MARISOL'S RECITAL/THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA

Marisol's Recital

My friend Marisol Urbano performed her senior recital on Thursday evening and I am so happy I was able to attend. Marisol is such a dear friend and I am constantly amazed by her beautiful voice. Her recital was beautiful, fun and emotional and had a program that included opera, musical theatre and the highlight was Mari & her 3 sisters accompanied by a mariachi band and dedicating a song to their Mom in memory of their late Dad. Not a dry eye in the house folks.

Piazza @ PA Players

My beloved friend Diana Torres Koss stars in Palo Alto Players' lovely production of The Light in the Piazza. I love this show and I have a copy of the PBS video with Victoria Clark and Aaron Lazar so I was a bit hesitant about seeing the production. The show (the first I have seen at PA Players) was beautiful designed, had great costumes & direction and a terrific cast. Two of my NDNU classmates, Justin Taylor Nixon and Elana Ron were in the production as well. Kudos to PA Players for tackling such a difficult & gorgeous piece.

Not much else to report - had another audition this weekend and a strong callback on Monday (I hope). I am currently waiting to hear on three different projects....my favorite part of auditioning.

Only 6 more days of school - yahoooooooo!!

Have a great week y'all!

=+)

M.

PLEASE HELP BUS BARN STAGE CO!

I thought I had already posted this! Please read this and if you have ever seen a show at Bus Barn - you know how amazing they are - please do what you can. This is from Barbara Cannon, Artistic Director of Bus Barn Stage Co.


The City of Los Altos is considering a plan to rebuild the community center and it's surroundings and is now soliciting input from citizens regarding the use of certain facilities here. Bus Barn Stage Company has been asked to present itself to the City Council and basically explain why a theater should be included in the city plan. If we are included, we will gain a new performing arts space with increased seating capacity (hopefully) and modern amenities (indoor plumbing!!). If we are not included, it seems likely that Bus Barn Theater will be demolished in the renovation and will not be replaced. The current City Council members are not supporters of the arts generally and theater specifically, so we figure they will need some convincing.If you have the time and are so inclined, we can use some testimonials specifically geared towards the importance of Bus Barn to our community and to the community-at-large. It can be an email or attachment that we can print out, or a letter. Our very brief presentation is scheduled for May 9. I would love to lay a pile of testimonials on their desk after we make our presentation. If you live in the Palo Alto/Mountain View/Los Altos area, your input is especially important.Emails can be sent to me, barbara@busbarn.org. Letters can be sent to PO Box 151, Los Altos CA 94023.

Thanks!

M.

CAROLINE X2, LYSISTRATA & WHA HAPPEN

Caroline x2

So the show was so good I had to see it twice - all of you who know me know that I don't see shows twice - last year I only saw Sweeney Todd at ACT twice. The show was amazing again and it was interesting seeing the show after the cast had some time to settle into their roles and some were back from missed performances due to health issues. It was a wonderful evening of profound and inspirational theatre.

Lysistrata at City Lights

On Saturday evening my dear friend Laurie & I had ourselves a girls night out with dinner, fabulous conversation and an evening of bawdy Greek Theatre. I didn't know what to expect when I went to see this show except that my pal Diahanna Davidson was playing the lead. The show - a modern adaptation of the Greek play was funny though I felt it was a bit too long for my taste and some of the penis jokes got old after a while.


However there was some great acting going on there - Diahanna was a terrific all balls (no pun intended) Lysistrata and had great moments with Tom Gough as the Magistrate. Thomas Gorrebeeck was hilarious as Kinesias (Thom & I did Anything Goes at BBBAY years ago - he's turned himself into quite an actor - I didn't know if he remembered me so I chickened out of saying hello =+) and there was great choreography provided my the always delicious Shannon Stowe. A good show - just a bit too long for me - a good comedy knows its time limit - how many dick jokes can one do in an evening?

Wha' Happen?

Oh boy!!!! Tonight I stayed in because I HAD to see Andrew Lloyd Webber night on American Idol - I haven't laughed this hard in ages. At one point my skin started to crawl and I think I may have uttered the words "I'm shitting from the inside." First of all - BAD song choices all around except for the girl that sang from Starlight Express and the one who sang the title song from Superstar. The girl who sang the Madonna song from Evita failed miserably (including having to restart - yes, we've all been there but this is a COMPETITION!) The men failed miserably. The guy with dreadlocks (who I find adorable) sang Memory from Cats. Here's a hint kids - if you're singing a song from a musical....you might want to find out what character sings that song. He was SO BAD!!!!! I don't feel bad at saying this because if you are going to sing a song that Buckley, Streisand & the Three Tenors have performed - you better have the cops to back it up or make it completely original. It sounded like a little kid singing Memory for a third grade recital.

David Archuleta sang Think of Me from Phantom of the Opera (I laughed so hard!) - see note regarding character choices above. Yes - he made it his own but come on. I about wet myself. And the closer - David Cook - the rocker singing Music of the Night. It was not so bad until he ended the piece with that rocker growl - no, no no. It was great to see the look on Lord McWebber when he dealt with most of these. One of the worst American Idols episode ever and a glorious evening of entertainment for me. It sort of took me back when I was 15 years old and I was the fat kid who wanted to play The Phantom and did the Andrew Lloyd Webber revues and my own mother told me to stop singing so I'll cut these kids a break - it's not their thing. I get it. But hey - who I would pay to see Stephen Sondheim American Idol night! Can you see it? =+)

Have a great week y'all

M.

LITTLE SHOP

On Sunday I met up with my pal Leslie Sorci, her son Grayson and Grayson's Dad Curt Branom (of Beach Blanket Babylon) to check out BBBAY's production of Little Shop of Horrors. The show is terrificly campy and features a great cast - my pal Tyler Kent is hilarious as Seymour, the amazing Gary Martinez is a terrific Mushnik (he nails every bit) and a knockout trio that includes the gorgeous & talented Vickie Morgan and Tracy Chiappone. One of the things I really liked about the show was not all of the girls were black and didn't try to be! Tracy told me after the show that it was her idea to make her character Latina which I thought was brilliant! The plant is masterfully maneuvered by Danny Harper. Kudos to BBBAY for producing this show which is not their usual production. This is a great season for them which also includes Into The Woods - a show I thought they would never do - right on Brooke!! The amazing Pat Parr conducts a fun & kick-ass band. Check out Little Shop of Horrors before it closes next weekend!

OH CAROLINE...

This week I had the pleasure of seeing one of the greatest musicals ever written - Caroline, or Change. Robert Kelley & TheatreWorks have outdone themselves with this show. As with every TheatreWorks show one gets the royal production values and a beyond amazing cast. Just when I think TW can't surprise me anymore - a show like this comes along. My beloved C. Kelly Wright is an inspiration as Caroline. Kudos to TheatreWorks for casting C. Kel and not hiring someone from New York. This gives me hope because there is so much great talent here in the Bay Area. Sometimes I get tired of all these New York folk coming out here to take our jobs.

Julian Hornik, (who is 12 years old) is terrific as Noah and since the show revolves around these two - the casting is beyond inspired. As the bus driver/dryer James Monroe Iglehart uses that amazing range of his and puts it to good use - his scene as the bus driver is heartbreaking.Other standouts include Allison Blackwell as Dotty, Eileen Tepper as Rose and Valisia LeKae as Emmie. Caroline's Act II aria (it's not an opera but the show has so many operatic-like qualities) is knocked out of the part by C. Kelly - one of the best performances I have ever had the pleasure to see.

This is one of those shows that defies description - operatic in the way that the score is almost complete sungthrough and key words are repeated but the singing is not operatic. The music itself is a mixture of folk, r & b, classical and musical theatre.

This is one of TheatreWorks' best shows (and since they only do top notch shows - that's saying a lot) RUN and catch this production before it closes April 27.

WICKED COMES HOME!!!

Wicked will return to San Francisco for an open-ended run beginning next year. I am a happy man.

GOOD TIMES

Well this sure was one hell of a week. I had two auditions - one for The Western Stage in Salinas. They are producing a new work entitled La Llorona. The project is very interesting so we'll see what happens. I also went in to read for SF Playhouse's upcoming production of Cabaret. Cabaret is one of all time favorite shows and to be doing it a fourth time is a-okay by me. More auditions are coming up - goody for me.

Since I was in San Francisco this week I got to spend some time with my friend Jenna - she was just accepted into ACT's Masters' program. Congratulations Jenna. We had drinks & a little din din before checking out the Playhouse's production of Coronado. It was a great show although I was a bit lost at times. A great ensemble cast. I have heard great things about actress Staci Ross but never had the pleasure of seeing her perform until now - wow. What a talent. It was also great to see a lot of my La Mancha family - Bill, Kate, Louis, Maggie & Tatjana. Good times.

On Friday evening I went to see Children of Eden and as much as I would love to report that it sucked - nothing could be further from the truth. It was a great production filled with a great cast - and most of all brilliant direction. My friend Laurie Nellesen was AMAZING - I was so overcome with emotion after her monologue at the end of Act I. Shannon was terrific as Yonah and really sold her song Stranger to the Rain. Congratulations to the entire cast & crew.

It was an emotional experience - to see the show that I was supposed to be in. I really did want to do it but after I took one look at the set I knew I had made the right decision. I was not going to comfortably be able to do all those stairs built for the set. I know that Greg could have re-blocked things for me but his direction was beyond brilliant and Michael did a fantastic job as Father.

I was supposed to see the new show at San Jose Stage on Saturday but felt beyond exhausted and my foot started to bother so I stayed home. Incidentally, my friend (& director) Rick Singleton has asked me to play for Alter Boyz auditions on Tuesday - I haven't played auditions for a show in YEARS so this should be an interesting experience - although I am happy I could help. Rick was able to switch my Caroline or Change tickets from Tuesday (so I could play for him) to Wednesday - I am really looking forward to it.)

Tonight I stopped by Hillbarn to see their Dreamquest show - it was lovely and it got me all excited about coming back to teach this summer. After the funk I was in this weekend - it was nice to be able to see how hard these kids worked on their review and it just made me smile.

P.S. Congrats to my friend Nicole for kicking ass at her understudy runthrough at Caroline or Change and my friend Tyler for making his BBBAY debut in Little Shop (I'll be there this weekend)

Okay - that's all from me.

Have a great week y'all

=+)

M.