once knew fairly well are no longer with us.




But everyone had fun reminiscing, looking through the scrapbooks of old shows.

And at the end of the evening there was the ubiquitous slide show of many of the shows (only a very small portion of the shows!  We only went through one carousel of slides.

But it was a good afternoon of fun, food, and friends.  And lots of memories.

On Sunday it was another interesting theatrical experience.  The paper wants a "backstage story" about what goes on backstage during a show, so I went to the Davis Musical Theatre Company, where I reviewed Jekyll and Hyde last week and took note on the before and during the show and will work on writing an article about that today.


You never know what you're going to find backstage, and I was surprised to run into this almost life-size teen age elephant.  I was trying to remember when I saw an elephant in Jekyll and Hyde but then realized it was for Aladdin, which is the youth theater production which runs on Saturdays concurrently with Jekyll and Hyde (they push one set to the side and back and move in the other set and then, push it all back again before the evening show!

It felt like being part of Act Two of Noises Off, where you see the production from the back while the real show is going on in front.  Sadly, there weren't nearly enough things that went wrong as there are in that show!  Does not make for a funny article, but I think it will be interesting to people who have no idea of what it's like backstage during a show.

Today I'll be working on the article, being like, you know, a real writer.

Proud Mama Bragging

OK, all you theater folks, be glued to your computer screen at 5 p.m. PDT tomorrow (Monday) night (8 p.m. Boston time).  Go to this web site. and watch a live broadcast of Jeri's summer high school students doing selections from Chicago.  It is part of Berklee College of Music's annual "Five Week Vocal Night," which Jeri has been helping to organize and conduct for the past 10 or so ears.  The streaming video is generally excellent.  This year Jeri's group is performing first, so there is not even any guesswork about when to tune in.

To add a bit of suspense to the evening, see if Jeri is conducting with a short baton or a long baton.  She broke her baton two days ago and is trying to find a place in Boston where she can get another (everyone tells her where to order one on line!).  Jeri says "It's supposed to be a 24 minute show, and you should get a glimpse or two of me."

---

My daughter is not only a musician, she is also a poet.  Two years ago, I gathered several of her famous "bikus" (haikus she writes in her head, to relieve the frustration, while biking round Boston and then posts on Facebook) and had them put into a book for her.

Today she outdid herself with a multi stanza baiku:

baiku, long form:
You gunned your motor,
Leaned on your horn, and sped past
Flipping me the bird

I yelled in panic.
I used some profanity.
I'm not proud of that.

 

I'm Polite Cyclist.
But the shock made me vulgar.
So what's your excuse?

The road's to be shared.
We all must work together.
Why so much anger?

We had a nice chat this afternoon.  She tries to call on Sundays, either me or Walt (she just beat Walt, who was about to call her.  Phil was barbequing heir dinner so she had some time to chat.  It sounded like except for the fresh tuna steak he was putting on a tuna shish-kebob, most of what he was cooking came from their garden.

In addition to filling me in on all the information about tomorrow's concert, she was telling me how much this concert means to the young musicians.  One went out and rented a tuba because he didn't have one and his part called for one.  Another guitarist learned how to play the banjo because he would need to do this in the show, and a brass player from Japan, who had no mutes for her instrument, contacted her mother in Japan and asked to have them sent to her.  Jeri was very proud of how seriously these kids are taking this concert and how they are going the extra mile to be sure it is perfect.

It reminds me of the awe Walt and I have always had for Acme Theater Company here in Davis.  The company is now in its 30-something year.  Jeri and Paul were founding members and performed for several years.

But the kids give up their summer every year to rehearse and perform the classics -- usually Shakespeare, but this year it was The Odyssey, a show the director assured me is very difficult, yet I felt it was one of their better productions and the youngest kid in the cast, a 14 year old who is new to the company this year, gave one of the best performances.

Theater/music kids are very special people.

---

The show we went to see on Saturday night was definitely not in the "classics" category.

It's called The Robber Bridegroom and is considered a "bluegrass fantasy" based on a 1942 Eudora Welty book.  It's about a guy who is a good guy by day and a bad guy at night--Robin Hood in the reverse, since his misdeeds are solely to benefit himself.  The cast includes brothers, one of whom is a disembodied head pushed around the stage by his brother. I never did figure out why, or what their importance to the so-called "story" was.

It's such a strange show I was amazed to discover that when it opened off Broadway, the leads were played by Kevin Kline and Patti Lupone.  It must have been a better show than Walt and I felt this one was!  But it was fun, nonetheless, with all that bluegrass kickin' music.  And the talent was excellent, which was its saving grace.

Quite different from My Fair Lady, which we had seen the night before!

Giggles

It would be so nice if every visit with my mother was like today.

When I arrived, she was in bed.  I took advantage of that fact to sneak in the new package of Depends that I brought so I didn't have to answer her questions.  She talked with me from bed, but didn't seem in the least interested in getting up.  Then, suddenly, she realized I was there and sat up, wondering how long I'd been there.

She finally got up and sat in her chair and told me how beautiful I was.  Then, for the next hour she was just .... silly.  Everything she said, whether it made sense or not, made her laugh.  At one point she kind of shook her head and said "Do you know what I was just thinking?"

Then she explained that she had this overwhelming desire to pick me up and just hold me.  I laughed and told her that I didn't think she could pick me up, and she realized that, but her need to put her arms around me and hold me was so strong that I got up and hugged her.

It's nice that lately she recognizes Fred in photos all the time, but sad that she always talks about how she wishes he could be with her.  Part of the time she knew he was dead, other times she just thought was was "somewhere else" and wondered if he would ever come back.

It was interesting to try to follow her thought processes, which seemed to be bouncing all over the place, but she was always happy, reaffirmed that she loves life and wants to go on living.  I did not leave in my usual state of depression.

We were going to a show in the evening, and I have gotten into the habit of cooking something "easy" (i.e., a frozen dinner) on those night, so I went off to Trader Joe's to check out their frozen choices.

There was a guy with a violin outside the front door playing a gypsy tune with a lively recorded accompaniment that was just terrific, so terrific, in fact, that after I got my groceries, I drove past him and gave him a dollar. 

The actual shopping took longer than usual because I ran into our friend Clyde, whose son was in Lawsuit and whom we have known through various theater things in town.  He and his wife had just been to San Francisco to see The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night, which he raved about.  He liked it better than Hamilton.  I had heard of the show and it seems to me that Jeri recommended it to me too.  Clyde said that if we go to see it I must read the book first so I would understand from the start what was going on.

I was so intrigued, I came home and immediately got the book from Amazon, and then realized that the show is closing soon and we probably won't have a chance to see it anyway--but I still want to finish the book.

The show we saw last night was On the Town, which, on top of Wonderful Town earlier this week leaves me craving a slice of New York pizza.  Both are by the team of Betty Comden, Adolph Green and Leonard Bernstein, and both are paens to New York, the latter a bit better than the former.

Power of Attorney

There is a lot more "power" in that term than the title that we sometimes throw around would suggest.  I felt very powerful, signing away all my mother's personal rights in preparation for her admission to the memory care unit next month.

She's going to be very upset and I am having nightmares trying to figure out how to make it all go as smoothly as possible for her.  It reminds me of the weeks leading up to her move to Atria four years ago.

It was the longest conference I've had with Richard, the General Manager of Atria.  We have had our moments when I had to confront him about this or that thing, but this was a congenial half hour we spent together.  I kinda sorta liked him, though when he talked about hoping my mother's rent will be reduced once the tax rate goes from 30% to 15%, I figured that politics was not going to be a good topic for us to discuss.

So now all the decisions have to be made, and behind my mother's back.  She was not happy when I mentioned the move to her (I knew she would not be) and said she would "think about it" and "let me know."  By now she has forgotten.  But I wanted it to be said.

* * *

We had two shows this weekend, Guys and Dolls on Friday and a new comedy, Treatment, at a 5 p.m. matinee.

Guys and Dolls was the best of the shows I have seen in the past three weeks.

 

The girl in pink is named Eimi Taormino.  We first saw her in the chorus of a show many years ago and have enjoyed watching her move up into principal roles.  This show, where she plays Adelaide, girlfriend of Nathan Detroit, may have been her best ever.  Walt commented that when she was on stage, you could not look at anything else.  

Sadly, she recently announced in Facebook that she is relocating to the Bay Area, which is a big loss to area theaters here.  I wonder if I will ever see her in a Lamplighters production!

Treatment was more difficult.  It's a comedy, but not the knee-slapper that I anticipated.  It was commissioned by a Sacramento theater to be written by three of their comediennes, some of the funniest ladies in Sacramento.

It was good, but with a bit more serious tone than I expected.  Writing this review is a bit trickier.  I had problems with the show because it is about 3 women, one of whom has lost her mother and is struggling to "let go" and scatter her ashes.  Another of the 3 has been in a lesbian relationship with a partner who has two children, whom this woman loves madly.  Only her partner broke up with her and not only is she homeless, but she also has lost the boys that she loves so much and she talks a lot about the pain a mother feels when she loses a child..

Uh....two themes that it me on an emotional level big time!

 

But my mother has helped me come to peace with signing all those damn papers to admit her to the memory care unit.  (For one thing I am realizing that she had to go through this kind of thing when she had to admit her own mother to the mental hospital in Napa.  In those days they didn't have "memory care units" and how hard it must have been for her to see her mother in a mental institution.)

Then this afternoon, while I was talking to Jeri, I had a call from Atria.  My mother fainted in the lobby while walking to the dining room.  They didn't call the paramedics this time, but got her up and say she's OK.  I have not seen her faint in many weeks, though she says she sometimes finds herself on the floor....you never know what is real and what is her imagination and nobody else has seen her faint, but now I'm thinking that she is probably remembering correctly.

One huge benefit of the memory care unit is that each resident is checked every two hours and she will probably spend a lot more time in the open areas with other people around her.  At least that is what I am comforting myself by imagining.

The other advantage of her fainting in public is that if she is remembering and worrying about "finding herself on the floor" from time to time, I can now reassure her that there will be people around to watch her more closely and make sure she doesn't lie on the floor for awhile before she is found. 

I hope that will bring her some comfort.

I know it brings me some comfort.

Serendipitous Three

We saw three plays this weekend, and as I thought about them, they all sort of blended together for rather odd reasons.

The first was the musical Beauty and the Beast, based on the Disney movie.   This was the third time I'd reviewed this show. which was an enjoyable, if not exactly "great" show.  I highly recommended it.

But the thing that was most impressive for me was the costuming of the beast.  The actor was very tall, and well padded and made an ominous beast, though watching his heart melt as his feelings for Belle grew was lovely, and it was especially endearing watching his household staff trying to teach him how to be less beast-like as he tries to let his feelings be known to Belle.

The thing that impressed me the most, though, came at the transformation.  You all know the story -- the beast is actually a prince under the spell of an evil sorceress.  When he was rude to her, she cast a spell on him, turning him into an ugly beast and his household staff into appropriate household furniture.  The spell can only be broken if he learns to love and if someone loves him in return.

He nearly dies and Belle kneels over him professing her love.  The transformation back to the handsome prince took place behind her voluminous cape.  When he is revealed in all his princely splendor I was stunned.  He hadn't been padded at all.  He was a large young man and made me think how wonderful it was that he had been cast in this role because based on his appearance, he probably would never have been considered for a romantic lead, despite his magnificent voice.  In fact, I immediately had the sense of a kid who had been bullied in school.  But the clothing and the hair around his head all hid what was underneath and we loved him before he revealed himself.  Great lesson there about not judging  a book by its cover!

The next night we saw The Christians, a play which I really didn't like much at all.  It was too much like being in church.  It has received great reviews, but sadly, not from me.  The acting was great; it was the story that dragged and dragged.

Basically it's about the pastor of one of those megachurches.  He has just paid off his building expenses for his fancy new big church and is giving a special sermon.  In his sermon (which I felt went on too long), he talks about an emotional experience he had while listening to a missionary talk about a violent incident he witnessed 

following a car bombing.  A boy ran into the fire to rescue his sister.  And did.  The sister had been saved, but the boy died.  He had not yet accepted Jesus as his savior and so it pained the missionary to think that this hero, who died after rescuing his sister, was in hell for all eternity.

This caused the pastor to re-think the concept of "hell" and how we had been misinterpreting the Bible all these years.  He said from now on, in his church there was no hell.  This sparked an amazing backlash led by his junior partner (pictured), who believed in the strict interpretation of bible verses.  Ultimately the junior pastor left, started his own church and so many parishioners followed him, it destroyed the pastor.  

I came away from the play thinking what good performances everyone gave, but how unfortunate that the play seemed to assume that everyone believed in Jesus and in Christianity.  Would Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists, etc. actually enjoy this overly long sermon? 

So on Saturday it was Christianity.  On Sunday it was Mormonism which was under scrutiny.

The Whale is about Charlie, a grossly obese man, who is dying and who is visited by one of those Mormon missionaries, trying to give him religion so he can die in peace.

Religion wasn't at the center of the action, but played a big part in it.  And, of course, the size of Charlie harkened back to Beauty and the Beast.  I haven't had a week end like this before, where the shows just kind of dovetail together, no matter how disparate they may seem on the surface.

But I suspect that the show we see on Tuesday, Becoming Dr. Ruth, is not going to follow suit!

The Three Show Weekend

hree show weekends are really exhausting.  This was a 3-show weekend, as is next weekend. 

The first show of this theater orgy, though, was a play called Pronoun written in 2014 as part of Britain's National Theater Connections Festival, and it toured across the UK, being performed by youth theater groups.

It is a timely piece that explores gender, specifically transgender, and challenge's the audience's perceptions of gender.  It was performed by Davis' youth theater group, Acme, now in its 37th year.  Jeri and Paul were among the founding members and it is still going strong, now under new leadership but still producing controversial works.  It also, each year, gives back to the city, which has helped them financially over the years, by performing a free outdoor (often a Shakespeare) on the outdoor stage of the Art Center.  One of those Davis traditions that just grew.

During its history, Acme has not been shy about tackling controversial subjects and this may be at the top of the list for controversial.

The story centers around Dean, whose hero is James Dean is transitioning from female to male.  While there are myriad difficulties for transgender kids, this story centers on Dean's feelings about his body (and his need for removal of his breasts) and the acceptance of his family and friends.  Though he is in high school, we don't see any of the conflict a kid like Dean would obviously find in school, or the scorn and suspicion he would find within his community.

It concentrates a lot on the difference between "tolerance" and "acceptance" and the speech Dean gives to his high school on the subject is one of the most powerful scenes in the show.

Sadly, Acme usually has projection problems and so I missed chunks of dialog, when spoken by certain actors, so I came home, downloaded the script from Amazon, and spent Saturday reading it.  Then I spent most of Saturday afternoon writing the review.

Saturday night we took my mother to the Davis Musical Theater Company's production of 42nd Street.  Every so often she complains that it has been so long since she has been to a show and I've been waiting for one that I thought she could follow.  42nd Street is a musical which is set in the 1930s and is mostly singing and dancing, so it seemed perfect for her.  I knew she would never remember she was going, so I went to Atria to have dinner with her (though she had already eaten when I got there, so I never got dinner) and she wouldn't be blindsided at the last minute, though I must have told her a dozen times what we were going to do.  At least she was kinda sorta ready when Walt came to pick us up.

In all honesty, I don't know if she knew where she was or what she was doing there.  She sat stoically through the whole thing and never so much as cracked a smile, never clapped once, even during the standing ovation at the end of the show.  It was both sweet and sad that I realized before the show that she was watching me looking at the program and turning to the same pages whenever I changed the page.  I don't think she actually read the program.

She never said a single word after the show about it.  I'm convinced that when she finds the program in her purse she won't have a clue how it got there.  So...cross that activity off the list of "things to do to enrich my mother's social life."

But the show was excellent, with amazing tap dancing and some outstanding performances, especially by the actress who played the heroine and the guy who was the producer of the show within the show, who, in my opinion stole the show.  He doesn't sing until near the end of the show and he just blew us away.  I had forgotten that I had also been blown away by his performance in Man of La Mancha recently.

I spent Sunday morning writing the review of 42nd Street for the Sacramento paper but didn't have time to finish the review for the Davis paper because we were going to a matinee of I Love You, You're Perfect, No Change, at a theater in Sacramento.

If we had to go to Sacramento for a show, I'm glad it was for the matinee because it had started raining and I hate the thought of driving all that way in the rain.  By the time we left at the end of the show it was pouring, and I was very happy that it was still light.

It's a cute little "boutique show," as someone called.  Two me and two women sing songs about couples meeting, getting to know each other and falling in love.  Act 1 ends with a wedding.  Act 2 starts as a couple starts on their honeymoon and takes the couples through becoming parents, the empty nest, growing old and losing a partner.  Act 2 is actually kind of depressing, snappy tunes notwithstanding.

I was in an interesting position because I was sitting next to my colleague Patti and in front of two Davis friends, a couple we have known for more than 40 years. (She is part of our dumpTrump luncheon group.)

The Davis friends absolutely LOVED the show.  She told me several times how much she loved it, while my colleague was telling me how much she hated the show.  She had a very good point in that this was a show that will appeal to older white married couples with children, which describes our friends.  But if you are a young person, or a person of any color, I'm not o sure it will be as enjoyable.

As for me, I didn't realize how tired I was.  Walt kept poking me to wake me up, when I didn't think I was sleeping at all and resented being poked so much.  But when intermission came, though I know I was awake, I couldn't really remember much about Act 1.  I drank water all through Act 2 and remember it clearly.  Now I have to write the review, which will be interesting.

We managed to get home literally 3 minutes after the start of the Golden Globes, which made me a happy camper.  I do love awards shows and this one starts the parade, though it is the most fun of them all.  I was so proud of Meryl Streep, winning a lifelong achievement award, for standing up to the president elect, regarding his attempt to humiliate the disabled reporter, during the campaign.  "This instinct to humiliate, when it's modeled by someone in the public platform, by someone powerful, it filters down into everybody's life, because it kind of gives permission for other people to do the same thing. Disrespect invites disrespect. Violence incites violence," she continued. "And the powerful use their position to bully others, we all lose."

Needless to say, the incoming president had nothing better to do than to tweet about it: " "Meryl Streep, one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood, doesn't know me but attacked last night at the Golden Globes. She is a Hillary flunky who lost big. For the 100th time, I never 'mocked' a disabled reporter (would never do that) but simply showed him 'groveling' when he totally changed a 16 year old story that he had written in order to make me look bad. Just more very dishonest media!"