The Final Scene, Curtains and H.M.S. Pinafore
Santa Rosa playwright Gene Abravaya's comedy The Final Scene premiered at the 6th Street Playhouse in Santa Rosa last year to good reviews from the North Bay critics. The farce with a heart is now in production at the Thick House through September 4th. The Final Scene takes place in 1986 in the CBS Broadcasting Center in New York. This is the last day of the long-running soap opera "The Promising Dawn" in which the central character is to be "killed off" by an evil twin, the ego-centric Jeremy Slade (Nick Sholley) who now believes he will be the star of the series. Failing actress Gretchen Manning (Jennifer Weil) is not very happy about leaving her home set, but, as rising CBS executive Allison Toomie (Rebekah Patti) says, it needs to be done to improve the failed ratings. Also it seems that executive producer Joseph Whitmore (Michael Ray Wisely) might be on the way out. PBS will also be filming the last day as part of a documentary series, and the unseen interviewer (Harry Duke) will be interviewing each of the main characters for their thoughts about the actress being killed off in the series. Abravaya's script (he also has a small part as a cameraman) is clever and witty. He knows the ins and out of the television business since he worked on the set of one of the most famous soap operas, "As the World Turns," for four years. Jennifer Weil gives a smart performance as Gretchen. Even though she plays the role as a Bette Davis figure, she shows some humanity in the second act. Nick Sholley is excellent as the slimy Jeremy Slade. Michael Ray Wisely gives an admirable low-key performance as the beleaguered executive Joseph Whitmore. Freddie Lambert gives a great performance as Gretchen's personal assistant Richie; he has the Brooklyn accent down perfect and his movements are straight out of "The Sopranos." Rebekah Patti is first rate as the cool, bitchy Allison Toomie. Studio cameramen Rocky and Boseman are well played by Gene Abravaya and Eric Burke, respectively; and Julia as Shelly and Nora Summers as Samantha offer agreeable support. Paul Gilger's design of a television studio set on the small Thick House stage is terrific. Every detail has been made to make it a typical living room set you would see in soap operas of the 1980s. Sound design by Andrew Renquist and lighting by Eddy Hansen are both first rate. Costumes by Pamela Enz are excellent '80s outfits. Gene Abravaya also directs this fast-paced comedy and everything works like clockwork. The Final Scene, a Spreckels and WildeCard Production, playing at The Thick House, 1695 18th Street, San Francisco through September 4th. For tickets visit www.brownpaertickets.com.
Foothill Music Theatre recently presented Curtains, with a score by Kander & Ebb, at the Lohman Theatre on the Foothill College campus. Curtains ain't Cabaret or Chicago but this was a lively and amusing Sunday afternoon of showbiz pizzazz. Curtains is billed as The Musical Comedy Whodunit and it is one of the few musicals I have seen that combines a murder mystery and a musical comedy. What it lacks in book (Rupert Holmes; original book and concept by the late Peter Stone) it makes up for in spades in musical numbers and, in the case of this production, a great cast of musical comedy actors with top notch vocal cords. This is the kind of musical that would appeal to anyone who likes a good old fashioned show. Curtains is set in 1959 Boston during the pre-Broadway tryout of a new musical called Robbin' Hood!. When the leading lady mysteriously dies onstage during the applause at the end of the show, the entire company and creative team are possible suspects. Lieutenant Frank Cioffi (Ryan Drummond) of the Boston Police Department arrives to investigate the movements and possible motives of the suspects. One can see from the crazy but hilarious opening scene of Robbin' Hood! that the lady couldn't sing, dance, or remember lines. In a word, she was awful. Ryan Drummond, using a slight Boston accent as the stage-struck detective, was perfect for the role. He had serviceable singing skills in "Coffee Shop Nights" and "Show People" and great dance moves in the second act "A Tough Act to Follow." Tyler Risk as brassy producer Carmen Bernstein was terrific. She belted out "Show People" and "It's a Business" with her powerhouse Ethel Merman voice. Michael Rhone as composer Aaron Fox gave a bang-up performance, singing "I Miss the Music" beautifully with his rich voice. Walter M. Mayes camped it up as the ego-driven director Christopher Belling. Alicia Teeter was fetching as the lyricist Georgia Hendricks. Gary Stanford Jr. had worthy vocal chops singing the lead in the musical Robbin' Hood!. The rest of the large cast played their roles with delicious gusto. Mark Hanson's five-piece orchestra was a great asset to this production. Costumes by Janis Bergmann for the Robbin' Hood! numbers were colorful, while Joe Ragey's sets were blended in the musical numbers. Michael Kuchwara of the Associated Press said it best: "A thoroughly entertaining musical. It's a blissful, often very funny celebration of a bygone era, a theater world that has largely disappeared." Curtains closed on August 14th at the Lohman Theatre in Los Altos Hills.
The Lamplighters Music Theatre, a main staple of the San Francisco musical scene for 59 years, recently presented the delightful H.M.S. Pinafore in various theatres in the San Francisco Bay Area. The L.A. Weekly calls the company "The best Gilbert and Sullivan available in this country." They are as traditional as our cable cars and sourdough bread. This company has a rare combination of first rate professionalism and pure joy. Their production of H.M.S. Pinafore was no exception. Pinafore first opened at Opera Comique in London on May 25, 1875, where it ran for 571 performances. It was the second longest musical up to that time. The operetta has been an influence in the development of musical theatre. Theatre historian John Kenrick said Pinafore became an international sensation, reshaping commercial theatre in both England and the United States. The operetta has been made into all-Black and Catholic versions, German and Yiddish, and other foreign language versions as well. It is satirically more complex than other Gilbert and Sullivan operettas. The show concerns the affairs of Ralph Rackstraw (Michael Belle), a young seaman aboard the H.M.S. Pinafore, in love with the captain's daughter, the ravishing young Josephine (Lindsey Thompson Roush). Class differences make this union impossible. Captain Corcoran (Behrend Eilers) wants to marry his daughter off to Admiral Porter (F. Lawrence Ewing) and in turn secretly fancies the bumboat woman Buttercup (Sonia Gariaeff). Director Jane Erwin Hammett steered the good ship Pinafore with her usual steady hand. There was a stunning number of engaging voices to raise this production to a memorable one. The play's leading romantic couple were excellent singers and did well in the acting department. Lindsay Thompson Roush, making her Lamplighter debut, was fetching as Josephine. She showed exquisite vocal cords singing "Sorry Her Lot" and "Farewell, My Own." Michael Belle as Ralph Rackstraw had an appealing voice singing "A British Tar" with the rousing chorus behind him. F. Lawrence Ewing as Sir Joseph was pitch perfect on "When I Was a Lad," recounting the meteoric rise of his career from office boy to Admiral of the Queen's navy. His comic dancing reminded me of the great Martyn Green of the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company in the 1980s. Behrend Eilers played Captain Corcoran as a kindly old "father" to his crew. He vigorously sang "My Gallant Crew" and "I Am the Captain of the Pinafore" aided by a sterling cast of excellent male singers. The well known "Little Buttercup," a waltz tune, was given a beautiful delivery by Sonia Gariaeff. Robbie Stafford nicely camped it up as Dick Deadeye. Choreography was almost nonexistent but the sailors' movements were well done as were those the ladies of the chorus. The choral singing was fine and never over-amplified, and the chorus' diction was impeccable. The scenery refurbished by Rooster Production was a stationary ship festooned with flags, and costumes by Judy Jackson MacIlvaine were spectacularly colorful. The large orchestra under the baton of Brett Strader played the intricate melodies of Arthur Sullivan perfectly. H.M.S. Pinafore played the Novellus Theatre at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, and the Bankhead Theatre in Livermore. Coming up next will be the annual Champagne Gala and Auction at the Herbst Theatre on November 6 and later Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers on January 20-22 at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. For more information visit lamplighters.org.
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