Based on the 1975 cult movie classic Monty Python And The Holy Grail, Spamalot ran an impressive 1574 performances in its original four-year Broadway run, due in part to the enthusiastic Monty Python fan base (many of whom were likely seeing their first Broadway show ever) and in even greater measure to the musical itself. With an absolutely hilarious book by Eric Idle, sing-alongable songs by John Du Pres, Idle, and Neil Innes, and showcase roles for an octet of star performers, Spamalot is quite literally in a class by itself.

Like the film from which it is “lovingly ripped off,” Monty Python’s Spamalot takes us back to the days of King Arthur (John Dantona) and his quest for The Holy Grail, accompanied by his Knights of the Round Table: Sir Bedevere the Wise (Andrew Metzger), Sir Lancelot the Brave (Nicholas Ferguson), Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot (Austin Miller) and Sir (Dennis) Galahad the Pure (Nicholas Herbst), roles originally played on film by Monty Python legends Graham Chapman, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Idle, and Michael Palin, and on Broadway by Tim Curry, Steve Rosen, Hank Azaria, David Hyde Pierce, and Christopher Sieber (four of whom scored Tony nominations).

With the exception of the one-and-only Dantona, the Simi Valley Spamalot Players are considerably younger than their Broadway counterparts; however, that is about the only way they are “less” than those who’ve played the roles before them, and that goes for Julian Comeau, Stephen Weston, and the divalicious Darienne Lissette stepping into roles created on Broadway by Christian Borle, Michael McGrath, and Sara Ramirez.

Broadway and movie trivia aside, Spamalot brings to song-and-dance life many of the classic comedy sequences that have made the original Monty Python film a hit for nearly four decades now. There’s Arthur’s battle with the Black Knight (Herbst), who ends up about as limbless as a man can get without saying “uncle”; the Franglais insults launched on Arthur by an obnoxious “French Taunter” (Ferguson); the Knights’ ill-fated attempt to sneak into said castle using a Trojan (not Horse but) Rabbit; and the terrifying yet hilarious Knights Who Say Ni (led by Knight Of Ni Ferguson).

Added to these are musical numbers “He Is Not Dead Yet,” sung by a particularly insistent Not Dead Fred (Comeau); “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” (from Monty Python’s Life Of Brian); and a pair of affectionate Mel Brooksian jabs at the Chosen People (“You Won’t Succeed on Broadway (If You Don’t Have Any Jews)” and the Fabulous People (“His Name Is Lancelot”), the latter ditty extolling the virtues of the Round Table Knight who “likes to dance a lot … and in hot pants a lot …bats for the other team.”

New to the mix is the glamorous Lady Of The Lake (Lissette), Spamalot’s very own answer to Cher, whose “The Song That Goes Like This” spoofs every Broadway power ballad ever written, just as “Find Your Grail” does to every single Rousing Anthem ever sung on a Broadway stage. And speaking of show-stoppers, they don’t come any more show-stopping than the LOTL’s “The Diva’s Lament (Whatever Happened To My Part?).”

SVCAD’s Spamalot is director Sean Harrington’s baby, and whether bringing it to life took a full nine months (or more or less), his talent and dedication to the project are evident in the polished finished result, and most particularly in the all-around smashing performances on the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center stage.

Simi Valley theater vet Dantona adds King Arthur to his long list of credits (including a recent scene-stealing turn as the devil himself in Damn Yankee), a majestically droll performance that anchors the production and allows the 20somethings around him to shine in his orbit.

I absolutely loved English charmer Weston as the ever faithful Sancho to Dantona’s Quijote—sorry, make that Patsy to Dantona’s Arthur, and the same can be said for the triple-threats who bring to life Arthur’s Knights and numerous assorted cameos. (Weston also plays the Finnish village Mayor in the supremely ridiculous “Fisch Schlapping Song” that opens the show, and one of the Swamp Castle guards as well.)

Miller couldn’t be more irresistibly rib-tickling as Sir Robin (and First Sentry, Brother Maynard, and Second Guard). Metzger is a hoot as blustery Sir Bedevere, as Lancelot’s faithful servant Concorde, and (in battleaxe drag) as Sir Dennis Galahad’s dear old Mom (who’s clearly seen last month’s Legally Blonde and knows her Bend-&-Snap). A fabulous Ferguson gives audiences a gay old time as Sir Lance, and also scores laughs aplenty as the French Taunter, the Knight Of Ni, and Tim The Enchanter. Herbst is terrifically amusing as the dashing Sir Dennis Galahad, duetting “The Song That Goes Like This” with Lissette along with his cameo bits as The Black Knight and Prince Herbert’s father. As for Comeau, the recent Spring Awakening star may be the youngest of the bunch, but you wouldn’t know it from his irresistible turns as girlyboyish Prince Herbert, the Historian who narrates Spamalot, Not Dead Fred, the taunting French Guard, and more. (Talk about versatility.) Finally, there’s the glamorous, power-voiced, and hysterically funny Lissette, giving every Lady Of The Lake before her a run for her money, and that includes Broadway diva Sara (pronounce that Sodda) Ramirez, who won a Tony for the role.

Ensemble members Jessamyn Arnstein, Sara Gilbert, Kyle Harrington, Cameron Herbst, Jaki Johnson, Christopher Mahr, Rehyan Rivera, and Ally Shultz may some of them still be school age, but they are thorough pros, executing more tracks and donning more costumes and wigs than most performers do in several shows, and that includes roles as The Lady Of The Lake’s backup dancers slash cheerleaders The Laker Girls, along with assorted Knights, Minstrels, Not Dead Soldiers, and more.

Scenie-winning choreographer Becky Castells gives the Knights and other assorted Samalotters plenty of fun-and-fancy footwork to execute, which they do quite nimbly indeed.  Musical director Gary Poirot not only gets his cast vocalizing with the best of them but conducts and play keyboards in the production’s hard-working live orchestra, featuring Mel Bator, Cavit Celayir-Monezis, John Hansen, Kevin Hunt, Lucas Miller, Jodi Morse, Heather Simpson, and Carolyn Wargacki.

Spamalot’s hands-down design star is costumer Ziona Green, who has come up with one winner after another, from Round Table Knight tunics, to Vegas-ready gowns for The Lady Of The Lake, to cheerleader garb, to the white wedding gown in which Comeau’s Prince Herbert looks quite fetching indeed. Harrington’s scenic design may have been put together with a budget one one-zillionth of the Broadway designs (well, perhaps more than that), but it sets the scene and does the trick, and is expertly lit by lighting designer Courtney Johnson. Musical numbers feature a highly professional mix of the cast’s amped voices and the behind-stage orchestra.

Monty Python’s Spamalot is produced by Fred Helsel and David Ralphe. Randon Pool and Jan Carr are costume consultants, Lacey Stewart is technical director, and Seth A. Kamenow and Helsel are propmasters. Sommer Branham and Sharon Gibson are stage managers.

Following the somewhat mixed bag that was the SVCAC’s recent Damn Yankees, it’s a pleasure to report that Monty Python’s Spamalot not only matches the quality of last year’s Hairspray and Pippin, it may well be the best of the bunch. With its blend of traditional musical theater conventions and off-the-wall Monty Python madness, this is one musical that even musical theater naysayers will enjoy every bit as much as their out-and-proud stage queen family members and friends.

Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley.
www.simi-arts.org

–Steven Stanley
April 21, 2013

 Barry Pearl (Doody to John Travolta’s Danny and Olivia Newton-John’s Sandy) directs for Cabrillo as only a Grease vet could, with choreographer Kelly Ward (Roger in the 1978 movie smash) insuring that cast members not yet born when Grease went from stage to screen have their “Hand-Jive” and other 1950s dance moves down pat.

Here’s a quick refresher course on Grease’s now iconic cast of characters as created by book, music, and lyric writers Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey:

• Danny (Michael Cusimano), undisputed leader of the Burger Palace Boys and the coolest, hottest hotshot at Rydell High.

• Sandy (Natalie MacDonald), wholesome girl-next-door transfer student, whose first on-campus encounter with Danny leads her to believe that that their recent romance may have been a case of “summer loving” and nothing more.

• Kenicke (Harley Jay), Danny’s smart-alecky sidekick; Doody (Nick Tubbs), the hero-worshiping youngest of the Burger Boys; Sonny (Nick Bernardi), the gang’s resident Italian Wise Guy and self-described lady killer; and Roger (Ryan Quick), roly-poly class clown nicknamed “Rump” for his habit of “Mooning” on a Saturday night.

• Betty Rizzo, aka Rizzo (Katherine Malak), Rydell’s baddest bad girl, Kenicke’s steady, and the Pink Ladys’ undisputed leader; Frenchy (Tessa Grady), Rydell High and Beauty School dropout, who naively assumes she got her nickname by “French inhaling” cigarette smoke; Marty (Claire Bermingham), the Pink Ladies’ resident glamour girl with a thing for older men like sleazy radio DJ Vince Fontaine (Travis Dixon); and Jan (Kimmy Zolozabal), the cutest, cuddliest, and most easily excitable Pink Lady at Rydell High.

Completing the Rydell student body are easily hoodwinked nerd Eugene Florczyk (Adam von Almen) and overachieving cheerleader Patty Simcox (Veronica Dunne), with English teacher Miss Lynch (Michele Selin) representing the Rydell High adults. And not to be forgotten are Johnny Casino (Jon Robert Hall), Rydell High’s resident Link Larkin; Cha-Cha Gregorio (Francesca Barletta), loud-mouthed dance champ at rival Catholic high school St. Bernadette’s; and Teen Angel (Adrian Zmed), who pops into Frenchy’s dreams to serenade her with “Beauty School Dropout.”

 Under Pearl’s expert direction, Cabrillo’s cast of young and young-at-heart triple-threats do bang-up work, beginning with its newcomer pair of stars, handsome heartthrob Cusimano and girl-next-door beauty MacDonald. StageSceneLA faves Barletta, Bernardi, Dixon, Dunne, Grady, Tubbs, and Zolozabal reveal new sides to their talents, while Hall, Quick, Selin, and von Almen prove multi-faceted discoveries. Especially impressive is Bermingham’s tall, leggy Marty (with so spot-on an American accent you’d never guess she’s an Irish lass). Zmed’s brief cameo appearance is sure to resonate with fans of Grease 2 fans. And saving best for last, Rydell’s most gossiped-about duo are brought to vibrant life by the always phenomenal Jay and Malak, the latter of whom makes “There Are Worse Things I Could Do” the evening’s hands-down showstopper.

Grease movie fans are cautioned not to expect to hear “Grease,” “Hopelessly Devoted To You,” and “You’re The One That I Want,” added to the 2007 Broadway revival but not part of the licensed 1972 version, an absence one wishes Samuel French Inc. would remedy. Also, parents with young children are advised that Grease contains a PG-13 mix of sexual content, teen smoking and drinking, language, and more than a few instances of the “one-finger salute.”

Still, it’s all in good fun, with musical director David O and his upstairs band (Steve Bethers, Matt Germaine, Shane Harry, Brian LaFontaine, Dave Lotfi, and Gary Rautenberg) getting the joint rocking to Grease classics “Summer Nights,” “Those Magic Changes,” “Freddy, My Love,” “Greased Lightnin’,” “Mooning,” “Look At Me, I’m Sandra Dee,” “We Go Togther,” “It’s Raining On Prom Night,” “Born To Hand Jive,” “Beauty School Dropout,” “Alone At A Drive-In Movie,” “Rock n’ Roll Party Queen,” “There Are Worse Things I Could Do,” and “All Choked Up.” (Is there any Grease song that hasn’t become a standard?)

And speaking of songs, in an inspired bit of genius, wired hand mikes appear suddenly out of nowhere whenever anyone bursts into song, a a “high concept” from the original production that predates Spring Awakening by thirty-five years.

Though I’ve never been a fan of Grease’s traditional (and rather dull) scenic design (provided here by Valley Youth Theatre, Phoenix, AZ) and would love to see what the show would look like with a whole new concept, costumes (provided by FCLO Music Theatre) are each and every one a colorful 1950s winner, with Cassie Russek’s hair and makeup design completing the spot-on ‘50s look. Design Partners, Inc.’s lighting design is appropriately flashy, while Jonathan Burke provides his accustomed expert sound design. And just wait till you see this Grease’s mini-Greased Lightning.

 Program credits go also to Hana Kim (additional scenic design), Christine Gibson (wardrobe supervisor), Char Brister (crew captain), Gary Wissman (technical director), and Darryl Tanikawa (orchestra contractor). Allie Roy is production stage manager and Morgan Zupanski assistant stage manager.

It’s been quite a while since we’ve had a major locally-produced Grease revival (FCLO’s in 2006 would seem to be the most recent) making this brief two-weekend Cabrillo Music Theatre revival manna from 1950s heaven. With Barry Pearl in the driver’s seat, this all-around terrific Grease is indeed “the word.”

Cabrillo Music Theatre, Kavli Theatre, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Thousand Oaks.
www.cabrillomusictheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
April 12, 2013
Photos: Ed Krieger

All the more reason to zip on up to relatively nearby Simi Valley (only half an hour from downtown L.A.) where right this very minute Elle Woods is discovering the joys of higher education in Actors’ Repertory Theatre of Simi’s terrific (if not quite perfect) staging of the 2007 Broadway adaptation of the 2001 movie smash, solidly directed by David Daniels.

 Book writer Heather Hach clearly knows not to fool with success, sticking closely to Karen McCullah Lutz and Kirsten Smith’s film adaptation of Amanda Brown’s novel, which has jilted UCLA Fashion Merchandising grad Elle (Leigh Golden) acing her LSATs, winning over the Harvard University Admissions board, and entering Harvard Law School in a bid to win back the heart of ex-boyfriend and future political hopeful Warner Huntington III (Quentin Garzón), who’s dumped her in favor of Vivienne Kensington (Kristina Miller), someone “less of a Marilyn and more of a Jackie.” Naturally, Elle finds herself in for a lot more than she bargained for in Harvard’s hallowed Ivy League halls, and in admitting Elle to its student body, so does the oldest law school in the U.S.

Legally Blonde The Musical does pretty much everything right, adding to the movie’s proven crowd-pleasing plot one of the brightest and best Broadway scores in recent years (music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin), one rousing dance number after another, and performances that honor the movie originals without carbon copying them.

 As much as any musical in recent memory, Legally Blonde features songs which actually advance the plot rather than simply providing an entertaining musical interlude between stretches of dialog. Listen to the Original Cast Recording and you have Elle’s story told almost entirely in song. That’s not to say that Hach’s book is superfluous. It isn’t. It’s funny, charming, and intelligent—and fills in all the blanks. For once, though, a Broadway musical has songs that are not only tuneful and catchy, they’re also absolutely integral to the show. O’Keefe and Benjamin are also masters of the mini-reprise, song chunks that reappear in medley-like numbers at appropriate moments, like old friends. No wonder this is one score you will likely find yourself recalling even after hearing it just once.

“Omigod You Guys” opens the show with bang upon bang, introducing us first to Elle’s UCLA Delta Nu sorority sisters toasting an absent Elle’s impending engagement, then to Elle’s pocket-sized pet pooch Bruiser (“He’s not an animal. He’s family”) who tells the gals where to find their soror. She’s at the Old Valley Mall, yip-yips Bruiser, shopping for just the right dress to wear to dinner tonight, because tonight is the night that boyfriend Warner will surely propose. A snooty dress shop employee tries to hoodwink Elle into buying last year’s dress at this year’s price, but she’s no match for the savvy Miss Woods. The dress “may be perfect for a blonde, but I’m not that blonde,” Elle chastises the salesgirl. By the end of the song (yes, we’re still in the show-stopping opening number), Elle has donned the perfect gown and is off to get proposed to, or so she thinks.

Fans of the movie will be in for few plot surprises in the musical, but in deference to Legally Blonde virgins, no more of the storyline will be revealed here than is absolutely necessary. Suffice it to say that the road to a Harvard Law Degree and (hopefully) Warner’s hand in marriage is a rocky one, filled with unexpected twists and turns.

 Here are some of Legally Blonde’s greatest musical moments, inventively choreographed by Simi Valley whiz Becky Castells to fit the dance talents of her enthusiastic young cast:

•Elle’s “personal essay” to the Harvard Board Of Admissions, in the movie a showy home video, in the musical a splashy production number (“What You Want”) featuring hip-hop DJ Grandmaster Chad and members of the UCLA Marching Band
•“So Much Better,” Legally Blonde’s answer to Wicked’s Act One closer “Defying Gravity,” as Elle celebrates her first major success as a Harvard law student
•“Whipped Into Shape,” an aerobics class taught by fitness guru-turned-accused murderess Brooke Wyndham (Ren Durant)—begun in her exercise studio, continued behind prison walls, and even extended into her defense team’s law office, featuring some of the jump-ropingest choreography ever
•Bend And Snap, an R&B celebration of the 99% effective man-catching move taught by Elle to best buddy/hairstylist Paulette (Michele McRae)
•Legally Blonde’s title tune, which starts off as the musical’s most beautiful, haunting melody and poignant lyric, then turns into a high energy reprise, fittingly entitled “Legally Blonde Remix,” which includes exciting, hilarious, and entirely appropriate Riverdance moves (you’ll see why).

Hach’s book is about as funny as they come, with great lines like “This is the kind of girl Warner wants. Someone serious. Someone lawyerly. Someone who wears black when nobody’s dead!” and “Thanks for the great tip on the costume party Vivienne. I see you came as last year’s sample sale” and “Whoever said tangerine was the new pink was seriously disturbed!”

 No production of Legally Blonde can possibly succeed without just the right leading lady to bring Elle to effervescent life, and here ARTS has struck gold(en) in Leigh Golden, who moves from her Scenie-winning supporting turn in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels to an equally stellar lead performance as the blonde who took Harvard University Law School by storm. Vocally and comedically, Golden aces every Elle Woods moment with a quirky, bubbly charm and oodles of likeability.

 Among supporting players, Joshua Ziel returns to L.A. theater in a winning turn as straight-arrow upper class law student slash sensitive Elle-mentor Emmett, Miller makes Elle’s snooty, uptight rival for Warner’s love far more than just a stuck-up villainess, and Durant does sizzling work in the show’s highest-energy featured role (in addition to her cameo as UCLA co-ed Shandi). Garzón has great fun as the shallow, self-absorbed rat Elle follows to Harvard, John Dantona is deliciously smarmy as sleazebag Harvard Professor Callahan, whose “Blood In The Water” could easily be adopted as the American Bar Association anthem, and a sensational McRae is a big-voiced delight as brash, street-smart (but self-esteem-challenged) Paulette.

I especially liked Katie Galuska, Joanna Bert, and Nina Jiries as the trio of Elle’s three best sorority sister chums Margot, Serena, and Pilar, who follow her to Harvard as her Greek Chorus—every “tragedy” deserving one.

Elle’s fellow first year Harvard law students Aaron, Enid, and Padamadan are brought to colorful life by Garret Riley, Julia Williams, and Rehyan Rivera, with Riley doubling as Pforzheimer and Bailiff and Rivera as the unmistakably gay (or is he merely European?) Nikos. Adult tracks are entertainingly performed by Suzanne Mayes and John David Wallis as Elle’s parents and assorted cameos.

 Finally, a standout Zach Kaufer makes the very most of a trifecta of roles—as the raptastic Grandmaster Chad, as Paulette’s trailer-trashy ex-boyfriend Dewey, and most notably as UPS guy Kyle, whose cocky walk and sexy man-gams would turn any hair stylist’s (or colorist’s) head.

Completing the overall topnotch ensemble are Charles Martinez (Kiki The Colorist), Amy Moffatt (Leilani), Jodie Morse (Gaelen, D.A. Joyce Riley), Luis Ramirez (Carlos), Takiyah Rue (Judge, Store Manager), Lindsey Waguespack (Cece), Cara Williams (Christine), and Mary Zastrow (Kate, Chutney, Ireland CD Voice), with Delta Nu snaps to those who play Elle’s sorors with oodles of charm and panache.

Last but not least are a pair of canine cameo players (Amora Tisler as Bruiser and Lucy Hosking as Rufus), certain to inspire audience oohs and aahs as coached by Robert Weatherwax (Lowell).

On a less positive note, I do wish every gay character weren’t rendered a femmy stereotype, particularly in a courtroom scene which as played here provokes laughter at The Gays rather than in delight at their Will Truman/Jack McFarland blend of diversity and fabulousness. (On the other hand, kudos to director and actors for not shying away from a very sweet boy-boy kiss!)

Daniel Mahler’s colorful East Coast-West Coast costumes are the production’s top design element, and there are dozens upon dozens of them. Production designers Sean P. Harrington and assistant Maddy Harrington get a B+ for sets that mostly avoid the barebones look that can be the hallmark of modestly budgeted big-stage productions. Courtney Johnson’s lighting design is a winner too, despite what appeared to be a few small first-scene glitches. Kevin Kahm’s sound design went off without a hitch, allowing the audience to hear vocals over live instrumentals. In fact, the production’s only major drawback is an orchestra that seems challenged by Legally Blonde’s particularly dense, complex score. Musical director Matthew Park scores high marks for vocal performances, though.  It should be noted that at times cast members seemed unable to hear their instrumental backup.

Program credit goes also to stage managers Megan Tisler and Melissa Miller, light board operator Welles Miller, spot operator Melissa Shilkoff, and prop mistress Brenda Miller.

Though not quite as perfect as previously reviewed Actors’ Repertory Theatre of Simi musicals Avenue Q and Spring Awakening, Legally Blonde once again proves that ARTS Artistic Director Jan Glasband and her team of regulars know how to put on first-rate musical theater without the bigger bucks and Equity performers that other theater companies might take for granted.

Briefly put, Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center patrons are in for one “swElle” time in the hands of Elle.

Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley.
www.actorsrepofsimi.org

–Steven Stanley
March 10, 2013

 Newspaper comics staple Charlie Brown had already been around for seventeen years and starred in a pair of animated TV specials when You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown made its off-Broadway debut way back in 1967. West End and Broadway runs followed, along with countless regional, community, and school productions before Charlie & Friends returned to the Broadway stage in the 1999 Best Revival Tony winner, a big-stage revisal featuring a much-tweaked book (by Clark Gesner with additional dialog by Mayer and based on Charles M. Schulz’s comic strip)and a few new songs (courtesy of its Broadway director Michael Mayer and Broadway songwriter Andrew Lippa).

Gesner and Mayer’s book gives us a series of sketches that do precisely what they’re supposed to do, i.e. replicate the 4-panel daily Peanuts strips and their 10-panel Sunday counterparts in short vignettes, each with its own punch line. Take for instance when Lucy attempts to strike up a conversation with her main crush Schroeder, who only has fingers for his piano, leaving Lucy to gripe, “My Aunt Marion was right. Never try to discuss marriage with a musician.”

 All the favorite Peanuts themes are there. There’s Charlie’s infatuation with the Little Red-Haired Girl, Linus’s inability to function without his blanket, Lucy’s side-job as a 5-¢-per-consultation shrink, and Snoopy’s fantasy life as The Red Baron, to name just a few, and if the unfailingly hilarious football gag isn’t part of the licensed production, Cabrillo remedies that in a very funny last-minute coda.

Many of these situations find their expression in song (music and lyrics by Genser). There’s Linus’s “My Blanket And Me,” which has him attempting in vain to “walk away and leave it, though I know you won’t believe it. I’ll just walk away and leave it on the floor.” (As if.) “The Doctor Is In” has Lucy forcing Charlie Brown to list his many failings, to which she responds with, “You don’t think that mentioning these few superficial failings is going to do you any good, do you? Why, Charlie Brown, you really have to delve.” Know-it-all Lucy later teaches Charlie some “Little Known Facts,” like: “You see that bird? It’s called an eagle. But since it’s little it has another name, a sparrow, and on Christmas and Thanksgiving we eat them.” And let’s not forget Charlie Brown’s signature song, the now classic “Happiness.”

 Lippa’s contributions are some of the show’s best. The R&B “Beethoven Day” has Schroeder attempting to convince his pals to fete his all-time favorite composer with a holiday dedicated to “the man we adore on the day we place the newest face on Mount Rushmore!” Even better is Sally’s “My New Philosophy,” of which she has several, including, “Oh, yeah. That’s what you think?” and “Why are you telling me?” and “No!” and “I can’t stand it!”

Though the intimacy of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown is not well served by Thousand Oaks’ mile-high Fred Kavli theater and its bigger-than-Broadway stage, director Lewis Wilkenfeld and his stellar young cast have succeeded in bringing the iconic Peanuts gang to vivid, sparkling life.

Biren is an inspired choice to play Charlie, a role he imbues with an infections combination of sweetness and depth. Storrs captures Lucy’s crabbiness to perfection, yet gives just enough hints of a soft center hidden underneath the surface to make you like Miss Van Pelt almost in spite of yourself. Parsons’s Linus is a just right blend of intellect and vulnerability, with a terrific character voice that seems to be coming from deep inside the triple-threat’s head. Recent Ovation-winner Hall simply could not be better as Schroeder, whether ignoring a lovestruck Lucy in favor of Ludwig Von B. or leading an infectious salute to “Beethoven Day.” Buhr belts out a hilarious, show-stopping “My Philosophy” but her Sally could lose some of the mean girl attitude, the better for us to enjoy little Miss Brown’s cute side. Finally, Ford deserves a great big Bow WOW! for his Snoopy, and never more so than in the pooch’s very own show-stopper, a canine salute to “Suppertime.”

The latter, and other dance sequences, benefit from Kirsten Chandler’s lively choreography. Musical director Dean Mora coaxes fabulous vocal performances from the entire cast, as well as conducting the first-rate (and live) five-piece Cabrillo Music Theatre Orchestra, contracted by Darryl Tanikawa: Mora on keyboard; Gary Rautenberg on flute, piccolo, clarinet, alto sax, and soprano sax; Richard Adkins on violin and viola; John Smith on electric bass and double string bass; and Alan Peck on set-drums and percussion.

 Costumes, provided by The Theatre Company, Upland, CA, give each character a just-right Peanuts look, as do Mark Travis Hoyer’s wigs. Coby Chasman-Beck’s vivid lighting design makes Off-Broadway West, LLC’s relatively minimalist set look its best. I particularly liked the extra large sofa, which cuts adult actors down to size and Anna Grijalva’s clever props. Jonathan Burke’s sound design is once again impeccable, with extra snaps for the kids’ teachers’ “voices.” Thumbs up for Kaitlyn Pietras’s video projection design.

Understudies Tessa Grady and Bear Manescalchi may appear at certain performances.

 Char Brewster is crew captain, Tim Schorepfer technical director, Allie Roy production stage manager, and Taylor Ruge assistant stage manager.

If You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown seems too small a show for a theater as big as the Fred Kavli, it’s easy to understand the economic sense of programming a more intimate production between the much bigger-cast, bigger-budget 1776 and the upcoming Grease and Legally Blonde. Though orchestra seats, particularly those in the front half of the house, are highly recommended, even theatergoers on a budget who opt for lower-cost tickets in the mezzanine and balcony will likely leave the theater with a Charles M. Schulz-inspired smile on their faces.

Cabrillo Music Theatre, Kavli Theatre, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Thousand Oaks.
www.cabrillomusictheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
February 8, 2013
Photos: Ed Krieger

 That original German play broke plenty of ground indeed with its depiction of on-and/or-offstage masturbation, child abuse, bondage, rape, abortion, and suicide among 14-year-olds just now awakening to their sexuality. No wonder Wedenkind’s late nineteenth-century shocker wasn’t staged on Broadway until 1916 and ended up closing after a single performance.

Very much a groundbreaker in its own way, Sater and Sheik’s musical has proved considerably more successful than its source material, nabbing eight 2007 Tonys including Best Musical, Book, and Score, and running nearly 900 performances on Broadway, one of New York’s most thrilling evenings of musical theater since Rent revolutionized the Great White Way in 1996.

 Like Wedekind’s original play, Spring Awakening (The Musical) centers of the lives of its three teenage protagonists: the handsome, popular, self-confident Melchior (Chrys Ryan), his introverted, inhibited, wet-dream-plagued classmate Moritz (Nick Bernardi), and the all-too-innocent but no less sexually inquisitive girl-next-door Wendla (Chelsea Pitillo). We also meet Melchior and Moritz’s ever-horny classmates and Wendla’s equally randy girlfriends, a pair of older actors standing in for all the adults in these teens’ lives.

What makes Spring Awakening work so brilliantly is not simply Sater’s streamlining of Wedekind’s melodramatic plot threads. Singer-songwriter-pop star Sheik’s catchy alternative rock score, the likes of which had probably never before been heard on a Broadway stage, and Bill T. Jones’ brilliantly innovative choreography turned Spring Awakening into a mainstream (and cult) international phenomenon.

 For this reviewer, the magic in Spring Awakening has always begun when the mikes (or mics, if you prefer) come out. The show begins quietly, with sexually burgeoning Wendla wondering if she’ll ever be told the truth about man-woman relations in “Mama Who Bore Me,” followed by a very funny sequence in which her highly embarrassed mother (Lori Lee Gordon) avoids the question entirely, an omission which proves ultimately disastrous. The song takes on a rock beat as Wendla’s girlfriends join her in a reprise, mikes in hand, but it’s a bit later that the hand-mikes begin to take on a life of their own.

Melchior and Moritz are in Latin class, the former attempting to rescue the latter from the ire of their monster of a teacher (Sean Harrington), when the burning need to express what’s going on inside their minds and bodies suddenly erupts. As the first chords of “The Bitch Of Living” sound from the onstage band, Melchior draws from within his school uniform a previously-hidden mike, a gesture so defiant (and unexpected), an utterly thrilling moment that from its first viewing made me a Spring Awakening fan for life. (Memo to potential Spring Awakening stagers: If you can’t do it with mikes, don’t do it at all.)

 Another reason for my devotion to Spring Awakening has been original choreographer Jones’s Tony-winning stomps and back kicks and leaps and jumps, which took every adolescent urge just bursting to break free and expressed them all in dance.

Actors’ Repertory Theatre Of Simi’s secret weapon, choreographer Becky Castells, has taken Jones’s cutting-edge dance steps as a point of departure and made them very much her own creation beginning with “The Bitch Of Living,” which integrates exciting new Castells moves into those iconic stomps and jumps, and continuing on to Act Two’s “Totally Fucked,” which has the entire cast contorting as if their sexual wants and their dissatisfaction with the world around them were ants crawling all over their bodies and driving them insane with desire, anger, and frustration.

As it did on Broadway, Spring Awakening in Simi Valley works equally well in its quieter moments, which feature some of Sheik and lyricist Sater’s most memorable compositions. The Pink Floyd-esque “Touch Me,” in which the youthful cast of characters express their desire for intimate physical contact; the anthem-like “I Believe,” which sets the stage for Melchior and Wendla’s lovemaking; and the exquisitely sad “Left Behind,” sung at a funeral for one of the teens are just three among many such songs.

Without these musical numbers, Spring Awakening would simply be an abbreviated version of Wedenkind’s original play, albeit skillfully abridged by book-writer Sater. With them, the struggles of nineteenth-century adolescents seem every bit as relevant to today’s teens as the ones they face on a daily basis, as if twenty-first century souls were inhabiting these long-deceased youths. Melchior, Wendla, and Moritz may have been born in the 1870s, but their dilemmas (like the consequences of Wendla’s insufficient sexual education) still ring true in 2012.

 Angelinos who might fear that a scaled-down Spring Awakening in the commuter bedroom community of Simi Valley would not attract the caliber performer the show deserves can rest assured. As previously reviewed productions at the Cultural Arts Center have made abundantly clear, there is no dearth of talent to our north, and with Spring Awakening at the top of so many young triple-threats’ “Must Do” lists, director David Ralphe (at the top of his craft here), choreographer Castells, and producer Jan Glasband had a large, multi-talented group of auditioners to choose from, and to add to the production’s freshness, they have cast it almost entirely with Spring Awakening newbies.

Ryan’s Melchior is less prom king and more student revolutionary here, but the interpretation works, the 23-year-old recording artist bringing his pop star vocals to the role. As Moritz, Bernardi too makes the role very much his own, not quite as weird as his predecessors, but rather an endearing if painfully introverted oddball (with his own terrific set of pipes). Pitillo is a simply exquisite Wendla, both vocally and in her sensitive interpretation of a teenager waking up to her own young womanhood.

 Stephanie Hoston, Cal State Northridge’s Wendla, now sees Spring Awakening through the eyes of runaway abuse victim Isle, a multi-shaded performance which benefits from Hoston’s rich vocals. Francesca Gemma Barletta is heartbreakingly real as Martha, giving a powerful interpretation of her character’s sexual abuse in the haunting “The Dark I Know Well.” Jessamyn Arnstein and Joanna Bert complete the schoolgirl contingent in splendid fashion.

As for the boys, they are a sexy, charismatic bunch indeed, beginning with bleach-blond Quentin Garzon and sweet-faced Julian Comeau, both of them standouts as seducer-and-seduced classmates Hanschen and Ernst. Their Act Two reprise of “The Word Of Your Body” is not only gorgeously sung, it is the most memorable interpretation of the seduction sequence I’ve yet seen, thanks to director Ralphe’s decision to have them (forgive the pun) play it straight—to powerful effect. Nicholas Herbst and Michael Seltzer are excellent too as mother-fixated Otto and piano teacher-obsessed Georg.

Harrington and Gordon are as good as it gets at creating a dozen mostly quite distinct characters (no mean achievement that), with ensemble members Sara Gilbert, Kyle Harrington, A.J. Morales, and Megan Tisler providing expert vocal support, their onstage presence adding a visual link between 19th and 21st Centuries.

Musical director Matt Park has elicited all-around splendid vocal performances from his cast, and if the onstage orchestra doesn’t quite reach their level or have quite the rock concert feel Spring Awakening can attain, it’s refreshing simply to have six musicians adding to the “live” excitement of the production.

 Costumers Gordon and Areilla Seltzer deserve highest marks for creating period garb with a contemporary flair (and for giving the four reform school boys outfits that make amply clear that Comeau, Garzon, Herbst, and Seltzer are playing dual roles). Seth Kamenow’s set is reminiscent of the Broadway design but adds its own original touches (and manages to allow the cast sufficient stomping room despite a relatively small stage area). While not as spectacular as Spring Awakening’s song-and-dance sequences might merit, Courtney Johnson’s lighting design makes maximum use of what the Cultural Arts Center has to offer. Vocals and live accompaniment are skillfully mixed, and there were no mike or amplification problems at the performance reviewed.

ARTOS deserves maximum props for not dumbing down or softening Spring Awakening’s more adult aspects. There’s no censoring of “Totally Fucked” (even in the program), one female character’s blouse is briefly, revealingly unbuttoned, there are blink-and-you-miss them bare male buns, simulated masturbation and lovemaking, and some romantic kissing between boys. For this reason, the producers have wisely decreed that “no child under 16 years will be admitted without a parent” and “wish to discourage anyone under the age of 14 from attending this production.” Tea Partiers and religious fundamentalists ought probably to be encouraged to seek their entertainment elsewhere as well.

If I were to make one suggestion, it would be to speed up scene changes by turning them as much as possible into “dissolves” rather that the current “fade out-fade ins” that slow things down a bit.

Kevin Kahm is tech director and Sommer Branham stage manager.

Finding enough talented young performers and then directing and choreographing them with a combination skill and vision makes Spring Awakening a tough assignment for any theater company, particularly one as far off the beaten Los Angeles track as this one is. Actors’ Repertory Theatre Of Simi has more than met this challenge, making for both a fine introduction and a fine new look at one of Broadway’s most exciting 21st Century arrivals.

Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley.
www.actorsrepofsimi.org

–Steven Stanley
November 2, 2012
Photos: Melissa Miller

 Ask a group of Broadway aficionados their Top Ten Musicals of the 1950s and it’s a sure bet Damn Yankees will make the list of more than a few. With its tantalizing plot (a modern retelling of the Faust legend set in the world of Major League Baseball), its catchy songs (including several that went on to become standards), choreography by Bob Fosse (then only just beginning his rise to legendary stardom), and leading lady Gwen Verdon as Lola (a role which cemented the redheaded powerhouse as a bona fide Broadway great), Damn Yankees had what it took to become a 1000-plus performance Broadway smash and remain an entertaining revival favorite fifty-six years after its 1956 debut.

Damn Yankees’ opening scene introduces us to middle-aged real estate agent Joe Boyd (Michael German), who spends “Six Months Out Of Every Year” in couch potato mode, plunked down in front of his black-and-white TV set watching his beloved Washington Senators lose game after game after game. If only, muses Joe late one night, the Senators had a long ball hitter—just one would be enough—they could finally beat those “Damn Yankees” and maybe even win the pennant.

As soon as Joe utters the black magic words, “I’d sell my soul for a long ball hitter,” who should suddenly materialize in his living room but the Devil himself in the guise of “Mr. Applegate” (John Dantona). All Joe Boyd has to do, Applegate informs him, is sign on the dotted line and presto change-o, he will be transformed into 20something slugger Joe Hardy, precisely the long ball hitter to propel the Senators not merely to a National League championship but maybe even win them the World Series.

Intrigued as he is by the offer, Joe Boyd is a sharp enough negotiator that he insists on an escape clause. If Joe Hardy decides by 9:00 on the night of the season’s final Senators game that he wants out, then the deal is off. If not, then he is “in for the duration” (and we know what that means).

 Realizing that he has, at least for the moment, met his match, Applegate agrees to the escape clause, and lo and behold, instead of Joe Boyd in the living room, there stands Joe Hardy (Andrew Allen), the picture of youthful vim, vigor, and vitality.

With Mr. Applegate as his “manager,” it doesn’t take long for Joe to become a Washington Senator and turn those perennial losers into the winningest team in the USA.

Meanwhile, young Joe has moved into the spare room which Joe Boyd’s lonely, bewildered wife Meg (Judi Domroy) has been persuaded to rent out, the younger Joe’s proximity to his long-underappreciated wife stirring up feelings he thought he’d lost.

Fearful that this longing for his old life with Meg might just prompt Joe Hardy to give up baseball stardom for the simple pleasures of Joe Boyd’s hearth and home, Mr. Applegate decides to call in the sexiest reinforcement in hell, the one and only Lola (Jessica Hren), who as any Broadway buff knows by heart, gets “Whatever Lola Wants,” or at least that’s what Applegate is counting on.

 Under Fred Helsel’s capable direction, Dantona delivers by far the production’s standout performance, an electrifyingly devilish, show-stopping turn as Applegate. Hren is a leggy, luscious Lola in the tradition of ‘40s-‘50s Hollywood stunners like Jane Russell and Rita Hayworth, and particularly winning as the Spanish-accented “Lola Banana” in “Whatever Lola Wants.” Allen’s infectious grin, boy-next-door appeal, and from-the-heart acting serve young Joe Hardy well, particularly in scenes opposite Meg, played with sincerity and warmth by Domroy. (Domroy’s and Allen’s duet of “A Man Doesn’t Know” gives Damn Yankees some of its most touching moments.) German impresses as well in a pair of brief scenes that bookend the musical, and sings “Goodbye Old Girl” with a resonant tenor. A fine and feisty Courtney King plays sports reporter Gloria Thorpe with just the right tomboy punch, and sings and dances “Shoeless Joe From Hannibal Mo” with ample pizzazz.

Character roles like Washington Senators manager Van Buren, team owner Welch, and Meg’s sister Sister are adeptly performed by veterans Donald Melton, Andy Mattick, and Julie Jones. Smaller roles are capably filled by Jeanette Airen (Rita), Sara Hertweck (Betty), Shannon Lewis (Reporter), Madeline Perez (Donna), and Melissa Strauss (Lulu).

Where SVCAC’S Damn Yankees proves problematic are in scenes and production numbers involving the Senators themselves, roles requiring performers at the very least in their early to mid-twenties. On the Simi Valley stage, a number of the Senators—Steven Brogan as Sohovik, Matthew Casarez as Rocky, Nicholas Ferguson as Smokey, Kurt Kemper as Vernon, Luis Ramirez as Henry, and Edward Yoo as Ozzie—are high schoolers, terrifically talented high schoolers to be sure, but high schoolers none the less. At best, this means that a big song-and-dance number like “Shoeless Joe From Hannibal, Mo” comes across like something from a well-performed High School Musical instead of a professional production. At worst, it means that Act Two’s “The Game” has underage teens singing about having to resist pre-game sex with a “waitress built for comfort, dumb but pretty” after getting her “up to my hotel suite” where “she killed a pint of gin more or less, the lights were low and she slips off her dress.” Seeing and hearing this number performed by boys as young as fifteen pretending to be men in their twenties or even thirties proves uncomfortable at best. At worst, it might have you squirming in your seat. That being said, “Heart,” featuring Melton, Casarez, Kemper, Ferguson, and the rest of the ballplayers is every bit the harmonious showstopper it’s supposed to be.

 Becky Castells has choreographed Damn Yankees’ many infectious dance sequences with a careful eye to the talents of her cast members, the results generating considerable applause. Musical director Gary Poirot once again coaxes tiptop vocal performances from his cast, in addition to conducting a small, live backstage orchestra.

Randon Pool’s 1950s costumes are the production’s best design element, with Shaun Hara’s highly professional lighting design coming in a close second.

Less successful is production designer Seth A. Kamenow’s scenic design, which has many scenes played in front of red and blue curtains and requires cast members to be continually lugging big pieces of furniture on and off stage. The production even concludes with the two performers who have just finished the final notes of “A Woman Doesn’t Know” breaking character to push back a sofa and armchair so that the rest of the cast have room to enter for curtain calls.

Hren is dance captain, Jan Carr assistant costume designer, Lacey Stewart technical director and sound designer (a solid B+ for sound design), Amanda Kamenow rehearsal stage manager, and Carol Harris production stage manager.

 While it is true that the abovementioned drawbacks are often an unavoidable “part and parcel” of producing large-cast, multiple-set, non-Equity stagings of big Broadway musicals, because of them Damn Yankees isn’t the Hairspray/Pippin-level production I was hoping to see. On the other hand, the talent involved both onstage and off make this Damn Yankees at the very least worth a look-see by folks up Simi Valley way.

Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley.
www.simi-arts.org

–Steven Stanley
September 16, 2012
Photos: Rena Petrillo

 The weakest link is Hugh Wheeler’s book, one which I wouldn’t go quite so far as to dub “insipid” (as New York Times Theater Critic Frank Rich did in 1989), but nonetheless one whose storyline and tone make last year’s The Sound Of Music seem positively deep and dark by comparison.

Though I was considerably more willing simply to sit back and enjoy the ride at a previous CLO production a few years back, this time round I couldn’t help wishing for the relative depth of small-town ‘40s classics like Oklahoma! and Carousel, or the musical complexity of more recent period pieces like 2005’s Little Women, or the tongue-in-cheek delights of the family favorite Annie.

Wheeler’s book sticks closely to the film’s storyline (screenplay by Irving Brecher and Fred F. Finklehoffe, based on Sally Benson’s New Yorker Magazine short stories). Middle daughter Esther Smith (Alyssa M. Simmons) is in love with boy-next-door John Truitt (Kyle Lowder). Eldest daughter Rose (Melissa Reinertson) hopes to marry away-at-college Warren Sheffield (Dane Biren). Youngest daughters Agnes (Antonia Vivino) and Tootie (Hayley Shukiar) go trick-or-treating. Dad Alonzo (Tom Schmid) gets a job offer in New York to the dismay of wife Anna (Christina Saffran Ashford), daughters, and son Lon (Brendan Yeates) alike. John leaves his suit at the tailor’s the night of the dance. The World’s Fair comes to St. Louis. And that’s it.

 “The Boy Next Door,” “The Trolley Song,” and “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas” are as memorable today as they were when written in 1944, particularly as sung by the amazing-voiced Simmons, in a terrific follow-up performance to her recent turn as Little Women’s Jo. “Meet Me In St. Louis, Louis,” “Skip To My Lou,” and “Under The Bamboo Tree” are fine enough as early 1900s standards go, and infectiously performed by company members. “Raving Beauty,” “A Touch Of The Irish,” and “You Are For Loving,” added for Broadway in 1989, are considerably less memorable, though “You’ll Hear A Bell” (added even later) makes for a lovely vocal showcase for Ashford’s exquisite soprano. Sadly, several of the Broadway production’s best songs, including the delightful “Be Anything But A Girl” and “Ghosties and Ghoulies and Things That Go Bump In The Night” (and its accompanying Halloween Ballet) have been cut from the musical’s licensed version, to the production’s detriment.

 Fortunately, director Kerns has approached Meet Me In St. Louis with affectionate attention to detail, aided and abetted by a lovely and charming Ashford, an entertainingly gruff Schmid, and a very winning (and handsome) Lowder in addition to the aforementioned Simmons. Reinertson and Bowers provide topnotch support, Shukiar and Vivino are cute and precocious, Leigh is at her feisty “Touch Of The Irish” best, and Dane Biren makes for an amusingly stuffy Warren Sheffield. Finally, there’s recent Australia-to-Southern California transplant Yeates, exhibiting real triple-threat chops in “The Banjo,” the production’s most exciting dance number, and that’s saying something, with choreographer Castillo doing her best, most challenging, and most satisfying work yet.

It helps that Castillo is working with as talented as dance ensemble as I’ve seen in a Cabrillo Music Theatre production since 2007’s Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, and though a few of the boys come across too young for adult dance numbers, particularly opposite older partners, there’s not a weak link in the bunch, all of whom execute standout precision moves in musical number after musical number, including the Irish jiggy “Skip To My Lou,” the Agnes DeMille-flavored “The Trolley Song,” and the showstopping “The Banjo.”

 The crackerjack ensemble is made up of Orlando Agawin, Emily Albrecht, Erika Bandy, Phillip Brandon, Michael Brown, Savannah Brown (Lucille Ballard), Michael Byrne (Peewee Drummond), Rachel Crissman (Eve), Hogan Fulton, Stephanie Hayslip, Ken Johnson (Postman), Jenna Keiper, Kurt Kemper (Clinton Badger), Alex Mendoza (Sydney Purvis), Chase O’Donnell, Kate Ponzio, Tracy Ray Reynolds, Kelly Roberts, Danielle Rosario, Linda Smith, and assistant to the choreographer/dance captainTimothy Stokel. The “Kid’s Ensemble” are Rachel Albrecht, Lexie Colins, Natalie Esposito, Hayley Gilchrist, Griffin Hamilton, and Logan Price.

Musical director Lloyd Cooper conducts the marvelous sixteen-piece Cabrillo Music Theatre Orchestra. Sets (from the National Tour) and props are provided by Musical Theatre West and lush, colorful period costumes by Peggy Kellner are provided by Music Theatre Of Wichita and supervised by Christine Gibson. Christina L. Munich has designed the production’s vivid lighting design and Jonathan Burke its sound design, which unfortunately suffered from a faulty mike on Opening Night. Hair and makeup design by Kim Robinson get top marks, despite a too over-the-top wig for Irish maid Katie.

Char Brister is crew captain, Tim Schroepfer technical director, Allie Roy production stage manager, and Megan Laughlin assistant stage manager.

Although Meet Me In St. Louis (The Musical) may not be the enduring classic that many might wish it to be, at Cabrillo Music Theatre, performances and dance numbers are quite definitely worth cheering about.

Cabrillo Music Theatre, Kavli Theatre, Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Thousand Oaks.
www.cabrillomusictheatre.com

–Steven Stanley
July 20, 2012
Photos: Ed Krieger

 Musical theater aficionados know Pippin as the nearly 2000-performance 1972 Broadway smash that introduced Stephen Schwartz to the world. Songs like “Magic To Do,” “Corner Of The Sky,” “Morning Glow,” and “I Guess I’ll Miss The Man” have entered the pop/Broadway music lexicon even as its title character’s quest to be “Extraordinary” (“When you’re extraordinary, you gotta do extraordinary things”) has taken him, and four decades of audiences, on an extraordinary journey indeed.

Suggested by the life of the eldest son of 8th Century Emperor Charlemagne, Pippin (book by Roger Hirson) opens with yet another of the monarch’s homecomings from battle. Young Pippin, longing to prove himself to his father, convinces Charlemagne to let him join in the fight against the hated Visigoths, though it doesn’t take long for our young hero to discover the truth of the proverbial “War is not the answer,” and he soon retreats to the countryside. There, on his grandmother Berthe’s estate, Pippin tries on for size the “Simple Joys” of rustic living—and finds them lacking as well. Sex is the next stop on Pippin’s quest, followed by an attempt to revolutionize society, even if it means bumping off Dad to do it. Despite all these attempts, Pippin still finds his life as unfulfilled and unfulfilling as ever even as Act One draws to a close. Fortunately, Pippin The Musical still has another act up its sleeve.

To tell this story, Schwartz and Hirson took a surreal route that was hardly par for the course on Broadway in the early 1970s, an approach that featured director-choreographer Bob Fosse’s signature turned-in knees, jutting hips, sideways shuffling, and hand-and-shoulder rolls, moves you’d hardly expect from a musical set in medieval times.

 Steampunk’s blend of Victorian styles with sci-fi fantasy fits SVCAC’s version of Pippin to a T, and Randon Pool’s fantastical costumes are indeed a treat to behold, even as choreographer Becky Castells abandons those Fosse-esque moves for something far more … Steampunkian if you will.

Credit director Fred Helsel for this ingenious new approach, with pop references to Tebowing, Boys Gone Wild, Star Wars, etc. adding a clever contemporary touch as his splendid cast of thirteen for bring Helsel’s vision to exhilarating life.

 Cal Lutheran student Brenden Kyle MacDonald gives the title character a fresh-faced innocence and appeal that makes for an overall winning performance, and one in perfect contrast with the wild-and-crazy bunch who surround him.

Along with “Nicest Kid In Town” MacDonald, SVCAC’s Pippin reunites many of the stars of January’s fabulous Hairspray, including charismatic Keenon Hooks as Leading Player, selling “Magic To Do,” “Simple Joys,” and “Right Track” with showmanship and pizzazz. Bart Sumner’s imposing Charlemagne and Veronica Scheyving’s feisty Berthe earn laughter and applause as well. Andrew Allen is a sizzling standout as Pippin’s self-obsessed brother Lewis and so is Carolyn Freeman Champ’s divalicious Fastrada. (The mother-son duo’s borderline incestuous “Spread A Little Sunshine” is a particular treat, and though it is likely to get social conservatives’ knickers in a twist, as will the production’s pansexual “orgy” sequence, there’s truly little there to offend any but the most prudish.) Vivacious triple-threat Jamie Whittington Studer (Hairspray’s Tracy Turnblad) once again proves herself a star in the making in her irresistible turn as Catherine, the widow who finds Pippin’s foot his most appealing asset, and Austin Miller is a hoot as her inexplicably Cockney-accented beanpole of a son Theo.

 Providing tiptop support in a variety of roles, costumes, and masks, are a smashing bunch of Steampunkian Players—Allen, Kyle Cooknick, Tori Cusack (doubling as dance captain), Steampunk consulant Kimberly Kiley, Adam E. McDonald, Miller, Studer, and Megan Tisler.

Musical director Gary Poirot (another Hairspray alum) conducts the onstage (though mostly hidden) orchestra—Lucas Miler on drums, Jodi Morse on percussion, Gabe Gonzales on guitar, Kevin Hart on bass guitar, and Poirot on keyboards, all of whom provide bang-up instrumental support, with a Steampunk-appropriate hint of the steam-propelled 19th Century calliope in the mix.

Though Pool’s costumes are the production’s standout design element, Seth Kamenow’s production design with its circus side show motif, Helsel’s imaginative props (featuring glow in the dark sabers and futuristic ray guns), and Lacey Stewart’s lighting and sound design are winners too. Alex Lastort is assistant choreographer and Jan Carr assistant costumer.

 Pippin is produced by David Ralphe and Helsel. Carol Harris is production stage manager, Kimberly Kiley assistant stage manager, and Shannon Lewis rehearsal stage manager.

Few musicals lend themselves so readily to re-interpretation as Pippin, and it is exciting indeed to see it done “Steampunk Carnevale” style. A worthy follow-up to one of the best Hairsprays I’ve seen (and I’ve seen a bunch), Pippin gives local residents something to sing about, and Angelinos a reason to zip up to Simi Valley for an evening or afternoon of intrigue, humor, romance, illusion, battles, miracles, and magic.

Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, 3050 Los Angeles Avenue, Simi Valley.
www.simi-arts.org

–Steven Stanley
May 5, 2012
Photos: JGEARY Photo