Chad Jones’ Theater Dogs

Opened April 29 at Berkeley Repertory Theatre’s Roda Theatre

Opera, drama create intriguing hybrid in Figaro
Three stars Figaro, Figaro, Fi-ga-roooo!

Theatre de la Jeune Lune returns to Berkeley Rep with the West Coast premiere of a multimedia Figaro.
Photos by Kevin Berne

There’s no easy way to describe Theatre de la Jeune Lune’s Figaro, which opened Tuesday at Berkeley Repertory Theatre.

This is a signature piece from the celebrated Minneapolis-based theater company, and it is, to describe it clunkily, a play-opera-musical comedy, or plopsical.
 

As conceived by Steven Epp and Dominique Serrand, who also star, Figaro is a re-working of Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais’ three Figaro plays (The Barber of Seville, The Marriage of Figaro and The Guilty Mother) into one story told in flashback from the vantage point of the French Revolution, all the while incorporating hefty chunks of the Mozart opera Le Nozze de Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro, with a libretto by Da Ponte).
 

Serrand directs in his usual freewheeling style – the Roda stage is wide open with only scattered furniture and video projections (including live video to make the whole thing seem more intimate, which it does, even when the stage action is clearly created with the cameras more in mind than the audience) – and the tone of the evening wanders from slapstick (Serrand is a physical shtick master) to exquisite beauty, both in staging and in musical and emotional content.

If you’re familiar with the opera or with Beaumarchais’ stories, you’ll get a lot more out of the evening. The combination of the three stories, as recalled by an aged Count Almaviva (Serrand) and his barber/servant Figaro (Epp, above) as they hide from guillotine-hungry French revolutionaries, is convoluted. All the mistaken identity high jinks grow wearisome. But the flashbacks are mainly an excuse to launch into great chunks of glorious Mozart music.
 

Accompanied by the 7^th Avenue String Quartet (Alex Kelly on cello, Justin Mackewich on violin, Katrina Weeks on viola and Sarah Jo Zaharako on violin, with Barbara Brooks conducting and playing piano), the singers are unamplified, and just the chance to hear beautiful, unamplified voices in the Roda is reason enough to buy a ticket. This is not opera lite. This is serious opera mixed in with a funny, sometimes ruminative play about aging and our roles in society. These are serious singers, and at nearly three hours, this show is very much an endurance experience, not unlike an opera-house opera.
 

It’s an interesting proposition: opera people probably want to hear just the opera, while theater people probably prefer the non-musical Epp-Serrand scenes. Then there’s the middle audience, pleased to have some of both, but probably not in such quantity. For the non-opera lover, a little aria goes a long way, even when the opera is staged with energy and humor and general non-stuffiness.
 

That said, I have to say I adored Jennifer Baldwin Peden (abve left)as the Countess in love with a young rogue, Cherubino (Christina Baldwin, who happens to be Jennifer’s sister, and oh, when their voices join!). Her entrance as a lovelorn maiden adrift in a boat covered in a swath of red material is stunning, as is her Act 2 song of mourning.
 

Bradley Greenwald is also pretty exciting as the young Count, sparring with the young Figaro (Bryan Boyce) and Figaro’s bride-to-be, Susanna (Momoko Tanno), but as gorgeous as the operatic elements can be, the meat of the evening is really Epp and Serrand and their complicated, ever-changing master-servant relationship. There’s a heavy pall of melancholy over the evening that imbues the proceedings with more heart than you might expect. Epp has a particularly poignant second-act monologue, and as the video camera zooms in and protects his big face on the screen at the back of the stage, you almost feel guilty for watching the projected image rather than the real thing, but the image is incredibly intense and intimate.
 

Cleverness and beauty abound in Figaro, a work of high art and low pretension. I tend to prefer my theater with less opera and my opera with more theater, but that’s just one of my quirks.
 

Figaro continues through June 8 at the Roda Theatre, 2015 Addison St., Berkeley. Tickets are $33-$69. Call 510-647-2949 or visit www.berkeleyrep.org for information.

Some interesting Figaro-related events at Berkeley Rep:

• Berkeley Rep Book Club gathers Friday, May 9 to discuss Christopher Hibbert’s The Life and Times of the French Revolution at 6:30 p.m. in the Mendel Room in the Roda Theatre. RSVP to 510-647-2916 or bookclub@berkeleyrep.org
• David Gockley of the San Francisco Opera moderates a conversation with Dominique Serrand and Steven Epp of Theatre de Jeune Lune on Monday, May 19 at 7 p.m. on the Thrust Stage (2025 Addison St.). Admission is free.

Sad news and a call for your support.

Morey Goldstein (above left in his Modern Rocketry days), probably best known for playing Richard Carpenter opposite his wife, Katie Guthorn, as Karen Carpenter in A Karen Carpenter Christmas, a seasonal feature for so many years at The Marsh, has stage 4 Glioblastoma (brain cancer), and is expected to live 2-3 months.

Writing to friends and family, Guthorn announced that there will be a benefit to help cover Morey’s medical expenses this Sunday, May 4 at the Bayview Boat Club, for a celebration of his music. SF Chronicle music critic Joel Selvin is also working on a show for Monday, June 23, at the Great American Music Hall. That may well turn into a memorial.

Guthorn writes that her husband is doing well with two home health attendants, but their insurance doesn’t cover them, and they add up to $1800-2000/week. There’s a Web site set up for people to make speedy donations: http://www.bigbangbeat.com/moreyg.html

Guthorn concludes: “We’ve appreciated all your prayers and good thoughts, lovely food and groceries, visits and cards. I can’t thank you enough. This is an extremely difficult time. The goal is to help Morey be as happy and comfortable as possible.”

Here’s the info on the benefit:

MOREY GOLDSTEIN’S CAVALCADE OF STARS!!
A benefit for Morey Goldstein — Sunday, May 4, at the Bay View Boat Club

3:00PM - 8:00PM at the Bay View Boat Club in San Francisco
(489 Terry Francois Blvd, aka China Basin St. 415-495-9500
See http://bayviewboatclub.org for directions.)

As ever, so many interesting things going on in Bay Area theater:

- The Oakland East Bay Symphony is gearing up for a glittery concert production of Follies, May 16 and 18 at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland. The cast includes Val Diamond (Beach Blanket Babylon), Sharon McNight, Rita Moreno, Clark Sterling and the Berkeley Broadway Singers (among others). You won’t want to miss that (visit www.oebs.org for info). But before then, there’s going to be a “Forum on themes of Follies“ from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, May 3 at the Veteran’s Memorial Building, 200 Grand Avenue, Oakland. Admission is free, and it’s sponsored by the OEBS and Stagebridge and the City of Oakland Life Enrichment Programs. The keynote speaker is Ted Chapin, author of Everything was Possible: The Birth of the Musical Follies (a fantastic book and must reading for anyone who cares about musical theater) and the president and executive director of the Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization. Panelists include Lucha Corpi, Bill Bell, Bonnie Bell, Glen Pearson and Barbara Oliver. John Kendall Bailey serves as moderator, and there will be performances and live music.

- The Eugene O’Neill Foundation, Tao House (the wonderful national park on the grounds of the Danville home O’Neill shared with his wife Carlotta around the time he was writing, among others, Long Day’s Journey Into Night – if you’ve never been to this park, you owe it to yourself to make a visit and take a tour) is launching the 2008 Playwrights Theatre series. Opening the series is a new work by San Francisco writer/director/actor Jeffrey Hartgraves: Blood Mirage, the story of three adult sisters called together by their aging mother to attend a funeral and experience some shocking revelations. Blood Mirage is at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 4 in the Old Barn at Tao House. Also on the May 4 bill is Revelations, a series of scenes from O’Neill plays in which women are the principal characters. Local actor Karen Grassle (of “Little House on the Prairie” fame) is featured.
O’Neill’s Welded is at 3 p.m. Sunday, May 18. The play was written in 1922-23 and concerns a successful playwright and his wife, each seeking comfort in another relationship (he with a prostitute, she with a family friend). O’Neill wrote about the play: “I feel that I’m getting back as far as it is possible in modern times to get back, to the religious in the theater. The only way we can get religion back is through an exultation over the truth, through an exultant acceptance of life.”
Tickets are $25 (price includes transportation from Danville to Tao House — there’s no parking in the park). Call 925-820-1818 or visit www.eugeneoneill.org for information.

- Berkeley’s Aurora Theatre Company holds its annual fundraiser, Aurora Borealis, on Monday, May 5 at The Pavilion at Scott’s Seafood Restaurant in Oakland’s Jack London Square. Tickets (from $216 to $316) include cocktails, a three-course dinner and live entertainment by Maureen McVerry and Billy Philadelphia (co-stars in the Aurora’s recent musical romp Sex). The live auction includes a December holiday trip to Puerto Vallarta, lunch with San Francisco Chronicle columnist Leah Garchik, a week in New York, a private cabaret night with Philadelphia and his singer wife Meg Mackay. Funds raised at the event support mainstage productions, education programs and the Global Age Project new works program.
Call 510-843-4042 ext. 378 or visit www.auroratheatre.org for information.

I’m not going anywhere at the moment (except Las Vegas for the opening of Jersey Boys later this week — hope to be blogging live if technology cooperates, but if not, check in on Sunday afternoon).

Where I’d most like to go, of course, is New York to visit friends and SEE BROADWAY SHOWS! It’s been about a year since my last trip, and you might say I’m jonesing for the Great White Way. And there’s so much to see at the moment.

Below you’ll find my list of most desirable shows. If you’ve seen any and care to comment, I’d love to hear from you and share your thoughts with other Theater Dogs (you can comment on the blog or e-mail me directly at chiatovich@gmail.com).

Gypsy
August: Osage County
South Pacific
Sunday in the Park with George
A Catered Affair
Passing Strange
In the Heights

It’s amazing that #1 and #3 are golden oldies that have new life on Broadway, and #1 and #4 are both Sondheim-related. I’m dying to see Passing Strange again — it was so good at Berkeley Repertory Theatre. I’d love to see how the show has evolved and how it plays for a Broadway audience. It’s actually thrilling that, in spite of the big-ticket revivals, that four out of seven shows on my list are actually new work.

One of my favorite people in the world, Carol Burnett, turns 73 today.

I think one of the reasons I love theater so much was that growing up, my favorite show was “The Carol Burnett Show.” From as early as I can remember, Saturday nights were my haven because of two women: Mary Tyler Moore and Carol Burnett. Mary (via Mary Richards on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”) showed me the kind of grown-up life I wanted to have (and did sort of end up having). And Carol, along with her crew that included Harvey Korman, Tim Conway and Vicki Lawrence, showed me the joys of music and comedy and, blessed be, musical comedy. “The Carol Burnett Show” was like a new Broadway show every week with the sketches, the singing, the dancing, the groovy ’70s sets and the wild Bob Mackie costumes. Oh, and the guest stars — hard to complain with a heaping helping of Steve and Eydie, Jim Nabors, Alan Alda, Ken Berry and the like. God, how I miss variety shows!

I got to see Carol live on stage in 1999 when she was in the Stephen Sondheim revue Putting It Together alongside George Hearn, Ruthie Henshall, John Barrowman and Bronson Pinchot. Wish I could have seen her in her Broadway debut in 1959’s Once Upon a Mattress. The cast album from that show has long been a favorite (as have Carol’s solo albums — not exactly chart-toppers but charming). She’s such a pro. I hope I get to see her perform again. And I really hope I get to sit down and interview her (came close with the made-for-TV Mattress with Burnett and another of my favorites, Tracey Ullman).

A Web site called Complete Series TV offers the complete DVD set of “The Carol Burnett Show,” which was originally sold through Columbia House. It’s two complete episodes per disc (12 discs), which is not the complete series by any means, but it’s the best we can do for now, and it’s a whole lot better than those truncated, 30-minute versions that went into syndication in the ’80s (hey, they were better than nothing, but I sure missed the lavish production numbers and the cheesy musical guest spots).

I’m still completely fascinated by the “Family” sketches (which later evolved into the mostly lame “Mama’s Family” TV series). Burnett played Eunice Higgins, a shrill harpie desperate to leave her small town existence for the bright lights of Hollywood fame. Korman was Eunice’s hardware store-owning husband, Ed. Lawrence played mama Thelma Harper (the crankiest beer-swilling matriarch of all time), and various guest stars played Eunice’s sister (Betty White) and brothers (Alan Alda, Roddy McDowell, etc.). After Burnett stopped doing her show in 1978, she appeared in a three-act made-for-TV play called “Eunice,” which I remember being extraordinary when I saw it as a kid. Many years later, I watched it again at the Museum of TV and Radio in New York, and it was every bit as good as I remembered it, and there I sat in my viewing booth, bawling my eyes out in the third act (after Mama’s death and Ed leaves Eunice). If there’s anyone out there who knows how I can get my hands on a copy of “Eunice,” please let me know! (P.S. — Theater Dog Michael wrote in to say he watched “Eunice” in its entirety on YouTube in 9 parts!). Also, due credit should be given to writers Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon (and co-director Harvey Korman!).

In tribute to Carol Burnett, here’s one of my favorite clips from “The Carol Burnett Show.” It’s one of the “Family” sketches, and Tim Conway is on a roll telling elephant stories. Burnett, Lawrence and guest star Dick Van Dyke are in hysterics.

Here’s another one with Lawrence on a tear as Mama:

And finally, here’s Burnett singing the goodbye song:

Looking for quality entertainment this weekend? Never a difficult task in the Bay Area. In fact, there’s often too much from which to choose.

Here are some tips:

- American Conservatory Theater’s First look Festival continues Friday and Saturday (April 25 and 26) with Lillian Groag’s War Music, a theatrical adaptation of poet Christopher Logue’s retelling of Homer’s Iliad. The play, revised since its Los Angeles run, will receive a full production during ACT’s 2008-09 season. Groag (right) directs. The script-in-hand workshop is at 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Tickets are $10.50 general, $7.50 for students, seniors and ACT subscribers. Call 415-749-2228 or visit www.act-sf.org.

- For the very first time, the work of Marin writer Anne Lamott (left) is being adapted for the stage. San Rafael’s AlterTheater presents the world premiere of Lamott’s first novel, Hard Laughter adapted for the stage Anne Brebner, a longtime friend of Lamott’s, and Laurel Graver. The show opens Friday, April 25 at The Wooden Duck, a store specializing in furniture made from recycled wood (which, not coincidentally, will comprise much of the play’s set). Jayne Wenger directs Lamott’s tale of a free-thinking NorCal bohemian family as they struggle with issues of mortality, sexual freedom and addiction. The cast includes Lindsay Benner, Jeffrey Bihr, Rio Codda, Zac Jaffe, Hannah Rose Kornfeld, Laura Lowry and Frances Lee McCain. The show runs through May 18, and the Wooden Duck is at 1848 Fourth St (at H Street), San Rafael. Tickets are $20-$25. Call 415-454-2787 or visit www.althertheater.org.

- Only one of the greatest singers ever (in the Bay Area or anywhere), Wesla Whitfield (right) appears Saturday, April 26 with the Peninsula Symphony as well as with her husband/arranger Mike Greensill and his trio. Whitfield and Greensill will do what they do best: sing gorgeous tunes from the Great American Songbook, only this time, they’ll be accompanied by more than 20 members of the symphony. The evening will include songs by Gershwin, Ellington, Rodgers and Hammerstein with new arrangements by Greensill (something of a genius when it comes to arrangements). Maestro Mitchell Sardou Klein leads the string orchestra and the Peninsula Symphony French Horn Quartet led by William Klingelhoffer. The show is at 8 p.m. at the Fox Theater in downtown Redwood City. Tickets are $34 general, $29 for seniors and students. Call 650-941-5291 or visit www.peninsualsymphony.org.

- 42nd Street Moon, the San Francisco company that dusts off lost or forgotten musicals and gives them spiffy concert productions, performs that rarity of rarities: a Katharine Hepburn musical. The company is reviving Alan J. Lerner and Andre Previn’s 1970 Coco, which starred Hepburn as the croaking Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel. For the concert production, 42nd Street Moon has the gorgeous Andrea Marcovicci (left) to play the title role. The show previews Friday, April 25 and opens Saturday, April 26 at the Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson St., San Francisco. The show continues through May 11. Tickets are $22-$38. Call 415-255-8207 or visit www.42ndstmoon.org.

The force is most certainly with her.

Carrie Fisher, fresh from her hit Berkeley Repertory Theatre show Wishful Drinking, a one-woman autobiographical play, is taking the show on the road. And no wonder: in 9 1/2 weeks, the show took in $1.3 million.

Producer Jonathan Reinis is sending Wishful across the country. The first stop isn’t so far away, just down south a little at San Jose Repertory Theatre in July 23-Aug. 2. The next stop is across the country at the Arena Stage at the Lincoln Theatre in Washington, D.C. Sept. 5-28.

The rest of the tour is sort of a regional theater hopscotch: Lensic Theatre in Santa Fe, N.M. (June 18-22); Hartford Stage in Connecticut (Aug. 6-17); and Huntington Theatre Company in Boston (Oct. 14-26).

Wishful Drinking, a delightful evening of Fisher sipping Coke Zeros and telling tales from her Hollywood life, is directed by Berkeley Rep artistic director Tony Taccone, who recently has been specializing in solo shows. He directed Sarah Jones’ Bridge and Tunnel all the way to Broadway and a special Tony Award.

No one would be at all surprised to see Fisher end up on the Great White Way. In other good Fisher news, word is she’s adapting her most recent wonderful novel, The Best Awful (sort of a sequel to Postcards from the Edge) for HBO.

Since leaving Theatre on the Square (now the Post Street Theatre) in San Francisco, the Berkeley-based Reinis has been a busy man. He’s also touring Jane Anderson’s The Quality of Life starring JoBeth Williams and Laurie Metcalf. That tour opens in October at American Conservatory Theater.

Could this be the future of touring theater — bypassing the commercial stage and taking advantage of the regional theaters’ nonprofit status and subscription audiences?

Berkeley’s Shotgun Players have received a challenge grant opportunity from the East Bay Community Foundation’s Fund for Artists to keep their tradition of free in-the-park summer theater. If the company raises $5,000 by June 30, that amount will be matched with a grant for their production of Ubu for President, a new play adapted by Josh Costello from Ubu Roi an absurdist 1896 comedy by Alfred Jarry. Artistic director Patrick Dooley directs the production, slated for July 26 through Sept. 7 at John Hinkel Park.

To make a donation, stop by here and cast your vote for free political theater in the park.

According to “American Idol,” Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber is responsible for some of the most “important” musicals of all time.

Wow. That’s pretty big. Step aside, Rodgers and Hammerstein. Back of the bus, Stephen Sondheim. The man who brought us Starlight Express and Catsis assuming the position of importance.

It’s undeniable that Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice helped Broadway take the next post-Hair step toward a more contemporary, rock-influenced sound with Jesus Christ Superstar. But with shows such as Cats and The Phantom of the Opera, Lloyd Webber’s two biggest hits, popular shouldn’t be confused with important.

Lloyd Webber was the “mentor” on Tuesday’s “American Idol” as the remaining six contestants trotted out shiny Lloyd Webber show tunes in the hope of making it to the Top 5.

I know who would make it into my bottom two:

1. Jason Castro (right), whose inability to speak in sentences or use actual words during the brief interview segment makes me think he’s not much brighter than his dreadlocks. Who else but a dim bulb would choose to sing “Memory” from Cats, probably the most popular, most over-sung show tune of the last 25 years? He didn’t have the voice for it, he didn’t make a dramatic connection, and he didn’t make an original arrangement (the way Israel Kamakawiwoʻole did with “Over the Rainbow” and which Castro cribbed in its entirety a few weeks back) that was more suited to his laidback style.

2. Brooke White stopped the orchestra then started again. Oops. Second time she’s done that this season, and it’s one time too many. She sang the Oscar-winning “You Must Love Me” from the movie version of Evita. It was a dramatic attempt (she sure displayed drama hands) but not successful. It’s not a great song by any means. She should have done a tango-infused “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina.”

The rest of the kids did OK. Sayesha Mercado (above) sizzled with a lousy song — “One Rock ‘n’ Roll Too Many” from Starlight Express (not exactly a font of fantastic tunes). She showed personality and sex appeal, and the judges agreed she’d be great on Broadway. No question. Somebody make some calls.

Carly Smithson got to rock it a little with “Jesus Christ Superstar” and did a screechy good job. David Cook turned “The Music of the Night” from The Phantom of the Opera into something that wasn’t boring. He didn’t rock it out, as he has with other songs in the last few weeks, which was an interesting choice. He also mentioned that he grew up doing musical theater. Makes me like him even more. The last few notes of the song were thrilling.

And little David Archuleta, for me, was the one to beat because he was the only one to make one of ALW’s songs contemporary. Archuleta’s version of “Think of Me” from Phantom came across as something that could be on the radio right now. It actually sounded a lot like what the British boy band Boyzone did with “No Matter What” from Lloyd Webber’s Whistle Down the Wind.

There was a lot of talk about how difficult it would be for the Idols to perform show tunes because show tunes are so complicated, and judge Simon Cowell (left with Sir Andrew) has already shown his disdain for the “Broadway” sound (which he lumps in with the sound of cruise ships, cabaret and theme parks). But Lloyd Webber isn’t complicated. He has melodies, that’s for sure. But wouldn’t it be interesting to see what the Idols would do with the songs of Stephen Sondheim? Or Michael John La Chiusa? Or Jason Robert Brown? Or Ricky Ian Gordon? Or Adam Guettel?

Now that would be a show tune challenge I’d like to see.

Casts and creative teams for the first two Cal Shakes shows have been announced, and it looks like it’s shaping up to be another hot summer in the chilly environs of the Bruns Amphitheater in the bucolic Orinda hills.

The 24th season opens May 28 with Shakespeare’s Pericles, directed by Minneapolis-based director Joel Sass in his Cal Shakes debut. The play is being done as an ensemble piece, with eight actors playing multiple roles. Embattled Pericles, Prince of Tyre will be portrayed by Christopher Kelly, a newcomer to Cal Shakes and a five-year resident at the Denver Center Theatre Company. Delia MacDougall, who appeared last season in Man and Superman and King Lear, returns as This/Bawd and Danny Scheie (Arlecchino in The Triumph of Love) portrays Helicanus/Simonides/Boult.

Shawn Hamilton, who appeared in Sass’ Guthrie Theater production of Pericles, will reprise his roles as Gower, Lychorida, and Diana. Associate artist and Fox Fellowship awardee Ron Campbell and associate artist Domenique Lozano, (co-stars in last summer’s The Triumph of Love, play Antiochos/Cleon and Dionysia/Cerimon, respectively; and Sarah Nealis (Cordelia in last season’s Lear) plays Marina/Antiochus’ Daughter. Finally, newcomer and recent ACT MFA grad Alex Morf (Act’s The Rainmaker) is Lysimachus/Thailand/Leonine.

The creative team includes Melpomene Katakalos (Set Designer); Raquel M. Barreto (Costume Designer); Russell H. Champa (Lighting Designer); Greg Brosofske (Composer); and Jeff Mockus (Sound Designer).

Pericles runs through June 22.

Next up, on July 2, is Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband. Cal Shakes artistic director Jonathan Moscone teams up with Michael Butler (artistic director of Walnut Creek’s Center Repertory Company) making his Cal Shakes debut as politician Robert Chiltern. Associate artist Julie Eccles will play his wife, Gertrude, Stacy Ross will portray the villainess Mrs. Cheveley and Elijah Alexander (SO good in last summer’s Man and Superman) plays the rake Lord Goring.

Other Man and Superman cohorts returning for Mosconi’s latest production include include set designer Annie Smart, associate artist Nancy Carlin (Lady Basildon) and Delia MacDougall (Mrs. Marchmont). Joan Mankin will play Lady Markby, Sarah Nealis is young Mabel Chiltern and Danny Scheie as the Vicomte de Nanjac/Phipps.

Moscone’s creative team includes Annie Smart; Meg Neville (Costume Designer); Scott Zielinski (Lighting Designer) and Jeff Mockus (Sound Designer).

An Ideal Husband continues through July 27.

Visit www.calshakes.org for information, and don’t forget to check out the new-and-improved Cal Shakes blogs here. The blogs currently include an interview with Pericles himself, Christopher Kelly, and a plea for housing for Cal Shakes interns.