Chad Jones’ Theater Dogs

ACT’s The Quality of Life stars, from left JoBeth Williams, Dennis Boutsikaris and Laurie Metcalf. Photo courtesy of the Geffen Playhouse and Michael Lamont.

American Conservatory Theater has announced full casting for its follow-up to the season-opening hit Rock ‘n’ Roll.

Jane Anderson’s The Quality of Life, which takes place in the post-fire Oakland Hills, had its world premiere at the Geffen Playhouse in Los Angeles last year and now writer/director Anderson and ACT, in association with the Geffen and Jonathan Reinis Productions, bring some of that starry cast up north.

Laurie Metcalf, a member of Chicago’s illustrious Steppenwolf Theatre Company and a regular on the sitcom “Roseanne,” plays Jeannette, whose living on the plot of land where her house used to be with her husband, Neil (played by two-time Obie-winner Dennis Boutsikaris, a seasoned Broadway and off-Broadway actor). Jeannette and Neil receive a visit from her Midwestern relatives, Dinah and Bill, played respectively by JoBeth Williams (Poltergeist, The Big Chill) and Steven Culp (most recently seen here in ACT’s Blackbird last season and known for playing the dearly departed Rex Van de Kamp on TV’s “Desperate Housewives”).

When you’re dealing with stars, you’re also dealing with their busy schedules. Metcalf has previous commitments, so she’s sharing the role of Jeannette with Caroline Lagerfelt, who played Inter Dominguez on the Bay Area-filmed “Nash Bridges” for five years. She also played Queen Elizabeth in ACT’s Mary Stuart.

“I can’t wait to see how Laurie and Caroline, two enormously gifted actresses, put their own unique spin on this wildly complex character,” said director/writer Anderson. “Although the intent of the script will stay the same, it’s going to be a different show every night. That’s what makes live theater so exciting — all the marvelous variables that come with each performance.”

Anderson, who splits her time between Los Angeles and Marin County, was inspired to write the play after her brother’s experience with the Pt. Reyes/Mt. Vision fire of 1995. She sets the play in Jeannette and Neil’s encampment, where they are living rather peacefully in the ashes of their former home. The couple is at a key moment in their relationship as Neil’s cancer returns. The visit from Bill and Dinah — an attempt to reach out for solace from estranged family members — comes in the wake of the couple’s loss of their daughter. So these four people — Bay Area liberal and Midwestern conservative — reunite amid the turmoil of grief and life-changing decisions.

“There’s a terrible rift in this country between the far right and far left,” Anderson said. “One of the things I hope to achieve with The Quality of Life is to help the audience recognize that in the face of this dichotomy of ideals, there’s the possibility of finding a common human condition.”

Anderson added that she has done “extensive work” on the script since last year’s premiere at the Geffen: “Having this unique mix of original cast and new members is the optimal way to take this play to its next incarnation.”

The Quality of Life runs Oct. 24-Nov. 23 at the American Conservatory Theater, 415 Geary St., San Francisco. Tickets are $14-$82. Call 415-749-2228 or visit www.act-sf.org

Green-faced fans of all kinds swarmed San Francisco’s Union Square on Friday, Sept. 26 – Wicked Day in San Francisco, according to a proclamation from San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom – at a party celebrating Wicked’s return to the city that gave it birth next January. Photos by J. Lynne McVey

San Francisco has often been compared to the Emerald City of Oz. On Friday in Union Square, the comparison was more than apt.

A full-on party, complete with balloons, bubbles and babies bedecked in witchery, surrounded the noon hour in celebration of Wicked, the worldwide hit musical about the witches of Oz that got its start in San Francisco.

Wicked, which premiered at the Curran Theatre in 2003, has become a phenomenon of over-the-rainbow proportions. The show returned briefly in the summer of 2005, but this January, Wicked flies back into town – this time at the Orpheum – for an open-ended run that producers foresee lasting at least a year.

It was no coincidence that the face-painting booths, the singing and trivia contests, the proclamation from the Mayor’s office declaring Wicked Day in San Francisco and performances by cast members from the Los Angeles company occurred on the same day that “Wicked” tickets went on sale.

SHN/Best of Broadway CEO Greg Holland described Wicked as a “theatrical earthquake” first felt in San Francisco. “We were the first fans,” he said, “so we take pride in the show’s coming back.”

Producer David Stone who, along with producing partner Marc Platt, helped bring Wicked to life, said it’s an emotional thing to bring the show back to the place it started.

Looking around a Union Square crowded with miniature witches, moms and daughters, teenagers and fans of all stripes and colors, Stone said he remembered being locked in a hotel room with the entire creative team at the Clift for eight hours making cuts.

Looking up at the Cheesecake Factory atop Macy’s, Stone remembered taking star Kristin Chenoweth (who originated the role of Glinda) out for a giant piece of cheesecake to ease her worries when some of her funny lines had to be cut for legal reasons (MGM, the movie studio behind The Wizard of Oz, was being very careful about what the Wicked folks could and couldn’t use from the land of Oz).

“I remember Marc and (composer) Stephen (Schwartz) having an animated discussion in front of the Geary Theater that ended up in the street,” Stone said. “And one time, Kristin was taking a breather in front of the theater when a homeless man came up to her and said she looked like an alien. She was pretty upset until she realized she was still wearing her head microphone and earpiece.”

After the event over lunch, Stone recalled the tough birth of Wicked.

“New musicals just don’t want to be born,” he said. “The whole creative team basically saw the same show from the beginning, and we worked toward that, but the last 10 to 20 percent was tough to work out. We knew it was working and saw what it could be. That put the pressure on us not to screw up.”

Stone admitted that tension mounted, especially between Schwartz, director Joe Mantello and book writer Winnie Holzman.

“Everybody loves each other now – and why not? – but the nearly four months we took off between San Francisco and Broadway was tough. March and I did a lot of shuttle diplomacy. But by the time rehearsals started in New York, everyone was fine.”

Stone said those months in between the San Francisco production and the opening of New York was the best possible route the show could have taken. He credits Schwartz with the idea of not rushing straight to Broadway.

“I can’t even tell you how valuable that time was,” Stone said. “Stephen knew that once the train left the station, it would be unstoppable. It cost us a million and a half dollars, and it was worth it. I don’t know about these shows like The Little Mermaid, Young Frankenstein and Shrek and how they have time to get done what needs to get done between out of town and Broadway.”

Now that Wicked is a worldwide sensation – with four companies abroad in London, Australia, Japan, Germany and four in the U.S. in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and on tour – Stone finds his days consumed with witchy business that sells about $9.5 million in tickets every week.

But he has managed to produce other shows, some of which we’ve seen in San Francisco such as Fully Committed, The Vagina Monologues and The 25^th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

He may be working again with the Spelling Bee team of composer William Finn and director/librettist James Lapine, who are reportedly at work on a musical version of the hit indie film Little Miss Sunshine. He’s hopeful about a rock musical that’s still evolving called Next to Normal about a woman (played by Alice Ripley) with bipolar disorder and the effect her illness has on her family.

Earlier in the day, Stone summed up his Wicked experience with a memory: the first preview at the Curran and Idina Menzel as Elphaba, the green-skinned Wicked Witch of the West in training, makes her entrance and comes running downstage toward the audience.

“Here was this character people had known and been scared of most of their lives and she turns out to be nothing like they thought she was,” he said. “She’s more complicated than they could have imagined, and that’s a big idea to put across, but the audience got it in a moment. In that moment we understood what this show might be. This country likes to point fingers and say you are this: right or left, black or white. Maybe there’s no right or left or red or blue – only green.”

Wicked begins performances on Jan. 27, 2009 at the Orpheum Theatre, 1192 Market St., San Francisco. Tickets are $30-$99. Call 415-512-7770 or visit www.ticketmaster.com or www.shnsf.com

Chazz Palminteri excavates his childhood in his one-man show A Bronx Tale, at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre through Oct. 19. Photo by Joan Marcus

Chazz Palminteri offers a `Bronx’ cheer
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Watching Chazz Palminteri come to life on stage in his one-man show A Bronx Tale, you realize how limiting movies can be.

Palminteri has made dozens of films, from The Usual Suspects to Bullets Over Broadway to the upcoming Yonkers Joe, and we haven’t begun to see nearly the shadings and colors and vitality onscreen that we see on stage at the Golden Gate Theatre.

Palminteri has been typecast by Hollywood as a tough guy, a gangster, a lawyer, a mean father – but he’s got a lot more to offer, as he demonstrates in this showcase piece, originally developed in 1989 when he was a starving actor, just fired from a bouncer job. The play did the trick, and his movie career ignited.

Robert DeNiro made his directorial debut with the movie version of A Bronx Tale, in which Palminteri starred, and now the actor has taken the story of his childhood and teen years back to the stage and to cities around the country.

In the movie version of Bronx, which tells the story of 9-yearold Calogero (later nicknamed C, even later nicknamed Chazz) witnessing a mafia murder from his front stoop at 187^th Street and Belmont Avenue and his ensuing friendship with the murderer, neighborhood mob boss Sonny, Palminteri played Sonny.

It’s a cool, powerful performance. Palminteri is tough and still and more than a little scary. On stage, when Sonny is one of 18 characters Palminteri brings to life, the gangster is much livelier, more loose-limbed, not quite so imposing. In other words, he’s more human.

Oddly, Palminteri’s gallery of Bronx rogues is cartoonish for sure – even the names such as Eddie Mush, Frankie Coffecake, JoJo the Whale, Jimmy 10to2 evoke cartoon images – but it’s somehow more believable than the movie, more human.

On a set meant to evoke the fragments of memory – designer James Noone gives us a little bit of Calogero’s tenement, the neon and front window of the Chez Joey bar and a streetlight – Palminteri takes us from age 9, when he witnesses the murder and refuses to rat Sonny out to the cops, to age 17, when he’s the young lord of the ‘hood because he’s Sonny’s kid.

Palminteri is a commanding storyteller – physical and funny.

Director Jerry Zaks paces the 95-minute show well, and there’s a nice build to a fateful night that involves racial violence, romance and a long, slow goodbye. The build-up to the big finish is expertly staged by Zaks and performed by Palminteri, who grabs hold of his audience in ways the movie version never could.

If the show has a flaw, it’s the slickness. Palminteri is entertaining and fun to watch, but the emotional connection doesn’t run as deep as it could. This is a very polished production. Palminteri hits all the right notes and punctuates his story with handclaps to keep the audience alert, but this “Tale” seems more practiced than felt much of the time.
FOR MORE INFORMATION

A Bronx Tale runs Sept. 23 through Oct. 19 at the Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor St., San Francisco. Tickets are $40-$85. Call 415-512-7770 or visit www.shnsf.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

Greg MacKellan and has cast and crew for Irma LaDouce are finding out what the expression “the show must go on” really means.

A mere week before the first preview performances of the 1950s musical, leading man Steve Rhyne (pictured right with Bill Fahrner (center) and Alison Ewing (left), staring as Nestor Le Fripe, a law student who falls in love with the titular lovable streetwalker, injured his knee fairly severely and would not be able to perform – at least for previews and opening weekend.

MacKellan, co-founding artistic director of 42^nd Street Moon and director of Irma, says he has never experienced a situation like this in the 15 years of his company’s existence.

“It’s such a good show, and we’ve been wanting to do it for such a long time,” MacKellan says, “and Steve is so good in the part. We’re working it out, but I’m anxious for Steve to get back.”

Kyle Payne, who was in the ensemble playing multiple roles (and a veteran of Oh, My Godmother!), has stepped into Rhyne’s role, and another member of the ensemble, is filling in for Payne. That leaves the cast a man short with no time to fill the role before performances begin.

“It’s a big upheaval,” MacKellan says, “but Kyle is pretty amazing. Three days after he started, he was off book for Act 1. It’s been a huge thing for the cast to adjust to, but they’ve been rocks.”

All the angst is unfortunate, especially in view of the fact that “Irma” has been a long time coming.

Most people know the name Irma LaDouce from the 1963 Billy Wilder-directed film starring Shirley MacLaine and Jack Lemmon. But that film bears only a surface resemblance to the stage musical created by composer Marguerite Monnot (who wrote songs for Edith Piaf) and book and lyrics writer Alexandre Breffort.

“The essentials of the plot are the same,” MacKellan says, “but the songs, cut from the movie, are the best parts of the show. The stage version isn’t as crass as the movie, in fact the musical isn’t crass at all. It’s very sweetly done – like an adult fairy tale, very romantic and with a sense of joie de vivre. The movie doesn’t have that at all.”

A sensation in Paris in the mid-’50s, Irma moved to London in 1958 with new book and lyrics by Julian More, David Heneker and Monty Norman. The show was a hit in English as well and then headed to Broadway in 1960, where it won a Tony Award for leading lady Elizabeth Seal.

MacKellan has been trying to get the rights to Irma for years, but they have been unavailable since the last major production – for the San Francisco Civic Light Opera in 1978, a production that starred Priscilla Lopez (A Chorus Line) and Larry Kert (West Side Story).

“It was something about the French authors and their resentment of the English translation,” MacKellan says. “I’m not sure what it was all about, but the English version changed a lot of things, and then the movie didn’t even use the songs, except a couple of them and then only as background. But about 10 or 11 years ago, all the English authors had died, and something about the contract sent everything back to the French authors to decide what was to be done. Last fall, a new attorney took over the estate, and eventually we got a call asking us if we wanted to do it.”

Though MacKellan and company are performing the Broadway version of “Irma,” which is the only version licensed in this country, he says he’s trying to make the show more the way it was in England.

“With each incarnation, the show has gotten a little bit bigger,” MacKellan says. “The original French production was small, rather dark and very intimate. It became something else in England then in New York, it was a big Broadway show where you listen to the overture and get excited. But it’s not that kind of show. For obvious reasons – our theater, our stage – our production will be more intimate.”

Irma is also notable, in 42^nd Street Moon terms, because it’s the third production in the company’s evolution from presenting concert versions of musicals – with scripts in hand – to presenting more fully produced versions of shows.

“We ascribed to the notion that people should now it’s a concert for a long, long time,” MacKellan says. “But it was time to refresh the idea of what we’re doing, to reconnect with what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.”

A fuller production – no scripts, pieces of sets, props – can be challenging in the tight confines of the Eureka Theatre with precious little backstage space.

“We’re finding our way into this new way of doing things, but people seem to really enjoy it,” MacKellan says. “The binders are gone for good.”

Though 42^nd Street Moon has been known for dusting off some truly dusty old shows that have been lost, forgotten or in dire need of being pieced back together, the company’s fresh approach could include some newer shows.

“(Co-artistic director) Stephanie (Rhoades) and I feel that there are so many people out there writing new musicals that don’t get the opportunity to see them produced,” MacKellan explains. “These shows need a chance, and it’s time to let people see them. In this economy it’s harder than ever for people to get new musicals done. We’re planning on a new show for the 2009-10 season. We did one thing fairly well and opened people’s eyes to this huge history of the American musical theater that they didn’t even know existed. We still intend to do that, but it’s time to bring it forward to now.”

Irma LaDouce previews today (Sept. 25) and Friday, Sept. 26 and opens Saturday, Sept. 27. The show continues through Oct. 12 at the Eureka Theatre, 215 Jackson St., San Francisco. Tickets are $24-$42. Call 415-255-8207 or visit www.42ndstmoon.org

The cast of “Best of Fringe” Award-winning Lost and Found in the Mission includes (from left) Rowena Richie, Susie Hara, Carol Landes, Joan D. Saunders, Peter Griggs and Jocelyn Truitt. The play won the “best ensemble” award and will receive an encore performance on Friday, Sept. 26. Photo by Borys Prozak

They came, they fringed, they conquered.

The 17thannual San Francisco Fringe Festival closed its 12-day marathon run Sept. 14, and the 20 “Best of the Fringe” award-winners are basking in their glory after having been chosen from 46 participating shows. Here are the winners, and you’ll find at the bottom of the list, an opportunity for you to partake in some of the cream of the fringe crop.

Best of the 2008 San Francisco Fringe Festival

• Best Musical: “EXIT Sign: A Rock Opera,” Supersonic Theatre, San Francisco
• Best Female Solo, “The Punchline,” Alicia Dattner, San Francisco
• Best Solo Male Comedy and Techie’s Choice Award: “On Second Thought,” Paul Hutcheson, Toronto, Ont.
• Best Performance: “True Theatre Critic,” Omar Sangare, Warsaw, Poland
• Best Poet: “Monkey Poet: Big Brown Number Two,” Matt Panesh, Manchester, UK
• Best Site Specific Show: “Theatre That Moves,” Hugi the Great, San Francisco
• Best Cameo Performance: Jane Entwhistle in “The Nanny,” The Ukulady’s Ponyshow, Los Angeles
• Best Sketch Comedy & Best Box Office: “Exotic Messages,” OPM, Los Angeles
• Best Dance Performance: “Identity Crisis,” inFluxdance, Charlottesville, VA
• Best Comedy: “Peg-Ass-Us,” Pack of Others, Brooklyn, NY
• Best Performance Art: “The Iron Muffin/Glass Jungle II,” Sha Sha Higby, Bolinas, CA
• Best Showcase: “Open Season: A Queer Performance Showcase,” The Garage & The Queer Cultural Center, San Francisco
• Best Clown Ensemble: “After-Party,” Pi: The Physical Comedy Troupe, Santa Cruz, CA
• Best Ensemble Performance: “Lost and Found in the Mission,” Boathouse & Co. Performance, San Francisco
• Best Play & Overall Production: “Knuckleball,” End Times Productions, New York, NY
• Best Local Production: “Loving Fathers,” J.B. Enterprises, San Francisco
• Best Literary Staging: “Late Night with the Boys: Confessions of a Leather Bar Chanteuse,” Alex Bond, Ridgefield Park, NJ
• Best Postcard: “Along the Path of Larks and Swallows,” Chaotic Heart/Mia Paschal, San Francisco

Encore performances of four of the “best” shows will be staged Sept. 26 and 27 at EXIT Theatre, 156 Eddy St., San Francisco. Tickets for each show are $20, and all proceeds go to support the 2009 San Francisco Fringe Festival scheduled for next September.

On Friday Sept. 26^th: 7:00 p.m. – “EXIT Sign: A Rock Opera”; 8:30 p.m. – “Lost and Found in the Mission”

On Saturday Sept. 27^th: 6:30 p.m. – “Loving Fathers”; 8:30 p.m. – “The Punchline”

Call the fringe hotline at 415-673-3847. Visit www.sffringe.org.

Megan Hilty (left), Allison Janney (center) and Stephanie J. Block in the world premiere of 9 to 5: The Musical at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles Music Center. The show opened amid a set snafu and abundant celebrity sightings. Photo by Craig Schwartz

What a way to make a livin’!

Yes, Dolly Parton, one of the world’s supreme people, can now add Broadway composer to her resume…almost. Her stage musical version of 9 to 5, the movie in which she starred with Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda and Dabney Coleman, opened Saturday at the Center Theatre Group/Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles Music Center and will head to Broadway next spring.

Luckily for all of us, Theater Dogs had an on-the-spot dog. We’ll call him/her Sport, and we trust his/her reporting acumen 100 percent.

The big news of the evening was that the set broke. Take it away, Sport:

Yes, the set broke. Apparently, this is a recurring issue. It’s a big, complicated thing, embroidered with trapdoors and moving scenery and a pretty cool dinosaur-esque copy machine. It malfunctioned the first night of previews and Dolly did a bit of impromptu entertainment for the crowd. It also broke Saturday (in a different spot). Big-time cynics speculate it was a publicity stunt (wink wink), but I honestly don’t think so. Dolly didn’t pop up right away; she sat for a bit, chatting with Jane, Lily and Dabney Coleman. Finally, someone brought her a mic and she led a completely awesome “9 to 5″ sing-along. Cheers, cheers! Then she vamped for a few minutes more, saying that it’s a good thing she’s “a big show-off” and able to fill the time. She was about to launch into another number when an usher informed her the set was fixed. Everyone protested, but she told them she’d get to another song when the set broke again. (It didn’t.) Oh, also, she mentioned that someone asked her why she, Jane and Lily weren’t starring in this…she said, “I told them it’s still called 9 to 5…not 95!”

9 to 5: The Musical cast members include (from left) Marc Kudisch (as Franklin Hart), Megan Hilty (as Doralee Rhodes), Stephanie J. Block (as Judy Bernley), the one-and-only Dolly Parton (music and lyrics) and Allison Janney (as Violet Newstead). Photo by Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging

Here’s what our gal/guy-on-the scene though about the show itself:

It’s a lot of fun. The songs are snappy and delicious. Allison Janney is leggy and lovely and obviously having a blast, but in the end, it’s really Megan Hilty and Stephanie J. Block who get the show-stoppers. Both are excellent. The crowd LOVED it and it seems like it could have a pretty successful Broadway run, as long as they get that set fixed. Either that, or they’re going to have to incorporate Dolly into every performance!

Exciting. Too bad the out-of-town tryout wasn’t in San Francisco.

If you’re so inspired, there’s still time to catch 9 to 5: The Musical. It runs through through Oct. 19. For tickets, call (213) 628-2772 or visit www.CenterTheatreGroup.org.

From the vaults of YouTube — an intrepid opening-night audience member named Ryan O’Connor caught Miss Dolly’s impromptu performance during the set difficulties on camera (sort of — the usher kept interfering). But it’s still pretty cool:

Here’s more (10 minutes more) from a very enthusiastic Ryan O’Connor with his BFF, Tony-winner Marissa Jaret Winokur, who apparently attended opening night together (total dirt about John Lloyd Young and Lea Michele, he of Jersey Boys and she of Spring Awakening, are dating!):

SAD NEWS! After I posted the article below, I received a press release stating that for health reasons, Carol Channing has had to cancel her San Francisco performances this week. This is the first time she’s ever had to cancel a performance.

“It’s a painful and temporary set back,” Channing said in a statement. “This week was to be the launch of the statewide campaign to bring back the teaching of the arts in the public schools and that I can’t be there hurts almost as bad as my injury. I promise to return to San Francisco in the future. There is no better city to help us begin raising awareness with regard to the necessity for Arts programs in education.”

“On behalf of everyone at the Museum of Performance & Design, we wish Miss Channing a healthy and speedy recovery,” said David Humphrey, Director of the Museum of Performance & Design. “We look forward to Carol visiting the Museum in the near future to see the incredible exhibit celebrating her life and work as one of America’s great Broadway treasures.”

The museum is still going ahead with the opening of its Channing exhibit.

Refunds for the concert are available by calling City Box Office at (415) 392-4400.

The Theatre Rhinoceros benefit will now be hosted by Darryl Stephens (Noah from Logo Channel’s “Noah’s Arc” and the up-coming feature film “Noah’s Arc: Jumping the Broom” — in theaters Oct. 24th).

Now here’s the article…

Stopping Carol Channing from working would be as impossible as preventing Dolly Levi from sashaying down the steps of the Harmonia Gardens.

At 87, Channing, the winner of three Tony Awards and a legend for her more than 5,000 performances in the title role of the musical Hello, Dolly! is still hard at work. She and her husband, childhood sweetheart Harry Kullijian (Channing’s fourth husband), have created the Dr. Carol Channing & Harry Kullijian Foundation for the Arts, a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving arts education in California schools.

“Art is so important for students. It fertilizes their brains,” says Channing in that unmistakable, oft-imitated voice. We’ve been going all around the state lecturing at high schools and universities about the importance of the arts. But we hear from the teachers about how programs get cut.”

Channing recalls hearing from a kindergarten teacher who said that she sees the children come into the classroom, eager to learn, make new friends and discover wonderful things.

“Then,” Channing says, “without arts programs, the teachers watch the students’ little brains disintegrate. The teachers got tears in their eyes telling me about this in San Diego. These teachers watch as the students lose interest slowly, and by the time they’re in high school, they’re into all kinds of trouble.”

So Channing and Kullijian are doing what they can to remedy what they see as a dire situation if arts remain out of touch for young people. On Thursday, Sept. 25, Channing headlines in Hello, Carol! A Celebration of Carol Channing at San Francisco’s Herbst Theatre. The gala concert will feature special guest Carole Cook and the California Pops Orchestra.

The evening will serve as a formal launch of a major fundraising effort for Channing and Kullijian’s foundation and its public awareness campaign about the arts in education.

“The goal is not to create artists, necessarily,” Kullijian adds. “The focal point of this project is to bring arts back into the curriculum in California. We need to think of younger people with a more holistic attitude. They’re growing up in a tough world, and the competition is keen. We need a lot of people intelligent people who also have art and culture. We need to upgrade our educational system to compete in the world. It’s going to get tougher. Carol knows this – she’s paid the price, so to speak, to be the messenger. She does love young people and the arts, and she has these broad arms that encompass so many and so much.”

While she’s back in her hometown this week, Channing will also be stopping by Theatre Rhinoceros to make an appearance at their gala benefit at the Levende Lounge on Tuesday, Sept. 23. She’ll judge a Carol Channing lookalike contest (finalists were selected during “Project Channing: America’s Next Top (Drag) Carol!” at the Truck Bar), and the audience will enjoy food, cocktails, a silent auction and a performance from the original cast of Up Jumped Springtime – Coleman Domingo, Da’Mon Vann and Brian Yates-Sharber.

As if two Channing events weren’t enough, there’s a third, and it’s doozy: the Museum of Performance & Design has mounted the first major retrospective exhibition ever mounted on the life of Channing. The exhibit, which includes the original red Hello, Dolly! dress, among many other articles from Channing’s personal collection, opens Friday, Sept. 26 and continues through March 14.

Though she’s delighted by all the attention, Channing always brings the conversation back to the arts and how important they were to her as a young person and how she’ll do everything she can to increase students’ exposure to and involvement in the arts.

“You hear stories about a father not wanting his son to be a dancer or a painter because it’s not practical and he’ll starve to death,” Channing says. “The child goes to university and the father says take a business course and focus on reading, writing and ‘rithmetic so you can support your family. But those aren’t the students getting the jobs. The ones who get the jobs are the ones exposed to the arts. Once you’re exposed to the arts, the whole world looks like art. Harry and I are witnesses to that.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

• Tickets for the kick-off concert for Hello, Carol! A Celebration of Carol Channing are $30-$125. The show is at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25 at the Herbst Theatre, 401 Van Ness Ave., San Francisco. Call 415-392-4400 or visit www.cityboxoffice.com.
• The exhibit Hello, Carol! A Celebration of Carol Channing runs from Friday, Sept. 26 through March 14 at the Museum of Performance & Design, 401 Van Ness Ave., fourth floor, San Francisco. Admission is free. Visit www.mpdsf.org for information.
• Theatre Rhinoceros’ gala benefit starring Carol Channing is at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 23 at the Levende Lounge, 1701 Mission St., San Francisco. Tickets are $100. Call 415-861-5079 or visit www.TheRhino.org for information.

Now here’s some wildness: Channing performing “That’s How Young I Feel” (from Mame) on “The Dean Martin Show” with Tommy Tune and the dancing ensemble from Broadway’s Seesaw.

Opened Sept. 19, 2008 at the Ashby Stage

Sean Owens (center) is Ocar Wilde in Shotgun Players’ production of Vera Wilde, a musical play by Chris Jeffries. Owens is flanked by (from left) Danielle Levin, Edward Brauer and Tyler Kent. Photos by Jessica Palopoli

Shotgun’s revolution in Russian, Irish, musical stripes

Oscar Wilde’s first play, you may be surprised to know, was not some clever, quippy piece of comic fluff. The aspiring young playwright tackled as his subject a young Russian woman named Vera Zasulich, who, in a fit of revolutionary pique, shot the St. Petersburg chief of police in protest of his treatment of her comrades in prison.

Vera freely admitted to the crime and wanted to go on trial to spread the word about why she committed an act of violence and raise awareness about the government’s shady dealings with outspoken citizens and the use of torture in prison.

The strategy worked. Vera’s case received national attention, and the jury acquitted her of the crime she actually committed.

Inspired by the young woman’s revolutionary verve, and holding the opinion that “agitators are a set of interfering, meddling people, who come down to some perfectly contented class of the community and sow the seeds of discontent, (which is) why agitators are so absolutely necessary,” Wilde wrote a play called Vera; or, The Nihilists. Wilde biographer Richard Ellmann describes “Vera” as “a wretched play.”

The play’s London premiere in 1881 was ultimately canceled because a play about the attempted assassination of the Russian Czar (Wilde elevated Vera’s target from police chief to big cheese) was not looked upon favorably in view of two actual assassinations: of Czar Alexander II and of U.S. President Garfield.

Still, Wilde did manage to get the play produced in New York, with a woman named Marie Prescott in the title role. Several newspapers proclaimed the play’s brilliance while the New York Times stated Wilde was “very much of a charlatan and wholly an amateur” and called the play “valueless.”

And so ends the chapter of Vera Zasulich in the life of Oscar Wilde…until now.

In 2002 Chris Jeffries premiered, of all things, a musical about the intersection of Vera Zasulich and Oscar Wilde at Seattle’s Empty Space Theatre called Vera Wilde, and now Shotgun Players is producing this “musical play” for which Jeffries wrote book, music and lyrics.

Jeffries seems hesitant to call Vera Wilde a musical because the word “musical” indicates frivolity, silliness and lack of credibility for serious subject matter. But he shouldn’t be so wary. His musical is intelligent, clever and bold with an appealing score and some standout songs.

The notion of mining the intersection between Vera and Oscar is an intriguing one, though their parallels dissipate after Act 1, which goes to some lengths to depict how their various trials – hers for attempted murder, his for “gross indecency” with young men – were sensational and, in their own ways, revolutionary.

Some confusion arises in director Maya Gurantz’s production as Vera’s timeline proceeds forward (from notoriety to obscurity) and Wilde’s proceeds backward (from post-prison shame and disgrace to talk of the town). Seemingly, when the two intersect the play should find its nexus of power, but that is not the case. The play is at its best during the parallel trial scenes of Act 1 and loses focus in Act 2 as Vera, in exile, becomes a forgotten revolutionary who, if we are to believe Jeffries, was eclipsed by her lover, Lenin, while Wilde emerges as London’s newest Irish toy – push a button on his overstuffed vest and a print-worthy epigram pops out. “I am the future come to laugh at your pretensions,” he says at one point.

Jeffries’ score (beautifully orchestrated by musical director Dave Malloy) is played by a superb quartet: Brendan West on banjo, Andre Nigoghossian on guitar, Hillary Overberg on violin and Simon Hanes on bass. The sound runs from Hot Club jazz to Jesus Christ Superstar anthem with many stops in between.

Two of the show’s best songs are the Russian peasant lament “Midnight in Russia” and a show-stopping glimpse into the disastrous American premiere of Wilde’s “Vera” called “That’s How a Show Should Go” expertly performed by Danielle Levin and Edward Brauer, members of the hard-working, three-person supporting cast (which also includes sweet-voiced Tyler Kent).

Alexandra Creighton as Vera and Sean Owens as Oscar both have moments of connection—especially in their trial scenes — but they struggle with the score, and there were significant pitch problems at Friday’s opening-night performance.

Vera Wilde is a wild idea, and the issues of an oppressive government vilifying the outspoken and taking advantage of terrorist acts to create a fear-driven police state are certainly resonant. This Shotgun production just needs to sing in a stronger voice.

Vera Wilde continues through Oct. 26 at the Ashby Stage, 1901 Ashby Ave., Berkeley. Tickets are $17-$25. Call 510-841-6500 or visit www.shotgunplayers.org for information.

BONUS SHOTGUN NEWS: At opening night of Vera Wilde Shotgun artistic director Patrick Dooley released four of the five plays he’ll be doing in the 2009 season: Mark Jackson’s Faust Part 1 (May-June); Jon Tracy’s adaptation of Animal Farm (August-September in John Hinkel Park); Marcus Gardley’s musical play This World in a Woman’s Hands about the Richmond Shipyard “Rosie the Riveter” workforce (September-October); and Susannah Martin’s production of The Three Penny Opera (December-January 2010).

Varla Jean Merman stars as vixenish Crystal Allen in Jungle Red, the musical parody of The Women at the Victoria Theatre. Photo by Austin Young

Cat fights and glamour: `Jungle Red’ sharpens its musical claws
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The timing (to say nothing of the gowns) is impeccable.

Back in the stone age of the ’90s, the enterprising Artfull Circle Theatre presented Mark Sargent and Richard Winchester’s
Jungle Red, the inevitable drag musical version of Clare Booth Luce’s The Women, the play/movie that excludes men from participating.

The musical was revived several years later and is back yet again, this time with the very legal-sounding “a musical parody” added as a subtitle. Of course the musical appears just as the new movie version of The Women is fading (and rightly so) from movie theaters.

Let’s just say this: watching drag queens prance through the story of Manhattan marital discord is a whole lot more fun than watching Meg Ryan and Annette Benning attempt to imbue the story with deep female mysteries and meaning.

Birdie-Bob Watt is back for a third time in the Norma Shearer role (we’re referring only to the original 1939 movie) of Mary Haines, the painfully nice wife of Stephen Haines, who is philandering with a lowly perfume clerk at Saks named Crystal Allen.

Now Crystal is always a reason to see any production of The Women (except for the new movie – Eva Mendes is a washout). Joan Crawford lent her lips and shoulders to the role in ‘39, and now we have the considerable curves of Varla Jean Merman to flesh out the role. Merman is reason enough to see this production, though she doesn’t quite get enough stage time. Her big number, “Jungle Red,” is pure Ann-Margret, and her bathtub scene, complete with surprising props, is a hoot.

Donna Drake’s production is an up-and-down affair. Sometimes the comic timing is sharp, other times it’s quite dull. The staging is rudimentary at best, but that helps focus attention on the terrific gowns and costumes by Mr. David and the wigs by Jordan L’Moore. There’s an amateurish quality to the production, but that also drains it of pretention and allows it to be a little more reckless. Reckless drag queens, to be sure, are funny drag queens.

Sargent’s score has some treats – “Zips Up the Back No Bone” has always been my favorite tune – and he saves a doozy for himself. Sargent, performing under the drag appellation Ethel Merman, plays the Countess de Lage and gets to trill “L’Amour” with gusto. And this production boasts some attractive vocal arrangements by Joe Collins (who also, under the nom de drag Trauma Flintstone, plays several sharply etched roles including the ever-pregnant Mrs. Potter).

Katya Smirnoff-Skyy plays Sylvia Fowler (the Rosalind Russell role) with Roz-esque fervor, and Markie de Sade in a number of roles makes a strong impression in a gold, crotch-crunching gown as Broadway hoofer Miriam Aarons. Henna Rintz squeezes laughs out of moving what little furniture there is on stage, and CoCo Royale plays sweet Peggy, well, sweetly.

Jungle Red is a fizzy delight, but when it really roars, these women are fierce.

Jungle Red continues through Oct. 4 at the Victoria Theatre, 2961 16^th St., San Francisco. Tickets are $30-$40. Visit www.victoriatheatre.org for information.

If your name was Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri, you might simplify to Chazz, too.

Chazz Palminteri has made a career of playing thugs, gangsters, wiseguys and goombahs – maybe those are all the same thing, but with Palminteri, at least you get a little range. There’s serious bad guy, as in Diabolique, the comic bad guy, as in Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway, and then there’s the slick, scary gangster, as in Robert DeNiro’s A Bronx Tale.

The 56-year-old Palminteri is taking a break from screen roles to head back to the stage in the one-man play he wrote for himself back in 1988, when it seemed the only jobs he could find were as slick attorneys and assorted tough guys.

The play was A Bronx Tale, which opened off Broadway and sparked Palminteri’s ascension to stardom. Semi-autobiographical, this Tale chronicled Palminteri’s rough childhood growing up on East 187^th Street in the early ’60s. “Any other borough,” he says, “seemed 3,000 miles away.”

Sonny was the No. 1 man in the neighborhood, a God to the ordinary folks who feared and revered him. When he was 9-years-old, little Calogero witnessed Sonny gun down a man in the street, but when questioned by the cops, the boy protected Sonny by saying nothing.

From that moment, the boy is pulled by the two men in his life: his father, Lorenzo, a hardworking bus driver, and Sonny, the glamorous thug who nicknames him “C.”

A Bronx Tale, in which Palminteri plays all 18 parts, was a hit, and the movie roles started coming.

About 20 years later, Palminteri is back on stage. He revived A Bronx Tale and took it to Broadway last year. Now he’s on the road and brings the show to San Francisco’s Golden Gate Theatre as part of the SHN/Best of Broadway series. The show opens Tuesday, Sept. 23 and continues through Oct. 19.

On the phone from Austin, Texas, the first tour stop, Palminteri answered a few questions about his life and career.

How did a kid from the Bronx end up as an actor?

When I was about 10 years old, I just knew I wanted to be an actor. I remember watching On the Waterfront on TV thinking, “I could do that!” I just wanted to be an actor for as long as I could remember. I was a storyteller. I’d make up stories on the corner then go tell ‘em to the wiseguys. I’m 10 and 11 making people laugh. My mom used to take me to the movies a lot. When I got older, I saw a few plays downtown at the 13^th Street Theatre. I knew I could do it.

How did folks in the old neighborhood react to your career choice?

I was a total maverick in the neighborhood. Usually kids became cops, firemen, wiseguys, sanitation engineers, things like that. I was blessed with parents who said, “Go for it. If you have a dream, dream it.” I say this in the play, but it’s true. My father told me, “The saddest thing in life is wasted talent.” The people in the neighborhood laugh. They say, “You used to tell stories for free on the corner. Now we have to pay.”

Most people probably aren’t aware that one of your early jobs was as a singer in your own band, Chazzamatazz.

Yeah, I started singing on the street corner with an a cappella group. Some wiseguy asked me to sing onstage in this bar. Then I got my own band. I still sing. I look forward to singing on Broadway one day.

Speaking of singing, you and the songwriter Jimmy Webb attempted to turn A Bronx Tale into a musical. How’s that going?

For whatever reason, we couldn’t make it work. Jimmy Webb is an incredible songwriter. I love him. He’s a great man. But the music and the book just couldn’t…come to a good conclusion.

So now you’ve made something like 50 movies and you’re back doing A Bronx Tale. Why’d you bring it back?

I’ve done all these movies, and when people come talk to me, it’s always about A Bronx Tale. That’s why I decided to bring the play back. A whole new generation never saw the play. People tell me they love the movie and it changed their kid’s life – he was on a bad road and is now on the straight and narrow. On Broadway, people after the show told me the show changed their life or their kid’s life. So I want to go out on the road and bring it to other people. And I’ll add that people who love the movie say the play’s better.

You’ve come back to the play as a father yourself (son Dante Lorenzo is about to be 13 and daughter Gabriella Rose is 6). How does that affect you as a performer?

When I first did the play, I was a boy relating to the father. Now I’m that father relating to the son. It’s pretty amazing. The show has a deeper meaning for me now. Right after Broadway, my father, Lorenzo, passed away. He had a beautiful life – he was gonna be 90. The play has triple meaning for me now. My father loved the show. He liked to say, “I’m the real Lorenzo. DeNiro is playing me!”

Why do you think A Bronx Tale is so loved by so many people who have probably never set foot in the Bronx?

It’s a universal story. Anywhere I go, people are laughing and rolling and reacting. It’s a coming-of-age story, a father-son story. There’s racism. It’s got everything. Like Woody Allen said: “It’s all about the story.”

A Bronx Tale runs Sept. 23 through Oct. 19 at the Golden Gate Theatre, 1 Taylor St., San Francisco. Tickets are $40-$85. Call 415-512-7770 or visit www.shnsf.com or www.ticketmaster.com.

PLEASE NOTE: Palminteri will take part in a Q&A following a screening of Bullets Over Broadway on Monday, Sept. 22 at the Castro Theatre, 429 Castro St., San Francisco. The movie is at 7 p.m. and yours truly will serve as moderator for the event. Hope to see you there. Call 415-621-6120 for information.