Fiddler on the Roof, Animals Out of Paper and
Harvey Fierstein wonderfully hams it up and he puts his own particular spin on the dairyman. He certainly is not a great singer, since he wheezes out the songs like a San Francisco foghorn. However, what he lacks in voice he makes for up in pure charisma, showing great depth in the railroad station as Tevye's daughter is about to join her beloved in Siberia, and when leaving the village of Anatevka. This entire production looks fresh, with exuberant dancing and great voices from the cast. The dancing is very energetic, thanks to Jerome Robbins' original choreography reproduced by Sammy Dallas Bayes. The orchestra under the direction of David Andrews Rogers is as good as that in a Broadway production. Outstanding are the wonderful inn scene to the song "To Life" with the young Russians and the Jewish citizens of the village dancing a Klezmer style of dancing, and the extraordinary wedding scene featuring the Jewish bottle dancers. The panorama of the brilliant dream scene is straight out of a Chagall painting, with Tzeitel played by Kaitlin Stilwell and Motel played by Erik Lieberman looking like puppets on a string. Susan Cella is charmingly crusty as Golda and sublime when singing "Do You Love Me" with Harvey Fierstein. Jamie Davis, Kaitlin Stilwell and Deborah Grausman as the daughters are enchanting singing "Matchmaker, Matchmaker." Mary Stout is competent as the matchmaker Yente and David Brummel gives a good performance as the butcher Lazar Wolf. Colby Foytik gives a standout performance as Perchik the student. Tony Ray Hicks has dressed the very large cast in period costumes. Steve Gilliam's sets are small but effective. Fiddler on the Roof plays through February 21 at the Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor Street , San Francisco. For tickets call 415-512-7770 or online at www.shnsf.com. Photo: Carol Rosegg
Animals Out of Paper first premiered as part of the Second Stage Theatre's Uptown Series in New York in 2007. Since then it has had just one additional production, at the Boise Contemporary Theatre last year. There will be another production in Australia next month. Animals Out of Paper is about Ilana (Lorri Holt), a recently divorced master origamist. She has even written a book on the subject. However, Ilana has not touched her work since her messy divorce, and her apartment is one hell of a mess with paper thrown about. She has become a recluse. One night, calculus teacher Andy (David Deblinger) knocks on her door to deliver an American Origami brochure and to collect past dues. He is also a great fan of her book. The teacher has a strange habit of carrying a little book around where "he counts his blessings." The talkative man has been doing this since age 12 and now has over 7000 blessings in the book. Andy has another reason to see Ilana and that is to tell her of a 17-year-old genius who creates beautiful origami work. At first Ilana is not interested but she finally agrees to see him. Suresh (Aly Mawji) enters the picture, a hip-hop kid who is addicted to his iPod. The young lad has a human side when it comes to romance and problems at his home. Thus, we have an odd family of misfits trying to get along with each other. At the end of the play, all three have had their relationships implode and each has grown somewhat. Rajiv Joseph's script is pitch perfect, and conversations between the characters are real and down to earth. He brings out the vulnerability of happiness and the tragedy of spontaneity in his work. The play, thanks to the direction of Amy Glazer, is evenly paced. Her masterly direction pins down the laughs as well as the emotional agony of the three persons. Lori Holt (every major regional company in the Bay Area; Sister Aloysius in Doubt at Center Rep) is outstanding in the role of nervous and inward Ilana. David Deblinger (Off-Broadway productions such as Home Sweet Home, Our Lady of One Hundred and Twenty-First Street) is wonderful as the loquacious and outgoing Andy. His scene in a restaurant with Ilana is wonderfully accomplished as Andy finds out Ilana has been reading his secret "blessings" book. Aly Mawji (LA actor recently in Pasadena Playhouse's Back of the Throat) is excellent in his portrait of Suresh. He is able to portray the hip young kid through laugh-out-loud humor, sincerity, deep sadness and even a mother figure feeling of sexual attraction toward Ilana. Bill English's set design is superb with paper thin walls and great lighting effects by Michael Oesch behind the walls. The set is amazing with cluttered papers all about the apartment until Suresh comes to clean up the mess. There are wonderful origami pieces hanging about the set, including a giant paper hawk hanging ominously overhead. Mark Koss' costumes and Steve Schoenbeck's sound design are great assets to the two-hour play. Animals Out of Paper plays through February 27th at the SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco. For tickets, call 415-677-9596 or visit www.sfplayhouse.org. Coming up next is their newest program, The Sandbox, presented in Stage 2. The first production is the world premiere of Geetha Reddy Safe House. Photo: Jessica Palopoli
The First Grade is a character study of first grade teacher Sydney, played by the invaluable Julia Brothers; her ex-husband Nat, an alcoholic who still lives in their home played wonderfully by Warren David Keith; and twenty-something depressed almost-divorced daughter Angie, beautifully played by Rebecca Schweitzer, who really does not care about her 3-year-old son. Most of the 90-minute drama is about confrontations between Sydney and Nat or Sydney and Angie. Into this peculiar mix comes physical therapist Mona (skillfully played by Tina Sanchez), who seems to have major problems with her husband. The play is about today's behavior and then it veers off into an edgy theatrical quarrel involving Mona's husband and her father-in-law. Those last scenes seem to be from a different play entirely. The playwright does have a keen ear for the way people talk today and as result is it is a clever and excellent play. Julia Brothers is brilliant in the role of Sydney, the frantic character who believes she can see into a human heart but ultimately always causes a mess. She teaches the first graders words like "solipsistic" and "plethora" and she teaches the audience these words in several scenes. Tina Sanchez gives a uniquely fetching performance as the physical therapist Mona. Her scenes with Julia Brothers are invigorating. She adds a certain tenuous evasiveness to the character. Warren David Keith gives a great performance as the ex-husband and his droll wit is perfect when he has his confrontations with his ex-wife. Rebecca Schweitzer gives a plaintive performance as the down in the dumps daughter who is about to seek a divorce from her husband. Paul Santiago and Adrian Anchondo are effective in the final showdown scene of the comedy drama. Tom Ross' direction is solid and he brings out the best in all of the actors; confrontations between them are always on the mark. The set design by Nina Ball of a first grade class is excellent, while costume designer Cassandra Carpenter gives a great look to the cast. The First Grade plays through February 28th at the Aurora Theatre, 2081 Addison Street, Berkeley . For tickets call 510-843-4822 or visit www.auroratheatre.org. Their next productions will be Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman opening on April 2 and running through May 9. Photo: David Allen
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