DavePad

Fun Home the Musical

We saw an official touring production of the musical “Fun Home” on Wednesday, July 12, 2017.  We had been looking forward to it for two years since we read the graphic novel for the Banned Book Club discussion in July 2015 and bought the Broadway cast album.  We got the tickets to the musical when they first went on sale in March 2017.  It would be our first time seeing a show at 5^th Avenue Theatre and on the second day of Fun Home’s run there which lasted through July 30, 2017.   Before we left, I did some research on parking nearby and found three or four garages underneath buildings close to the venue.

Only July 12, we left Tacoma at 5:35 pm.  Traffic wasn’t too bad and it took only 36 minutes to get to the Seattle city limits.  It slowed as we drove into downtown.  I think we exited at James Street, turned left onto Madison and right onto 4^th Ave.  I think we then turned right onto Pike Street, left onto 7^th Ave., and again right onto Union Street.  We parked in the lot labeled C on the online map I found.  I think it was the garage under the tall building at the northeast corner of 5^th and Union.  We parked at 6:25 pm, took the elevator up to street level and found ourselves on the floor with some small eateries, coffee shops, and some other shops.  I had to use the restroom but opening the door to it required a code.  Luckily the person leaving it gave me the code.

We walked to the entrance to the 5^th Avenue Theatre and queued up at around 6:35 pm.  The queue was fairly short and started moving as soon as the doors opened at 6:45 pm.  Just inside were stairs leading to the upper levels and the restrooms.  Further in they were selling all kinds of merch including Fun Home t-shirts.  One of them had the words “Ring of Keys” on the front, the name of one of the songs in the show.  They sold mugs, paperback copies of the graphic novel, hats, and books of the script.  We bought a real book of the actual music from the show.  We later found it difficult with complex chord and key changes.  But we were able to play through some of the songs and even performed “Come to the Fun Home” at an open mic.  Back at the 5^th Avenue Theatre, they had concession stands on either side of the lobby.  Opposite the merch counter they had yellow backdrops with the logo for the show.  Someone graciously took our photo in front of the backdrop.  The photo using the flash worked out very well.

We went upstairs and entered the theatre itself.  Our seats were in the upper section on the left side, towards the front.  There might have been 1-3 seats in front of ours.  We admired the mostly golden Asian décor inside the theatre including the head of a golden Chinese dragon on the ceiling holding up the chandelier.  The seats filled up but a few stayed empty indicating that the show had not sold out.  We would not have the same experience as those who saw the show on Broadway in a “theatre in the round” performance.  The stage at the 5^th Avenue Theatre had two levels.  The band consisted of a few musicians stationed in the lower back of the stage and often behind the scenery.  There may have also been an orchestra pit, but I couldn’t see it.

As we entered the theatre an usher handed us a souvenir program.  It contained a cartoon by Alison Bechdel about the making of Fun Home the musical called “Play Therapy.”  It also contained the headshots and bios for all the actors in the musical.  None were from the Broadway production but I would argue that they were just as good.  I don’t think any of the understudies performed in the show we saw.  The program also had an ad for the musical “Something Rotten!” that would run at the 5^th Avenue Theatre in Fall 2017.

At 7:30 pm, the lights dimmed.  A voice told us to turn off all cell phones and at this time open any candy wrapped in plastic.  They warned that there would be no intermission and if we had to get up and go to the lobby, we couldn’t reenter until an usher said it was OK.  At 7:35 pm, the show began with a spotlight on Adult Alison at her drawing table.  She soon flashed back to when she was a kid that led to the opening song “It All Comes Back.”  I like how Adult Alison and her dad Bruce in the flashback unpacked the same antique items at the same time.  All the songs sounded great, just like the Broadway cast album I had bought nearly two years before.  But I enjoyed seeing all that went on while they sang and what led up to the songs such as Bruce somberly meeting with a client before telling the kids to get out of the coffin right before they sang “Come to the Fun Home.”  The entire cast sang the song “Raincoat of Love” including all three Alisons.

The show lasted until 9:15 pm but it seemed to cover much of Alison Bechdel’s life.  Just like the graphic novel, it skipped around though time.  There weren’t as many flashbacks as the novel, but their order seemed to make more emotional sense than logical.  I like how the acting fleshed out the story.  At one point, Medium Alison dropped a book by mistake, but she just picked it up and kept on going.  The acting includes much humor such as when Medium Alison claims to be looking for the German club and says, “Danka” for thanks.  Bruce sends her the book Collette to read and he later plays a satirical song on the piano.  The Bechdels have a musical side that is only briefly mentioned in the graphic novel and the musical.

I was very impressed with the sets even though this production wasn’t “theatre in the round.”  The scenes inside the Bechdel’s historic home looked authentic.  I also liked the scenes in Bruce and Helen’s friend’s New York apartment.  They didn’t use the upper level of the stage very much but when they did it was to great effect.  The cast consisted of ten actors, one of whom played multiple roles.  They acted well and resembled the Broadway cast closely.  I like how Robert Petkoff made Bruce Bechdel seem likable despite his deep flaws.  Kate Shindle carried the show as Adult Alison and Abby Corrigan balanced humor and seriousness as Medium Alison.  The youngest actors also did very well.  It must be difficult for Bruce to pay “airplane” with young Alison at every performance but they pulled it off for us.  I liked how it was Adult Alison in the car with Bruce singng “Telephone Wire.”

The touring production of “Fun Home” was well worth the wait and I don’t think we lost anything by not seeing the Broadway production in New York.  I thought “Fun Home” would be the best and only major musical production we would see in 2018, but I was wrong on both counts.  We would see another less than three months later.  But “Fun Home” is still one of the best musical’s I’ve seen.  Just like the graphic novel it captures family life with its functional and dysfunctional dynamics.  Even though the Bechdels had a lot of dysfunction, they still had authentic family love that carries through in the graphic novel and the musical.

The Little Mermaid Musical

I saw the Trollwood Performing Arts School's production of "Disney's The Little Mermaid" at Bluestem Amphitheater in Moorhead, Minnesota on Tuesday, July 19. I was in the Fargo-Moorhead area for work and I wanted to do at least one substantial thing in Moorhead. This trip was my first time in both North Dakota and Minnesota.

I believe my ticket said the show started at 7 or 8 p.m. Just getting to Bluestem Amphitheater was an adventure. I took the I-94 freeway east that I think turns into the 52 in Minnesota. I crossed the Red River, entered Minnesota, and exited onto 8^th St. S. There was road construction going on around there that would prevent me from returning by that route. Though a major thoroughfare, 8^th Street S was not "thickly settled." The setting seemed very rural and dark with no streetlights. I had a tough time finding the right turn. I followed some roads to the Trollwood Performing Arts School. Many cars were parked in a field to my left. Some staffers directed me to another field further on where I parked. The sun was still out and many people were walking from their cars to the amphitheater. I followed the crowd. We passed what looked like some school buildings. Trollwood is a very nice campus with lots of open green space. The amphitheater was to the north of where I parked. I passed the snack bar and the restrooms and entered the amphitheater from the left side.

The amphitheater was over half full. The seats were stone benches. Luckily they provided soft foam set cushions. A little kid was playing with them, setting them all up on the front row of the section. I grabbed one and took a seat a few rows back. It was still sunny out. I had bought an NDSU cap at Scheel's sporting goods store the day before. The clerk there ask if I had any plans for the week. After I told her about The Little Mermaid, she said she knew many others going to that. The amphitheater did fill up nearly entirely on this warm Tuesday in July. There were many families with kids. That makes sense because The Little Mermaid is really a story for kids with its colorful costumes and catchy songs. I think it was before the show started that someone announced some acts that would perform at the amphitheater on later dates. They included Red River Dancers.

The show itself started on time and went for over two hours. There was a 15-minute intermission. It was the same story as the animated movie that came out in the late '80s. I think one of the only difference was that the fish character (Flounder?) seemed to have a crush on Ariel, the titular little mermaid. The sets were quite impressive. I liked how they moved the ship around in segments. There was one part when Ariel was raised up in the air on a wire. Another difference from the movie was that Ariel never went back to having a fishtail in the second half. I thought in the movie she got legs and then changed back and back again at the end.

The singing and acting were decent. The outdoor sound sometimes made it hard to hear them. The songs I'm most familiar with are "Part of That World" and "Under the Sea." I thought the most impressive aspects of the show were the colorful costumes. The cast seemed very large. I guess school productions can have large casts. It seemed like every other scene had 10-20 new cast members. I knew that they weren't the same cast changing costumes because they all bowed separately at the end. They had a separate group for the chefs who try to carve up Sebastian the crab, and a completely different group who performed the number "Under the Sea" at the beginning of Act One.

I left the amphitheater at 10:45 p.m. I returned to my rental car in the dark and had to wait awhile for traffic to leave the field where I had parked. I knew I couldn't go back the way I came because of the road construction on the major east-west freeway, the I-94. To get back to the hotel I drove east on 50^th Ave S, turned right (south) on 3^rd St. South, and turned right (west) onto 60^th Ave. S. This street crossed the Red River into Fargo and became 52^nd Ave. S. I turned right (north) onto S University Drive and after driving a couple of miles got back onto the I-94 going west. I got back to the Clubhouse Inn & Suites at 11:30 p.m. It had been a long evening but I can say I did something in Minnesota.

The Sound of Music NBC Live TV Event Soundtrack

On Thursday, December 5, 2013, NBC broadcasted a live production of the musical "The Sound of Music" starring Carrie Underwood as Maria. I'd never seen a live production of "The Sound of Music" before. I had only seen the movie starring Julie Andrews. We have a DVD of the movie that has the option to play the words across the screen for singing karaoke. The live (on the east coast) broadcast started at 8:00 pm on December 5. I watched the first two hours. My wife stayed up until the end. A couple of days before the broadcast, the soundtrack was made available on Freegal allowing us to download it over a couple of weeks.

The soundtrack CD consists of 22 tracks, though some are reprises and others are instrumentals. The first, "Preludium," is the nuns singing in Latin something that would be appropriate in a church. It is an a cappella and consists of the Abbess, played by Audra McDonald singing and the other nuns responding, at least for the first minute. Then they all sing together starting somber and going into a more upbeat Alleluia. The next track is the very familiar "The Sound of Music" sung by Carrie Underwood as Maria. It has a quieter prelude that wasn't as familiar to me. Underwood sings well, able to get very loud for the final verse. The next song, "Maria," is sung by the nuns. It has the memorable chorus "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" Even the nuns who are complaining don't sound mean.

The next song, "My Favorite Things," is actually sung in the Abbess' office rather than with the children as in the movie. It is sung by Maria and the Abbess, an interesting twist. The song is now sometimes sung during Christmastime. Maria sings the next song, "Do-Re-Mi," with the children. The do sound like children though some of them are older than their characters' ages. I think the song in the movie is a longer version. The next song is sung by Ariane Rinehart and Michael Campayno as Liesl and Rolf. They combine their singing with dancing during the instrumental parts of the song. They do sound like teenagers despite being as old as college students.

Maria sings the next sing, "The Lonely Goatherd," in the bedroom to calm the children during the thunderstorm. In the movie, the song for this scene is "My Favorite Things." The next song, "How Can Love Survive?" was new to me. It does not appear in the movie making it a "deeper rock" song from the musical. It's a rather humorous song sung by Laura Benanti as Baroness Elsa Schrader and Christian Borle as Max Dettweiler. Borle used to be married to Sutton Foster a.k.a. "Bunhead." The two characters seem to have greater roles in the musical than in the movie. The next song is a reprise of "The Sound of Music" sung by the children and Stephen Moyer as Captain Von Trapp. The next two songs are instrumentals: "The Grand Waltz" and "Ländler." The waltz is to the tune of "My Favorite Things" while "Ländler" sounds a bit like "The Lonely Goatherd." The children sing the next song, "So Long, Farewell." The setting and tone change greatly for the next song, "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" sung by Audra McDonald as the Abbess. She can sing just as powerfully as Carrie Underwood. The next song, "No Way to Stop It," is also not in the movie, another "deeper rock" song. There's a third "deeper rock" song, "I Have Confidence," that is in the movie but not in the production. "No Way to Stop It" is sung by the Baroness, Dettweiler, and Captain Von Trapp. It kind of makes light of an otherwise serious situation. The next song, the romantic "Something Good," is in the movie but not in the original musical.

The next song is for Maria's wedding, "Processional & Maria (The Wedding)." It starts with the nuns singing in Latin but soon segues into the chorus of "Maria." The question "How do you solve a problem like Maria?" is oddly appropriate during the wedding. The next song is a reprise of "Sixteen Going on Seventeen" sung by Maria and Liesl. It has a different prelude and different words. The next song by Maria and the children is a reprise of "Do-Re-Mi" with slightly different harmonies. It is sung at the concert in the musical along with the next song, "Edelweiss" sung by Captain Von Trapp and the children. Following is a reprise of "So Long, Farewell" sung by the entire Von Trapp family.

The last song during a scene of the musical is "Finale Ultimo: Climb Ev'ry Mountain" by the Abbess and nuns. The last track is "End Credits," an overture starting with "The Sound of Music" followed by "Do-Re-Mi," "My Favorite Things," and ending with "The Sound of Music."

The Hound of the Baskervilles Play

We saw the play "The Hound of the Baskervilles" at the Seattle Repertory Theatre on Saturday, November 23, 2013. The exact venue was the Bagley Wright Theatre that's located on Mercer Street at the northwest corner of Seattle Center. We first heard of the play in August of the previous year at the Worldwide Sherlock Homes Week gathering put on by the Sound of the Baskervilles (SOB), the Sherlockian society of the Puget Sound region. One of the panelists at this event was R. Hamilton Wright who was writing the stage adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles with David Pichette. In mid-2013, we read in the Inaffable Twaddle publication by The Sound of the Baskervilles that the play was scheduled to run between November 15 and December 15. The SOB's decided to attend the performance on Saturday, November 23 at 2:00 pm. Several weeks before the performance, we put the event on our calendar. We didn't get tickets until the day before the performance. Most of the center and orchestra seats were taken but there were still some seats available on the balcony. We purchased two tickets from the Seattle Rep website for seats located in the back right corner section of the balcony for $15 each. We chose Will Call for delivery and had to pay an additional $10 service charge.

The weather was clear and sunny on Saturday, November 23 but also quite cold. We took the bus to Westlake Center, the Monorail to Seattle Center, and walked to the theatre. Near the armory at Seattle Center we again saw Darth Vader and a storm trooper posing for pictures with tourists. We arrived at the theatre at around 1:40 pm. The lobby was very crowded with theatregoers. After we picked up our tickets at the Will Call window, we found the SOB's waiting just inside the door to the theatre. There were nine or ten of us and we had to wait for another SOB whose tickets the others were holding. They had bought a tickets as a group that were also for seats in the back right section of the balcony. One SOB was dressed in Victorian style clothes and someone even asked to have their picture taken with him. After the last SOB showed up, we climbed at least two flights of stairs to the back right section of the balcony. The rows were very steep, narrow, and high up, similar to the Amanson Theatre in Los Angeles, I thought. As we entered, they handed us a program that was also an issue of Encore Arts Programs magazine. It looked like most of the seats in the orchestra sections below were filled. Our balcony section was a little over half full. After the play started we were able to move closer to the center. We could see the stage OK from our high view. I sometime used my binoculars to see smaller details such as the items they held in their hands and the tomatoes they ate for breakfast.

The lights dimmed at 2:00 pm sharp. A woman spoke and said she was the director of individual gifts for Seattle Repertory Theatre. She said the play was a world premiere and had not been stage at any theatre before. She described how theatre productions such as this one could not be financed by ticket sales alone and we would find an envelope in the program to make an individual gift. The next voice to speak was in an English accent and identified himself as Inspector Lestrade. He instructed us to disable all electronic apparatuses and warned that photography and recording of any kind were strictly prohibited. After Lestrade finished speaking, the play began.

I believe that The Hound of the Baskervilles is the most famous of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's stories and one of the most frequently staged and filmed. Before this play, the most recent production we had seen was second episode "The Hounds of Baskerville" of the second series of the BBC program Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman. The play at Seattle Rep takes place in Victorian times with the appropriate costumes, accents, and sets. But it is not a straight retelling of the book. It contains some lines directly from the book along with some new dialogue and scenes. I think the additional elements make the play better. There's a dinner scene that features the entire large cast of nine and really gives them a chance to showcase their dramatic and comedic skills. The play consists of three acts, each between 45 and 60 minutes long. There are two intermissions that for this performance were one at 2:45 pm for 18 minutes and one at 3:50 pm for 10 minutes. In all the play lasted two and a half hours including the intermissions. With its action, suspense, compelling story and acting, the play seemed to go by more quickly than its duration.

The play is very much an ensemble acting work and all the actors play their roles well. As in the book, Sherlock Holmes is absent for nearly the entire second act. I think Dr. Watson has the most stage time of the characters.     He is played by the very talented and tall Andrew McGinn. From his head shot and bio, I was surprised to see that he is actually younger than his character. He does a good job of portraying the older Watson. Despite being shorter than Watson and having a smaller role, Darragh Kennan does a pretty good job as Sherlock Holmes. He tends more towards the comedic and rude corrector rather than the cold and dominating persona. Though he doesn't wear the deerstalker cap, he still has some of the classic Holmes elements such as the colorful dressing gown and the humorous banter with Watson that I think included more than is in the original story. Watson saying that he would get a fainting character some brandy elicited much laughter from the audience. The rest of the cast also acts well. Many of them have to play multiple roles. They all speak with English accents except for Sir Henry Baskerville whose Canadian accent is naturally apparent rather than overdone. According to the program, Connor Toms, who plays Sir Henry, is married to Hana Lass who plays Beryl Stapleton in the play.

The play uses very technically advanced sets that almost act as additional characters. They include moving pillars, ramps, trap doors, portraits and a hearth and other sets that lower from above, and films projected onto the backdrop and onto a white transparent curtain in the foreground. There are also some special effects such as the fog on the moors. The play has a soundtrack composed specifically for it that further sets the moods and adds to the suspense. The howling of the hound on the moors is truly haunting. They even have a sculpture of a hound-like gargoyle above the theatre whose eyes glow in red when the lights go out. The question in our minds throughout was "how would they portray the hound?" I'll just say they did not disappoint.

After the play ended, we took a group photo on the stairs leading down from the balcony. On the first level were some still photographs of the play and a list of performances followed by Q and A with the cast, crew, and playwrights. We later read through the entire program that included an interview with the adaptors, Pichette and Wright. The costume designer, Deborah Trout, had worked on a production at Juneau's Perseverance Theatre and the Acknowledgments included a couple of dogs. This was an all-Seattle production. You don't need to leave the Northwest to see great theater.

Sherlock Homes A Drama in 4 Acts

We saw the play Sherlock Holmes A Drama in 4 Acts at the Meridian Community Center south of Puyallup on Saturday, September 28, 2013. It was produced by the Spotlight Player Theatre Troupe and we heard about it from the Sound of the Baskervilles (SOB), the Sherlockian society to which we belong. A few months earlier they were calling for actors and potential actors to audition for the play. It is only scheduled to play for two weekends: September 27-28 and October 4-5. The play was written over 100 years before by William Gellette and was also the basis of the 1922 silent movie Sherlock Holmes that starred John Barrymore. At the June 2013 regular meeting of the SOB, a member from Salem, Oregon did a presentation on this movie that was lost for decades and rediscovered within the last 20 years.

Saturday, September 28 was when SOB planned to officially attend the play. We had been to the Meridian Community Center once before back in January for the SOB Masters Dinner. It takes a while to get there, mainly due to traffic on Meridian Ave. We had been most recently out that way when we saw Star Trek: Into Darkness, a movie that starred Benedict Cumberbatch. He also plays Sherlock Holmes in the BBC television program Sherlock. We left home just after 6 pm on September 28, took the I-5 south to the 512 east. We exited at Meridian, though I think the exit is labeled as 104^th Street because it starts out going east and then turns south. The streets are very confusing around there. The weather was cold and raining hard. As expected, there was traffic on Meridian going south. We passed the Regal Longston Place Stadium 14 where we had seen Star Trek and passed many of the chain restaurants that were recommended as places to eat dinner on the Spotlight Players Website. At the intersection of 144^th Street, we saw on the far right corner a sign for the Sherlock Holmes play. We crossed 144^th and turned right into the drive of Meridian Habitat Park where there was another sign for the play. Once in the park someone directed us to a parking spot. There were also signs for Jazzersize.

I think it was about 6:45 pm when we arrived at the venue. Inside was a table where they sold tickets. Attendees could pick up their reserved will call tickets to the left. They took both cash and credit card payments. When I used my credit card they scanned it with this tiny scanner attached to a smartphone. Tickets cost $16 each for adults. They gave us a program and we entered through the back. There were several other SOB's there including the President for Life (Pfl), secretary, treasurer, librarian, and others, some of whom we did not recognize. I talked to the Pfl and secretary a little bit. To the left of the seats a couple of volunteers sold concessions. Inside the program was a survey that attendees could turn in and would be drawn for door prizes during the intermission. The survey asked what other non-musical plays we would like to see Spotlight Players produce. It wasn't until afterward that we thought to suggest Transfigured Night. The chairs for the audience were arranged in three or four sections. Most of them were filled. The stage was in the elevated part of the space and     spotlights handled from the small balcony above and behind the audience. There also seemed to be a section roped off in the back.

At 7:05 pm the house lights blinked twice indicating that the play would soon start. Before the play started, the director of the play, DeAna Crosson and, I think, one of the producers welcomed everyone, thanked the sponsors, casts, crew, and others, introduced the SOB's in the audience and had us stand up to applause. They also indicated the emergency exits and warned us to turn off our cellphones. After they finished, the lights went out and the play began.

The play did take place in four acts, but the second act consisted of two scenes in slightly different settings. In all there were five different settings that had similar sets as far as the back walls and doors. They effectively made them differ by using different furniture such as a piano, some antique looking sofa chairs, and different desks. One scene actually takes place in Dr. Watson's consulting room, a setting I don't think I've ever seen in a Sherlock production or read about in any Sherlock books. Most of the time the action took place in the middle of the wide stage. For one act it took place on the side requiring me to turn my head. There was no curtain and we could see them making the set changes in the dim light between scenes. The story takes place in London in 1899. One scene features a large early telephone. I don't know when phones started getting used widely. The sound wasn't the greatest and I had a hard time hearing a few of the actors, at least in the beginning. During the intermission I overhead some people saying that sound didn't carry very well due to the shape of the room. Luckily, I didn't have any trouble hearing the actor who played Sherlock Holmes.

The play had a rather large cast of mostly young actors. According to their biographies in the program, it was the first appearance for many of them in a Spotlight Players production. There were more women than men and I think many of the parts originally written for men where rewritten for women including Dr. Watson, Moriarty's henchwoman Bassick, and Moriarty's goons. The goons were very humorous and all played by high school age girls or recently graduated from high school. One actor is an eighth grader who has a rather large part and he did a great job. There are many of the criminal element at different levels on up to Holmes' nemesis Professor Moriarty. Initially it was a little difficult to figure out what schemes they were up to, but they explain them a couple of times making them understandable, yet still intriguing. Other than some of the sound issues, all the actors did good jobs. Most adopt English accents, some Cockney, others more refined. Bob Taylor, who plays Sherlock Holmes does an excellent job. I never had trouble hearing him. He captures the accent and the character and portrays both the strong presence and confident humor of the character. His portrayal seemed similar to that of Benedict Cumberbatch, especially his voice. But Taylor makes the character his own. He might have been the tallest actor on stage, though there were many tall actors including women. Frank Robert as Professor Moriarty is shorter and thinner then Sherlock Holmes but still has the presence and confidence to fill the role. Dr. Watson, played by Portia Stacy has a smaller role than in most Sherlock stories but still a prominent one. Even the supporting roles such as the maids are portrayed as more than just superficial. The character of Sidney Prince looked very thin in his braces, but still conveyed much humor.

One of the best aspects of the production was the costumes.  They were period costumes but not overly elaborate or made to look old fashion.  The men often wore collared shirts and sometimes ties.  The women wore long dresses with the exception of Moriarty's goons who had their own goon outfits complete with caps.  Several characters had costume changes.  Sherlock Holmes did wear the deerstalker hat and the grey coat with the small cape around his shoulders.  He wore a few other outfits.  I learned at the August SOB regular meeting that the costumes came from Northwest Costume in Tacoma.  They're located on 6th Avenue and have their own Sherlock Holmes room.

I found the play itself very enjoyable. There is some violence and threats of violence. I don't think any characters ever get killed, including the minor ones. The case gets a bit convoluted with all the levels of criminals involved, but I was able to figure out enough of it. I liked how Sherlock Holmes would often figure out traps beforehand, but go into them anyway in order to move forward with the case.

The intermission started at 8:25 pm and towards the end of it, the assistant director in charge of light and sound talked about how Spotlight Players was all-volunteer, but they still needed money to rent venues, pay royalties, printing, and publicity costs. He announced the upcoming Spotlight Players productions: Every Christmas Story Ever Told in November-December, and The Philadelphia Story in Spring 2014. He also announced open volunteer and board member positions. After he spoke they drew the door prizes that were gift certificates to Black Bear Frozen Yogurt. The second act started at 8:45 and the play ended at around 9:30 pm. After taking their bow the cast came out in costume and mingled with the audience, many of them seemed to know each other. We left soon after it ended and took Meridian north, followed it to where it turned west and got on the 512 west. We took it to the I-5 north and drove home. Sherlock Holmes makes for an enjoyable evening of live theater.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged Revised

I saw the play The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged Revised at the Tacoma Little Theatre (TLT) on Sunday, September 8, 2013 at the 2:00 pm matinee showing. I had first heard of it from the Tacoma Weekly. Later I mentioned it to a Trader Joe's employee who said it was directed by his former drama teacher and that it was revival of a show first staged at TLT in the spring. Tacoma Little Theatre is located on I Street about one block northwest of Wright Park. On one side is a mural of mostly yellow colors that I think depicts actors in Greek plays. I arrived around 1:45 pm and there were some people outside enjoying the gorgeous sunny weather. Inside I found a large room with tables, chairs, and a snack bar where they sold popcorn and "The Bard's Brownies" that included Othello, Iago, and Ophelia cookies. The room was already quite crowded with theatregoers. There was a small queue at the box office to the left inside the room and when I bought my $10 ticket with a credit card they asked for my address and phone number. The theatre lobby was to the right where they were taking tickets and ripping off the smaller stubs. On the walls were photographs taken at earlier TLT plays, some from the 1950's.

There weren't very many close or middle seats left when I got my ticket and I ended up getting a seat in the second row but way over to the left. The viewing angle was quite sharp. It felt warm in the theatre, as if there was no air conditioning. I think the theatre had about 12 rows of 15-16 seats and in total held about 200 people. It actually didn't seem that little, though it was definitely smaller than the Pantages Theatre on Broadway in Tacoma. It was perhaps the same size as Perseverance Theatre in Juneau or the smaller theatre at Kresge Playhouse at Willamette University. There was no balcony. The lighting was good and I could hear the actors well even though they didn't appear to have microphones. The theatre was mostly full by the time the audience had all sat down. There may have been some empty rows toward the back.

The play began at exactly 2:00 pm. One of the actors gave a humorous introduction that included a few practical rules such as no flash photography or recording allowed. I won't say too much about the content of the play because I don't want to give anything away. I will say that it was very funny from beginning to end and very fast-paced. The humor did get quite bawdy and there was a little bit of profanity that I thought may have been a bit mature for the recommended audience of 8 and up. But it was all very funny and well timed. So of the "on-color" jokes were the most humorous. They had some audience participation, but nothing too difficult for most of us. At 2:53 pm there was a 15-minute intermission. They did cover all the plays and sonnets, though the time was not divided equally among the works. The program even had a little scoreboard of all the plays, sonnets, and poems. They used many props and wore hilarious costumes. There was even some music and a bit of education if you count the actual lines from the plays, though often revised for even more humor. Throughout, it was entertaining, funny, and never slowed down.

The show was all performed by three male actors in many different roles including humorous versions of themselves. They were very energetic and did amazing jobs delivering one humorous line after another. They also had very physical roles that further added to the comedy. Luke Amundson is a theater veteran and one of the actors from the original spring production of The Complete Works. Also from the original cast was Coleman Hagerman who was only 17 years old and a senior at Covenant High School in Tacoma. The cast newcomer was Blake R. York who, according to the program, had a "normal" person job in addition to his extensive theatre work. They were all featured equally and truly commanded our attention from the beginning to the end. They are all very talented and I would enjoy seeing them perform in other productions.

The play ended around 3:45 pm. On my way out I picked up a TLT season schedule with Coleman on the cover. An interesting future production is To Kill a Mockingbird that will premiere in late January. Maybe I'll check it out. In the meantime, go see The Complete Works of William Shakespeare Abridged Revised. It runs through September 22.

Krunk Fu Battle Battle

We saw the musical Krunk Fu Battle Battle at the David Henry Hwang Theatre on Thursday, June 23, 2011.  The musical was performed by East West Players and our cousin, Marc Macalintal was the musical director and composed the vocal music.  Krunk Fu Battle Battle has been over a year in the making.  Marc (and possibly others) got the idea when they were producing the musical Pippin for East West Players back in the spring of 2008 (see earlier review).  They had added elements of hip hop and some more modern melodies to what was originally an early 1970s musical.  While doing that they decided, “Why not write an original hip hop musical.”

This was actually the second time in June that we had seen a theatrical production that was originally conceived by someone we knew when we saw an earlier theatrical production in which they were involved.  On June 4 we had attended the stage reading of Transfigured Night that was written by our friend from the puzzle parties, Bartok (see earlier review).  He got the idea while performing in the play Richard III in November 2009 (see earlier review).

We had heard that Marc was putting a lot of work into his original musical, his “baby” as we referred to it.  It was a very collaborative effort with others writing the book and lyrics, providing the dance music and arranging the choreography.  I think I remember him saying something about having the stage reading many months ago.  When we received the schedule for the 2010-2011 East West Players season we finally learned the name of the musical, “Krunk Fu Battle Battle.”  When I asked about it around that time he said they were still working on it.  He said he would often have to wait for one of the others to finish their part before he could begin his part.

Krunk Fu Battle Battle had preview performances from May 12-15 and officially opened on May 18.  It would run until Sunday, June 26.  Since we were fairly busy in late May and early June, we decided not to see the show until its last Thursday, June 23.  On that day we took the 10 west to the 101 north and exited at Alameda St.  I think it was as we drove south along Alameda that I saw a large group of kids, possibly teenagers or preteens walking south on the sidewalk.  We turned right on Temple Street and left onto Judge John Aiso Street.  From here we turned left into the parking lot for East West Players.  It cost $7 to park in the large lot.  We found a place not long after turning right.  It was near a Korean BBQ place that we could smell as we got out of the car.  We noticed that there were many cars parked in the alley along the north side of the theater.  On their dashboards I noticed papers with names on them and “Krunk Fu Battle Battle.”  I wonder if these were the cars belonging to the cast and crew.

There was a queue to pick up or purchase tickets that we joined at 7:50 to pick up our will call tickets.  To the right they were serving glasses of wine, soda, water, and other beverages at a table.  The David Henry Hwang Theatre used to be a church and has stained glass windows and four pillars in front.  When we were midway through the queue a large group of kids joined it behind us.  I think they were the same group that we saw walking along Alameda Street.  They were loud and hyper but they made a great crowd for the show aside from a few behind us whom I could often hear talking.  There seemed to be many African-Americans among the students though the crowd overall was very diverse including Asians, Caucasians, possibly Latinos.  One guy sounded like he had an English or Australian accent.  The weather was warm for spring and it was especially warm inside the theatre.

After we got our tickets we entered the theatre and climbed one flight of stairs to get to the orchestra level.  I wonder if I’ll ever learn what’s on the first floor of the building.  They should have a tour or maybe a haunted theatre like they had at the Covina Center for the Performing Arts in October 2010.  Our seats were in row F, the fourth row from the front, numbers 3 and 4 on the right side.  They were very good though we had to look up to see the stage.  As I believe they had done at other EWP productions we had seen, there was no curtain.  We could see the entire stage.  On each side were tall vertical murals with what looked like characters from the musical.  In the middle were seven tall screens suspended from the ceiling on which they showed scenes of mist.  These screens would show graffiti and other images that complemented the scenes on stage.  They also acted as partitions from behind which characters would emerge.  There were a couple of smaller screens above these and in the upper middle was a platform where the turntablist, DJ Gingee sat.  She wore a bright pink cap but with the lighting elsewhere we couldn’t see her face.

At around 8:10 p.m. the announcer said, “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen.”  He said the usual things about turning off cell phones and unwrapping candy in plastic wrappers.  He also said that no photography or recording of any kind was allowed and that there would be no intermission.  After he finished speaking the lights dimmed and the show began.

The first scene of Krunk Fu Battle Battle is also the last and the climactic scene.  Most of the story is told in a flashback detailing the events that led up to this scene.  I thought this way of telling the story worked well.  It added to rather than detracted from the anticipation.  The story takes place in the Sunset Park neighborhood of Brooklyn in present day.  The main character is a high school student who moves to the neighborhood with his mother from New England.  She is originally from the neighborhood.  The main character, referred to at one point as “our hero” by the narrator, makes a friend and starts to fit in when he soon finds himself in over his head and has only 30 days to prepare for a dance battle against a rival group.  On the surface it seems like a straightforward story.  There’s a love interest for our hero, a humorous but loyal best friend, Wingnut, and a mentor, Sir Master Cert, who is also the narrator, kind of like the leading player in Pippin.  The story is well-paced making the 2-hour duration go by quickly.  The actors spoke their lines quickly and some parts of the story are told in rap but I was able to follow it and catch most of the jokes.  There is much street slang in the lines, though it’s still understandable and quite humorous.  I wasn’t sure if it was real current slang used on the streets or a bit outdated and fictional.  Whichever, it was still entertaining.  There are actually two generations of characters and the story includes a flashback to the earlier generation’s time in the early ‘80s.  But it’s all easy enough to follow and there is clear change and development.  There are also a few interesting twists and complications.

The actors portrayed the characters well.  Though some were featured more than others none came off as merely one-dimensional.  The main character, Norman Lee, especially went through a lot of development.  I thought his sidekick, Wingnut, did an especially good job with his part and was the most humorous of the characters.  I was surprised to read that the actor who portrayed him, Matt Tayao, is primarily a dancer.  Though he danced well, I thought his acting stood out more.  Of the cast of nine, only three were women and of these, two were greatly developed, Norman’s mom, Jean Lee, and love interest, (Sweet) Cindy Chang.  Still, they played key roles in the story and Jean Lee was the only cast member to sing any of the songs solo.  Five of the actors play multiple roles, minor ones in addition to their main ones such as store owner, laundry owner, and fish market owner.  The roles are humorous and possibly a bit stereotypical, but they do such a good job that they’re very distinguishable from their main roles.  My wife later saw in the program that one of the actors, Cesar Cipriano, who played LA, also played Lewis in the EWP production of Pippin three years earlier.  He is another connection between the two musicals.  Most of the characters had to be able to act, sing and dance B-Boy that’s also known as breakdancing.  They did a good job filling the roles though I think for many numbers the dancing took precedence.

The music was another pleasant surprise.  I thought it would be all rap and hip hop.  There was plenty of that but many songs were also sung.  They had elements of R&B and ‘80s pop.  I especially liked these songs though I also found the hip hop songs pretty good.  At times characters would try to get the crowd involved.  For a later number they had us all clapping.  All the kids in the audience had no trouble making noise when requested.  Of all the characters I think Jean Lee had the best singing voice.  Not all of the dance music was original, especially the music played during the flashback to the ‘80s.  The dancing was fun to watch.  I could tell Norman and his crew were struggling with it as they learned.  Much of it was very coordinated and it seemed much more eclectic to me than I remember breakdancing from the 1980s.  Maybe B-Boy combines breakdancing with other hip hop moves.  Still, of all the musical elements I liked Marc’s original songs the best.  “We Will Get There” and “It’s Gotta Begin Somewhere” really captured the feelings and events of the moments.  Of the raps I thought “Sunset Park” was the most fun.  One thing I noticed about the show was that they never repeated a melody, not even at the end or between scenes.

After the show ended we went outside of the theatre and found Marc there.  We talked to him for a few minutes, complimenting him on his “baby.”  He said he had worked on it for over one year.  We all walked to the back of the theatre where the kids from the audience were cheering as the cast came out.  We drove home soon afterward.

The next day we read through more of the program.  We learned that the director, Tim Dang, had also directed Pippin at EWP three years before and that he had directed at Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, AK.  I know this theatre well and attended many shows there when I lived in Juneau.  The program also listed the EWP staff including graphic artist/playbill designer Azusa Oda.  There was an ad for Marc’s comedy group Room to Improv.

We enjoyed seeing Marc’s Baby.  It was more than just a hip hop musical but also a rollicking singing, dancing, and rapping extravaganza.  It definitely made their production of Pippin three years ago worth it.

Transfigured Night

On the afternoon of Saturday, June 4, 2011 we saw a stage reading of the new full-length play, Transfigured Night.  It took place at the Blue Moon Theatre that’s on the campus of the Southern California University of Health Sciences.  The play was written by Todd Rew who we know from the puzzle parties that we sometimes attend.  His puzzler nom is Bartok.  We first heard that he was writing the play (or at least researching it) when he mentioned it at the puzzle party in January 2010.  He has acted in several plays including Rehearsal for Murder in 2008 and Richard III in November 2009.  We saw and enjoyed both of those plays (see earlier reviews).  Bartok has also played piano professionally and constructed cryptic crosswords.  He sent us the email about the stage reading for his play in April.  He mentioned that the theatre was only a few minutes from his home.  We marked our calendars.

Like Bartok’s earlier plays this one was in the Whittier/La Habra area and it took us a while to get there.  The stage reading was scheduled for 2 p.m.  We left not long after 1.  We drove south on Vincent Avenue to where it became Hacienda Blvd. through some slow traffic.  We turned right on Colima Road that we drove on through Whittier.  Right after crossing some train tracks we turned left on Lambert Road and drove a couple more miles to 1^st Avenue where we turned right.  We then turned left on Amber Valley Road and parked along the curb since it’s the northern border of the university.  The Blue Moon Theatre actually isn’t in Whittier but in an unincorporated region known as East La Mirada.  That sounds like Islamorada, the restaurant where we had celebrated our anniversary two months earlier (see earlier review).  We actually could have taken a more direct route if we had stayed on Hacienda Blvd. but it would have been a more hilly country road through La Habra Heights.  We had taken it once back in October 2007 and it was not fun.

We arrived at the university just before 2 p.m. and decided to just park on the street since we had earlier seen online that it cost $5 to park in the lot.  We had printed a map from online that seemed to show that the theatre was on the southwest end of the campus but we later found a map showing it in the middle of the north side just east of the entrance to the parking lot.  By this time it was about five minutes after 2.  We entered the theatre and found no one in the lobby, only some tables with papers describing the play and an evaluation form along with a box of pens.  The first paper gave a listing of the credits and cast.  Most of the actors portrayed multiple roles, a bit like in the production of Richard III a year and a half earlier.  The second paper gave the synopsis of each of the play’s ten scenes.  I didn’t really like this “spoiler sheet.”  It was easy enough to figure out what was going on just by watching.  But it is a good reference for writing this review.

We quietly entered the theatre on the left side and saw that the play had already begun.  It is kind of told in an extended flashback and portrays the true story of lesser-known Austrian composer Anton Webern.  The life story starts with Webern at age 20 and ends at his death.  He had a very interesting adult life beginning with him studying under Arnold Schoenberg, living through both World Wars I and II with the rise of Hitler and Nazi takeover of Austria in between.  He is a complex person and the play effectively presents his artistic and political sides, though he initially claims to be non-political.  I believe all the other characters were real people including Schoenberg who eventually settled in Southern California and has a building at USC named after him.

The stage reading seemed more like an actual play production.  Though the actors read from scripts as they performed, they had most of the blocking, expressions and timing down.  They had three rehearsals prior to the reading.  I think Bartok later said that most readings just have the cast sitting at chairs and reading through the script.  This performance had a director, props, blocking and acting.  The props were fairly simple, just a table, chairs, and a podium.  There were no constructed sets or backdrops.  They really weren’t necessary.  The actors didn’t wear period costumes, just business casual clothes, though the actor playing Webern wore a black suit, tie, and suspenders (a.k.a. braces).  He also wore glasses that all really helped him fit the part.  The play presented ten key scenes in Webern’s life plus much narration from the different actors.  Sometimes it was in the form of letters being read out loud.  There weren’t any sound effects other than a baby crying for one scene and when music was added to the background at key points.  Bartok later confirmed that this was Webern’s music.

I thought that all the actors did a great job.  Apart from seeing them reading from scripts you would think that they were putting on a play and had prepared for months.  There were a few times when some of them didn’t quite project over the music and when they nearly skipped the intermission but these were understandable due to their minimal preparation.  They never had to do a scene again or, I think, even have to reread a line.  I thought the actor who played Webern especially did a good job.  Though his appearance never changed I could tell Webern was getting older, and his attitudes were changing as the play progressed.  The actress who played his wife and first cousin Mina looked familiar.  She may have been in Rehearsal for Murder over three years ago.  The actors who played dual roles especially those playing Webern’s children did a great job differentiating by changing their voices slightly or their personalities.

The play seemed to have the right balance of narration and dialogue, edification and entertainment to present a whole book’s worth of Webern’s life story.  The characters seemed real and well-developed despite there being so many and that some only appear in a couple of scenes.  As another puzzler commented afterward, the dialogue was written well, very believable and actually containing a lot of humor.  Bartok’s nom is mentioned at one point.  The play did present a lot and told a very complex story.  I had to pay attention to successfully follow it all.  Maybe this is why the “spoiler sheets” were provided.  But I never found my interest wandering or myself getting bored.  Webern’s story is fascinating and this medium of a play really brought that out.

It was a very long play running for at least three hours.  There was an intermission between the fifth and sixth scenes.  During that time we talked to the other puzzlers there.  At least 8-9 showed up.  During the intermission they mentioned that the next National Puzzlers League convention (a.k.a. the Con) would be in Providence, RI in July.  Next year’s Con would be in Portland, OR.  Bartok stopped by to say hi to us during the intermission and to thank us for coming.

After the play ended they had a Q and A session with Bartok and the director of the play.  He described the researching, writing, editing and preparation process.  He said he got the idea for writing the play while acting in Richard III in 2009, the same play we saw.  Some people asked, I thought, rather pretentious questions about including visual art elements and narrowing things down to a more singular focus.  The theatre was less than 1/3 full but it was a large theatre and Bartok mentioned that this was the first stage reading done there.  He explained the meaning of the play’s title.  It is mentioned in the script as a piece by Schoenberg.  They played the piece over the speakers during the intermission.  Bartok mentioned that he was a fan of cryptic crosswords and “transfigured night” is a clue for the word “thing” since night is an anagram of thing.  Later I thought that this related to the quote “the play’s the thing.”

I’m glad that we know such talented people such as Bartok and that we get to enjoy their work.