Period of Adjustment, The Temperamentals and Fela

An Engaging Production of Tennessee Williams' Period of Adjustment

Johnny Moreno and Patrick Alparone

SF Playhouse is presenting the rarely seen Period of Adjustment, a serious departure from Tennessee Williams' usual dark dramas. The noted playwright has written that his mother said to him, "Son, when there is so much unpleasantness in the world, why is it necessary to put it on the stage?." So he wrote this lightweight play between The Night of the Iguana and Sweet Bird of Youth. It premiered at the Helen Hayes Theatre in New York on November 1960 starring Barbara Baxley, James Daly and Robert Webber. When it opened, Williams' brother Dakin said, "Not a single person was raped, castrated, lynched, committed or even eaten." The play ran a short four months. MGM did a film version in 1962 with Jane Fonda and Anthony Franciosa. The Berkshire Theatre Group resurrected the play during the summer of 2011. It also played in London where it was presented in three acts with more actors involved with the main characters. There was a lot of social comment in the British production. Director Bill English has trimmed the script to two acts and he still elegantly preserves Williams' balance of light comedy and social issues like sexual problems, veteran dealings and redundancy.

Period of Adjustment is like a 1950s situation comedy. It takes place on Christmas Eve in the Nashville suburb of High Point, Tennessee, when George Haverstick (Patrick Alparone) and his wife of one day, and possibly still a virgin, Isabel (MacKenzie Meehan) show up without warning on the doorstep of George's old war buddy Ralph Bates (Johnny Moreno). Ralph lives in one of the ticky-tacky haciendas that were prevalent in the 1950s. The house is over a cavern and it is descending about one inch a year into the big hole. This is Williams' metaphor of sinking real estate. Ralph's wife of five years, Dorothea (Maggie Mason), and their young son (not seen in the play), who likes to play with dolls, left him on Christmas Eve morning. The honeymoon night of George and Isabel was a sexual disaster since George experiences Korean War related post traumatic stress-like tremors in tense situations. (He flew 70 bombing missions in Korea, which would make anyone stressed.) Isabel had been George's nurse while he recuperated in an army hospital. It looks like a very poor match between these two young people and they should be lucky that the marriage was not consummated so they can get it annulled quietly and get on with their lives. While the play is mostly talk and very little action, it is entertaining talk as Isabel and George seethe and bicker while Ralph tries to play marriage counselor. Dorothea's parents, Mr. and Mrs. McGillicuddy (Joe Madero and Jean Forsman), show up in the second act afraid that Ralph will sell everything and leave for parts unknown. Dorothea returns to get her son's presents an,das The Bard would say, "all's well that ends well."

MacKenzie Meehan gives a uniquely fetching performance as Isabel. She combines variable girlishness and sincere heart with passion and power even when she says such lines as, "The world's a big hospital and I'm a student nurse in it." Johnny Moreno is convincing as alpha male Ralph Bates, a decent and likeable person. He has the Tennessee accent down pat. Patrick Alparone is excellent as George. He plays the role with an appealing inconspicuous susceptibility. He has "the shakes" when he becomes excited. Maggie Mason gives an engaging performance, while Joe Madero and Jean Forsman are accurately odious as Dorothea's parents.

Nina Ball has designed a striking set for the stage of SF Playhouse. It shows a detailed exterior and two interior spaces in a single home. Bill English has directed this production with compassion and astuteness. It is a solid production of one of Williams' minor works.

Period of Adjustment runs through January 14th at SF Playhouse, 533 Sutter Street, San Francisco. For tickets call 415-677-9596 or visit www.sfplayhouse.org. Their next production will be Gina Gionfriddo's Becky Shaw opening on January 28, 2012.

Photo: Jessica Palopoli

A Fascinating Production of The Temperamentals

J.Conrad Frank and Steve Salzman

New Conservatory Theatre Center is presenting an intriguing production of Jon Marans' The Temperamentals through December 18th. "Temperamental" was the code word for a gay man in the early 1950s, part of a secret language that gay men used to communicate. This interesting play about the foundation of the Mattachine Society ran for over eight months Off-Broadway, first at the Barrow Group Theatre and then moving to the New World Stages in February 2010.

The Temperamentals is a highly agreeable docudrama that begins with gay distinctiveness during the Eisenhower administration. The scene is Los Angeles and the audience sees the start of a gay relationship with fiery Communist organizer Harry Hay (Steven Salzman) and Holocaust survivor Rudi Gernreich (J. Conrad Frank), who later became a famous fashion designer. It is difficult for them to recruit other gay men to fight for their rights. There are snippets of the group's personal struggles, including an interesting meeting with movie director Vincente Minnelli (Justin Gilman). The playwright details the noteworthy 1952 Mattachine victory of exoneration for a member falsely arrested in a men's bathroom, with an openly gay defense.

Joe Marans does not make the mistake of portraying just one set of conventional traits like timorous, beleaguered, self-loathing over another, like self-assured, confident and proud. There is multiplicity within each of the individuals portrayed.

Director F. Allen Sawyer has assembled a good cast of five actors to play various roles. Steve Salzman is excellent as Harry Hay at the center of the play. He successfully morphs from a closeted husband and father fanatical with his mannishness to a fey member-founder in 1979 of the sexually liberated Radical Faeries. J. Conrad Frank matches him in intensity as Rudi Gernreich. He radiates sensual magnetism and charisma in combination with his good looks.

Justin Gillman, Jeffrey Hoffman and Seth Thygesen plays various roles. Justin Gilman is first rate playing Chuck Rowland, a butch lover to a somewhat effeminate Bob Hall, played very well by Jeffrey Hoffman. However, Gilman is less successful in portraying Vincente Minnelli. He tends to go overboard with the capriciousness of the legendary director. Seth Thygesen is first rate as Dale Jennings, the man who was .

The Temperamentals runs through December 18 at the Walker Theatre in the New Conservatory Theatre Center, 25 Van Ness Ave. San Francisco. For tickets call 415-861-8972 or visit www.nctcsf.org. Also running is Xanadu through January 15, 2012.

Photo: Lois Tema

An Invigorating Production of Fela

Melanie Marshall and Sahr Ngaujah

Best of Broadway is currently presenting the stimulating touring production of Fela, an account of how a pleasure-seeking entertainer became a nation's political conscience.

This musical is full of energetic dancing and insight into a corrupt African nation. Tony and Olivier nominee Sahr Ngaujah portrays Afrobeat musician Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, better known as Fela Kuti, regaling the audience with stories of his practical musical education, which included listening to Frank Sinatra records. He tells how Afrobeat emerged from his love of jazz and the rhythms of Cuban music. His activist bent was fostered by bitterness of British imperialism in Nigeria. "What did we get in return?," he asks, "Gonorrhea and Jesus." He talks and sings about Nigeria's then disgracefully corrupt and vicious regime. He also tells how he was exposed to black feminism and nationalism when traveling in the United States.

The audience can hear the sound of the extraordinary band as they enter the theatre and suddenly the stage is full of dancers. This band is absolutely brilliant, helped by Robert Kaplowitz' perfect sound system. What emerges is a spectacle of brass, beats and stomping feet. Some of the lyrics are flashed on screens at the sides and back of the stage. They are a loose haiku of street people, like "Like Rats We Steal/Make a Hole/Oil Flows," relating to the amount of oil that the nation produced for the outside world. There are actors marching across the stage carrying dozens of tiny coffins embellished with the names of individuals and ideals that have been forfeited by the military dictatorship of the country. This is a wonderful portrait of the capital city of Lagos drawn in a palette of neon colors, glowing under black light in the second act.

Fela's stories are compelling, with the evolvement of the book by Jim Lewis and Bill Jones and music of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. It is enhanced by the translations and newspaper stories that are flashed on the back and sides of the stage, some breathtaking, in your face, wrenching film footage in Peter Nigrini's projections.

Sahr Ngaujah, wearing embellished track suits, is dynamic as Fela. His nonstop vitality keeps the audience intrigued and fascinated most of the time. He has never-ending energy with the large cast and when interacting with the audience. Ngaujah captures the magnetism of the musician and activist during those tempestuous years in Nigeria of the 1970s.

Bathed in heavenly auras, Melanie Marshall is charismatic as Funmilayo, who appears in visions to Fela. She performs impeccable solos during the mesmerizing "Rain," the moment when the vision of Fela's martyred mother will give him her blessing to leave the country for good, putting himself safely out of the reach of the Nigeria tyrannical regime.

Marina Draghici has done a great job bringing to the stage the essence of Fela's Nigerian nightclub, with giant banners and projections by Peter Nigrini, corrugated iron and, above all, color.

Fela plays through December 11 at the Curran Theatre, 445 Geary St, San Francisco. For tickets call 888-746-1799 or visit www.shnsf.com. For more information on the tour, visit felaonbroadway.com. SHN's next Best of Broadway show will be Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas opening at the Golden Gate on December 21.

Photo: Tristram Kenton

Cheers - and be sure to Check the lineup of great shows this season in the San Francisco area

- Richard Connema