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Regional Reviews: San Francisco Coraline, The Tempest and Happy Now?
Coraline was adapted by David Greenspan from the terrifying children's book by Neil Gaiman. This is an adult fairytale or a darker version of Alice in Wonderland set to music and lyrics by 'smart rock' iconoclast Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields. It is a macabre tale of faded thespians, unfruitful parents, and children without parents. The music is light and ethereal like a child's keyboard exercise. The song "O What a Lovely Trip" sounds like a British music hall number, and "We Were Children Once" has a certain Sondheim style about the melody. "When We Were Young and Trod the Boards" sounds like something from an '80s Broadway show. Coraline has low tech but imaginative stagecraft, thanks to Puppet Master Christopher W. White and Bill English, and Matt Vuolo's inventive black and white Edward Gorey type set. The playwright faithfully follows Neil Gaiman's best selling novel. It certainly would help if you knew the book or the film version that came out last year. Coraline's cast is impressive, contributing vivid and flamboyantly impressive performances. Maya Donato (alternating with Julia Belanoff), who portrayed Annie in Broadway by the Bay's Annie this last spring, is charming as Coraline. She has sweet vocal cords singing "A New House," "Fluorescent Green Gloves" and "The Ballad of the Wasps." Stacy Ross is outstanding with black buttons in her eyes and long Chinese red fingernails playing the demented Other Mother. She is a cross between Lady Macbeth and Cruella De Vil with a hiss that sounds like a snake about to strike. Her rendition of "Falling ... Falling ..." brings the 90-minute musical to a vigorous climax. Brian Yates Sharber is excellent as he slinks across the stage as the sarcastic Cat and Coraline's best friend. His rendition of "When You're a Cat" and Brian Degan Scott as circus mouse trainer Mr. Bobo singing a zippy "Whatever You Want" are highlights of the show. Brian Degas Scott has an accent straight out of Transylvania as the mouse trainer. His take as a dog in one scene is dog gone good. Suzi Damilano and Maureen McVerry are terrific in their duets as the aged actresses downstairs. They are crowd pleasing singing "When We Were Young and Trod the Boards." These two excellent singer/actresses could form a whole show around their characters. Jackson Davis gives a spotless performance as both fathers. His music hall duet with Stacy Ross in "O What a Lovely Trip" is delicious. The whole cast, with the exception of Maya Donato, plays dogs, scrabbling rats and even the voices of lighted balloons representing lost souls of children taken by the cruel Other Mother. Costumes by Valera Coble are excellent cartoon-like outfits while lighting by Michael Oesch adds to the creepiness of the production. Music director Robert Moreno brings the composer's score to life on a prepared piano. Erika Chong Shuch's choreography is effective on the small stage of the SF Playhouse. Coraline plays through January 15, 2011, at SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco. For tickets call 415-677-9596 or visit www.sfplayhouse.org. Coming up next is Simon Stephens's Harper Regan, opening on January 25th and running through March 5, 2011. Photo: Jessica Palopoli
Cutting Ball Theatre, one of the Bay Area's most challenging, risk-taking theatres, recently presented a modernized production of Shakespeare's last fully written play, The Tempest. Written in 1601, this is probably one of The Bard's greatest works. It is different from his other works since it is written in a neoclassical style. Over the years I have seen many productions of this challenging play, with productions at the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford with John Wood, and Alec McCowen playing Prospero on different occasions. The play has been presented in various styles and formats, including operas, films such as Paul Mazursky's 1992 film starring John Cassavetes, and the 1956 MGM sci-fi film The Forbidden Planet. Director Rob Melrose stripped the "magic" on this Shakespearean work and presented it in the intellectual psychiatric world of Jung and Freud. It was bold and bright and non-traditional in execution. Prospero as played excellently by David Sinaiko was more of a modern psychotherapist than a magician. The director had but three actors playing all of the characters. The best thing about this Tempest production was its visual lucidity and the fashionable colonial reading. The play was presented as a media-theatre with Prospero as an all-controlling doctor over the lives of Caliban (Donell Hill) and Ariel (Caitlyn Louchard). I sometimes wondered if this whole production was in the mind of the doctor, as the production had a dream like quality. The staging was very avant garde, thanks to Michael Locher using metal pool ladders for the actors to climb and emote from on the small stage. There appeared to be a swimming pool at the bottom of the stage in some scenes thanks to the lighting of Heather Basarab. The striking projections by Cliff Caruthers above the stage added to the enjoyment of the play. The director got most of The Bard's words in this fast-paced two-hour and fifteen minute with intermission play. David Sinaiko was excellent as the self-controlled modern shrink. He also morphed wonderfully into the drunken Stephano in the comedy part of Shakespeare's classic. Caitlyn Louchard was captivating as the ethereal Ariel and effective as Sebastian, Gonzalo, Trinculo and Miranda. Donnell Hill shone as Caliban. He was admirable speaking the lines The Bard as Ferdinand and Antonio. The Tempest played an extended run through December 19th at Exit on Taylor, 277 Taylor Street, San Francisco.
Happy Now? involves a group of upscale sophisticated Londoners trying to be happy, including Kitty, an executive in a non-profit company doing cancer research and a mother of two bratty kids, and husband Johnny who is more interested in his job than his wife. This sarcasm-laden dark comedy closed on December 5th at Marin Theatre. Happy Now? is also about a group of educated Londoners who are approaching that middle age with doubt, trepidation, remorse and antagonism. Let's face it, they are not happy campers. Lucinda Coxon's dark comedy had its 2008 world premiere at the National Theatre in London where it was a hit. The American premiere took place the same year at Yale Repertory Theatre and an Off-Broadway production followed in 2009 at Primary Stages. David Sheward for Back Stage said the play "Feels as scattered and confused as its heroine." I concur on that statement. However, director Jasson Minadakis' production was full of solid, well-acted virtues thanks to a splendid cast of Bay Area favorites. Minadakis' direction was sharp and excellently paced with some great visuals by Wesley Cabral. Happy Now?'s opening scene is very promising, a great setup for the play. Kitty (Rosemary Garrison) meets Michael (Andrew Hurteau) at a convention; he is a chubby Don Juan attempting to make a pass. He has a great line about picking up women since he loves all women and he loves to love women. He also firmly believes that women love to be made love to. However, Kitty rebuffs him, which she later regrets. Following this wonderful scene the drama becomes more soup opera with many clichés. There are parts that are more satisfying than the piece as a whole. Kitty's life with husband Johnny (Alex Moggridge) and the two unruly kids is no bed of roses. (In a crazy, absurdist touch she hurls sandwiches and apples at them since they insist on eating in front of a television set.) Johnny is a former stock broker who is now all wrapped up in teaching kids; he has failed to notice his wife's emotional needs. Her father (not seen in the play) is a diabetic in the hospital and might lose a limb. The mother (Andrew Hurteau in drag) is passive-aggressive who has not spoken to her ex-husband in several years. It looks like Kitty has about had it and thinks of the great failed pick-up that occurred in the first scene. Kitty has friends and they all seem to be dysfunctional. There is Miles (Mark Anderson Phillips), a sort of a parasitic man child who comes up with acerbic zingers to cover his insecurities. There is also his over-excited and controlling wife Bea (Molly Stickney) and Carl (Kevin Rolston), a gay 40-ish attorney who has just broken up with a non-English 20-year-old pool boy. Jason Minadakis's cast rose above the cliché driven script. Rosemary Garrison was excellent as Kitty. She exuded the right sense of incrementally used-up despair. Alex Moggridge gave a sincere performance as Johnny while Mark Anderson Phillips gave a grand portrayal of the tastily repugnant Miles, yet you could see his insecurities in the second act. Andrew Hurteau was wonderful as the sad sack Michael who wanted to be "nice" to Kitty in first scene and appeared in several scenes in the second act. His appearance in drag in two "dream sequences" as Kitty's self-absorbed mother was first rate. Kevin Rolston was perfect as the mild-mannered Carl until he broke up in the second and became a nervous wreck, believing that "love has passed him by." Molly Stickney was fetching as Miles' wife Bea, who is calm on the outside but boiling on the inside, especially in a scene when she tells off all of her friends about their insecurities. Director Jason Minadakis kept the cast and plot in steady but not frenzied motion with each scene flowing fluidly into the next. Melpomene Katakalos' sets and video designs by Wesley Cabral were first rate. Katakalos designed the set with four large panels where the video scenes, including the dream sequences, added to the sleek look of the production. Dialect Coach should also be congratulated for the spot-on British accents of the cast. Tina Yeston designed smart outfits for the up market British characters while Kurt Landisman's lighting was perfect for the mood of the play. We attended a talk back on our night and one lady asked the host, "Why are the actors talking in British style?" The host replied, "Because they are living in London; if we had them do American accents each would have been seeing a psychiatrist." I am inclined to go along with that statement. Happy Now? closed on December 5th at the Marin Theatre at 397 Miller Ave. Mill Valley. Coming up next is a new version by Libby Appel of Anton Chekhov Seagull. It opens on January 27 and runs through February 20. For tickets call 415-388-5208 or on line at www.marintheatre.org.
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