In the Wings Oct.-Nov. 2011

IN THE WINGS by HARRIETTE SMITH OCT.-NOV. 2011


Who said that L.A. is not a theatre town? Do I disagree with whomever that pontiff might be? We’ve had some wonderful shows here lately. Unfortunately, the prices are often high, especially in the larger theatres. One inexpensive night out is to see A Noise Within at their brand spankin’ newly built theatre in East Pasadena. The classical repertory theatre company launches a milestone 2011-12 season and 20th anniversary in a new 33,000-sq.-ft. state-of-the-art venue starting with Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” or “What You Will.” The spring of 2012 continues with “Antony and Cleopatra,” and “The Illusion.” Sounds wonderful. A Noise Within is on Foothill Blvd. and Sierra Madre Villa Ave., 3352 East Foothill Blvd., Pasadena 91107. Free self-parking. For tickets and info: 626-356-3100.
www.ANoiseWithin.org
THE FOUNTAIN, on that street in East Hollywood, has a well-deserved reputation as one of the best waiver houses in L.A. They currently have “Bakersfield Mist,” which has been held over a gazillion times. Closing date is finally December 18. Run to see this two-hander and read our review as you scroll down.
The Ruskin Theatre Group at the Santa Monica Airport does exciting works, always, and a restaurant right next door helps greatly.
The Odyssey on Sepulveda, along with the Pacific Resident Theatre on Venice Blvd. in Santa Monica, always has exciting and provocative productions going on. The Odyssey presents L.A.’s own Justin Tanner’s “Daytime Drinking”(LA Times Critics Choice) and the powerful World War II concentration camp drama “Way To Heaven,” about which Flo wrote brilliantly; it plays until December 18. See review below.
Theatre 40 also does great theatre. Their next production, opening late November, is “The Color of Rose,” written and directed by Kathrine Bates (based on a concept by Chuck Fries). It’s about Rose Fitzgerald (later to become a Kennedy). Sounds fascinating.
Among our most beautiful mid-size houses is the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, which always has a provocative mix of theatre and music ranging across the cultural spectrum. Opening November 12 is “The Comedy of Errors” with Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, back for a third year!
The larger Pasadena Playhouse featured “South Street” (which just closed), a new musical with awesome dancers and singers… the book needed work, though. However, come November, “Blues For An Alabama Sky,” directed by Artistic Director Sheldon Epps, sounds great. Can’t wait to see and write about this.
Hollywood’s Pantages – one of the most beautiful, historic houses anywhere -- has lots of wonderful Broadway revivals at not-too-steep prices. Currently showing: “Come Fly Away” the Twyla Tharp/Frank Sinatra musical extravaganza.

Theatre Reviews by Flo Selfman:

"Bakersfield Mist"
Fountain Theatre through December 18

When a straight-laced, uptight modern-art expert meets a sassy, bourbon-swilling trailer park resident in order to determine the authenticity of a painting she bought at a garage sale for three dollars, it’s more than mist that goes flying. It’s a full-on frontal assault of words, ideas, morals, booze and even furniture. The play, written and directed by Stephen Sachs, the Fountain Theatre’s co-artistic director, contains all the drips, splashes, lines and squiggles of the Jackson Pollock painting that it is…or isn’t. The audience never sees the painting, whose backside faces us, but the clash of wills and wits of the two stars – Jenny O’Hara and Nick Ullett, real-life spouses -- is a winner. The transformations that the two characters undergo in this ninety-minute one-act prove, once again, that the unlikeliest people may have more in common than they’d ever suspect. “Bakersfield Mist” has been held over again; you have until December 18 to catch it. We also love the adjacent parking lot (fee) and delightful upstairs café.

"Way to Heaven" by Juan Mayorga
Odyssey Theatre Ensemble through Sunday, December 18

As we enter the theater, we are invited to tour a small “museum.” Signs invite us to look but not touch a collection of artifacts from Theresienstadt, the "model" concentration camp in 1944, including a small dock surrounded by water; a kiosk, a bench, a bookcase with books; an SS officer’s uniform jacket, an ice cream vendor’s cart, and a ramp leading to a closed door, the “Way to Heaven" -- also the name of the play by Spanish playwright Juan Mayorga.

Once we are seated, a Red Cross representative tells us about what we’ve just seen. He tells us that he dreams about this every night. If he had known what he was seeing, would his report still have been the same?

Another scene is made up of small tableaux: on the bench, a young man brings his girlfriend a wrapped present, “Our future,” he says. A youth argues with another boy over a toy. A little girl on the pier tries to teach her doll to swim, and then to wave “at the nice man.”

These, we discover, are rehearsals. In order to mislead the international Red Cross inspectors, the Nazis constructed a fake village to quell extermination rumors. Jews have been selected to go through the motions of various ordinary activities for the impending visitors, to convince official visitors that the captives were living happy and normal lives. Other works have dealt with this topic, but perhaps not from a vantage point of the camp official charged by “Berlin” with creating this “normal” scene, and the Jew he has selected to cast and rehearse the "actors."

Two tour de force performances: Michael McGee’s 25-minute Scene One monologue as the Red Cross Representative; and the stellar Norbert Weisser as the camp Commandant, who thinks he is civilized because he has stocked his camp office with his personal library of classic German writers. From cajoling to ordering to drunken rages, he's a power to behold. If this were a film, they'd be calling Christoph Waltz's agent.

Largely a play between two men, it would not work half as well if Bruce Katzman, as Gottfried, were not so convincing. Strongly resembling Alan Arkin, Katzman is an often silent foil for Weisser, letting him – and us – know in small ways of the evil that lurks outside their barrack walls. An agonizing choice he is forced to make further illustrates his courage.

The evening’s most poignant moment comes when Weisser’s Commandant drunkenly parodies a little girl’s singing of a standard Yiddish lullaby, “Oif’N Pripitchik.”

This is a worthwhile play which attempts to humanize the inhuman. A post-curtain call coda further brings it home. A non-Jew, director (and Odyssey's founder) Ron Sossi has again managed to bring to life important Jewish thematic material.

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It should be noted that the Odyssey and numerous other local nonprofit cultural and social welfare institutions were recently in danger of being forced to pay market rents for their spaces. They would no doubt have been forced out of their present locations. Sossi notes in the the program that the actions of many people, including councilman Paul Koretz, brought this before the City Council and it has been tabled indefinitely. So the Odyssey and others will be able to remain in their spaces, at least for the foreseeable future.

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OPERA:
"Il Postino," the beautiful opera with Placido Domingo starring as Pablo Neruda, the esteemed Chilean poet, will be broadcast on November 25 at 9:00pm on our local PBS station. I was fortunate to see the opening of this opera last year. The marvelous young composer, Daniel Catán, died just a few months after "Il Postino's" premiere in L.A.


Now for FILMS:

The 2011 FILM SEASON has not been too worthwhile yet; however, there have been some great films for mature audiences worth writing and talking about.
Brad Pitt’s “Moneyball” raked in some nice money at the box-office. Pedro Almodovar’s “The Skin I Live In” was terrifically acted by Antonio Banderas but was a very disturbing film to me.
An absolutely charming and delightful film, which didn’t stay long enough, was “My Afternoon With Margueritte,” starring that delightful French actor Gerard Depardieu as a nearly illiterate man who happens to sit alongside a little old lady reading excerpts from her novel aloud. They form a warm and wonderful friendship together.
Two wonderful period films out imminently are “Anonymous,” which poses the question of who actually wrote Shakespeare’s works, and the delightful romantic picture “Young Goethe in Love,” already a multiple festival winner. It’s in German with English subtitles (often difficult to read when they’re in white letters against a white background). There’s humor aplenty, along with a love story and a beautiful score. The lead actor, Alexander Fehling, will be a favorite of the ladies.
Waiting to see “My Week With Marilyn” starring Michelle Williams as Ms. Monroe. Also stars Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench. Also awaiting the Roman Polanski film, “Carnage,” with Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly. Sounds like a winner, based on the play by Yasmina Reza (“Art”).
Looking forward to “Pina,” the exhilarating new film from German master Wim Wenders (“Wings of Desire,” “The Buena Vista Social Club,” and “Paris, Texas’), which was shot in 3D to capture the brilliantly inventive dance world of legendary choreographer Pina Bausch, who died in 2009. The Official German Oscar ® entry in the Best Foreign Language Film category, it will open in Los Angeles in January.

Enjoy going to theatre and seeing films and keep supporting the arts!