Saturday, September 28, 2019
Photo Flash: IN CIRCLES at Odyssey Theatre
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| Jacque Lynn Colton (center) with Henry Arber, Aaron Jung, Chloe Haven, P.T. Mahoney, Shelby Corley, Ashlee Dutson and Kyle G. Fuller. All photos by Enci Box |
Adapted from Gertrude Stein’s A Circular Play, In Circles is part of Odyssey Theatre Ensemble’s 50th Anniversary “Circa ’69 Season” and is directed by David Schweizer, with musical direction by Kenneth J. Grimes and choreography by Kate Coleman. In Circles takes Stein’s nonlinear prose, based solely on her pleasure at the way certain words sounded together, and sets them to a splendid musical score featuring ragtime, tango, waltz, opera, barbershop quartet, jazz and other musical styles. Origina1 1968 off-Broadway cast member Jacque Lynn Colton stars. For tickets and more information go to www.odysseytheatre.com.
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| Jacque Lynn Colton |
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| Jacque Lynn Colton, P.T. Mahoney, Ashlee Dutson and Henry Arber |
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| P.T. Mahoney, Kyle G. Fuller and Jacque Lynn Colton |
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| Shelby Corley, Chloe Haven, Ashlee Dutson, Jacque Lynn Colton, Henry Arber, Aaron Jung, Kyle G. Fuller and P.T. Mahoney |
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| Henry Arber and Ashlee Dutson |
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| P.T. Mahoney and Kyle G. Fuller |
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| Ashlee Dutson, Aaron Jung, Chloe Haven, Jacque Lynn Colton, P.T. Mahoney, and Kyle G. Fuller |
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| Ashlee Dutson, Shelby Corley, Chloe Haven, Jacque Lynn Colton, Kyle G. Fuller, Henry Arber, Aaron Jung and P.T. Mahoney |
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| Ashlee Dutson and Jacque Lynn Colton |
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Labels: odyssey theatre
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
Musical News Coming Your Way
Check out what's happening in Southern California and go see a show!
I DIG ROCK AND ROLL MUSIC
Tonight, Rubicon Theatre Company opens its updated encore run of I Dig Rock and Roll Musical, last year’s world premiere sequel to Lonesome Traveler. Directed by James O’Neil, it features an all-new cast starring Yvette Cason, Harley Jay, Beau Moore, Charlotte Morris, and Scott Anthony. The celebration of folk-rock then and now is a theatrical concert highlighting songs from 1965 through the 1970s made famous by Peter, Paul and Mary; The Mamas and the Papas; Joni Mitchell; The Association; Otis Redding; Cat Stevens; The Youngbloods; The Beatles; and many others, along with original songs of passion and protest inspired by the era written by Noel Paul Stookey (of Peter, Paul and Mary), and other members of the group. Conceived by Ovation winner and Rubicon co-founder James O’Neil, Lifetime Grammy Award-winner George Grove, and LADCC-winner/Tony nominee Dan Wheetman with musical direction by Scott Anthony, and arrangements by George Grove and the performers. You can rock out now through Sept 29th. www.rubicontheatre.org
South Coast Repertory’s 56th season opens with American Mariachi by José Cruz González. The comedy with live music follows Lucha, whose loving gesture for her dying mother becomes much more as a group of young women learns to dream big and embrace the transcendent power of music. Lucha’s ailing mother no longer responds to much—except for a mysterious old record of mariachi music that Lucha finds in the house. Yearning for a purpose and determined to give her mother something to care about, Lucha and her cousin, Boli, decide to assemble an all-female mariachi troupe. But it’s the 1970s and women can’t be mariachis...or can they? Be sure to check the website for a list of pre-show performances and post-show talkbacks. www.scr.org/AmericanMariachi
Musical Theatre Guild opens its 24th season with Cy Coleman’s Barnum on Sept. 22nd at the Alex Theatre in Glendale. Kirby Ward stars as P.T. Barnum with Tracy Lore as Charity Barnum and features MTG company members Matt Braver, Mathew Patrick Davis, Kelley Dorney, Jeffrey Scott Parsons and Glenn Shiroma and guest artists Jasime Ejan and Regina LaVert. Alan Bailey directs, musical direction is by Jan Roper, and choreography is by Cheryl Baxter. Tickets are available at www.alextheatre.org or by calling 818-243-ALEX.
Second City Hollywood is currently running a new 45-minute improvised musical production inspired by the suggestion of a historical figure. Think Drunk History meets Hamilton and you’ll get the idea. Improvisors Annie Bond, Andrew Young, Andy Apuy, Eric Pastore, Cherelle Patrice, Tess Gattuso, Mary Lou Kolbenschlag, Sara Caplan, Angela Giarratana and Scott Thiede fuse the art of long-form improv comedy with musical theater while paying homage to bio-musicals like Evita and Hamilton. Musical direction is by Tony Gonzalez. The next show is 9/18. May contain mature themes and strong language. Hey, it’s improv after all. Secondcity.com/NightBiopera
Also opening at Second City on Sept. 20th is this summer’s Fringe hit Supportive White Parents, by Joy Regullano (book & lyrics) and Sam & Tony Show (music). When an Asian girl tells her parents that she doesn’t want to be a doctor anymore, she wishes on a shooting star for supportive white parents. The cast includes Earl Baylon, Gina D’Acciaro, Kaitlyn Fae, Spencer Frankeberger, Jaq Galliano, Mary Grant, Aryiel Hartman, Marcel Licera, Mary Lou, Scott Palmason, Joy Regullano, Jim Shipley, Greg Smith, Giselle “G” Töngi, Reuben Uy, and Rob Warner, directed by Frank Caeti and featuring choreography by Ally Vega. More at www.secondcity.com/shows/hollywood
On October 19th, the Colony Theatre in Burbank will present an evening of Broadway stars singing The Music of Brian Gallagher. Scheduled to appear are Megan Hilty, Carly Hughes, Matt Cusson, and Carrie Manolakos, with more artists to be announced. The evening will feature music from Gallagher’s concept album Brownstone for the first time on the west coast. Admission is $45 with $60 VIP tickets available (includes a post-show meet and greet with the artists). Tickets are available at www.colonytheatre.org or by calling 866-811-4111.
Join International City Theatre for an intimate evening with legendary jazz songstress Billie Holiday when they present Lanie Robertson’s glorious musical portrait of one of the greatest jazz and blues vocalists of all time. Starring Karole Foreman in the title role, and with music direction by Stephan Terry and Ebony Rep founding artistic director Wren T. Brown directing, Lady Day takes the audience through what will be Holiday’s last performance in a seedy Philadelphia bar in 1959. Foreman performs more than a dozen of her best loved songs including “God Bless the Child,” “Crazy He Calls Me,” “T’ain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do” and “Strange Fruit.” Oct. 18 – Nov. 3. Tickets: ICTlongbeach.org.
Adapted from Gertrude Stein’s A Circular Play, this unique musical journey is part of Odyssey Theatre Ensemble’s 50th Anniversary “Circa ’69 Season” and is directed by David Schweizer, with musical direction by Kenneth J. Grimes and choreography by Kate Coleman. In Circles takes Stein’s nonlinear prose, based solely on her pleasure at the way certain words sounded together, and sets them to a splendid musical score featuring ragtime, tango, waltz, opera, barbershop quartet, jazz and other musical styles. Odyssey’s ensemble will feature original 1968 off-Broadway cast member Jacque Lynn Colton, along with Henry Arber, Shelby Corley, Ashlee Dutson, Kyle Fuller, Chloe Haven, Aaron Jung and P.T. Mahoney. For tickets and more information go to www.odysseytheatre.com.
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Labels: colony theatre, international city theatre, musical theatre guild, odyssey theatre, rubicon theatre, second city hollywood, south coast repertory
Thursday, May 25, 2017
MUSICAL NEWS for Thursday, May 25, 2017
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Labels: art in relation, hff17, hollywood pantages, la mirada theatre, odyssey theatre, redcat, ucla tft
Sunday, July 7, 2013
La Petite Review: IONESCOPADE: A Musical Vaudeville
Ionescopade, an episodic vaudeville for 7 actors and 3 musicians is a fast-paced comically driven entertainment based on the writings of Eugene Ionesco that runs through August 11 at the Odyssey Theatre in West LA. It is absurdist theatre at its laser-focused finest; a musical escapade that points up the pointless in life in a highly-stylized come-and-get-it fashion.
An excellent ensemble (Andrew Ableson, Joey D’Auria, Christina Gerla, Kelly Lester, Tom Lowe and Jennifer Malenke) performs tightly choreographed sequences connected by a silent clown revealed as the writer (Alan Abelew), who guides the audience with a twinkle in his eye and magic in his fingertips. Think fast, or don’t think at all, as you observe the changing tone of the pieces and begin to experience the madness. You’ll have your favorites among them. Mine included The Cooking Lesson, Madeleine, The Peace Conference, Bobby Watson’s ballerina sequence and wacky tap number, Wipe Out Games, and sections from The Bald Soprano. Bizarre, horrifying, gripping and funny as hell, you won’t find another show like it in L.A.
Through August 11, 2013
Taken from the works of Eugene Ionesco
Original concept by Robert Allan Ackerman
Music and lyrics by Mildred Kayden
Directed and choreographed by Bill Castellino
Musical direction by Gerald Sternbach
Produced by Ron Sossi
Tickets: www.odysseytheatre.com
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Labels: odyssey theatre
Sunday, May 19, 2013
IONESCOPADE: On the Edge of Madness with Bill Castellino
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| Joey D'Auria and Alan Abelew in Ionescopade. 2013 Photos by Ron Sossi |
Bill Castellino returns to the Odyssey Theatre this month to direct and choreograph Ionescopade, based on the work of playwright Eugène Ionesco (Rhinoceros, The Bald Soprano, Exit the King); a project that reunites him with his old pal, musical director Gerald Sternbach. The pair originally collaborated on the west coast premiere of Ionescopade in 1981[pictured below]. That production was so successful that it ran for almost ten months, receiving both LA Weekly and Drama-Logue awards.
Then in 1995 Castellino directed Lilianne Montevecchi and Ron Holgate in a revival at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington D.C., and last year he directed the Off-Broadway Alliance award-nominated York Theatre production, for which he also received a Lucille Lortel nomination for Best Choreographer. On May 31st, the Odyssey will open a revitalized, updated version of the show and the circle will be complete.
Bill describes the show as a zany musical vaudeville featuring mime, farce and parody – all balanced on the edge of madness, taken from the plays, playlets and poetry of ‘Theatre of the Absurd.’ I asked him what it was like to revisit a production like this over a period of years and how his thoughts have changed about it in that time.
“Writing in the shadow of the great war, the holocaust, the Nazi occupation of Paris and the atom bomb, Ionesco channeled his personal reactions (which may have been fear, anger, insecurity, terror) through language, humor, and observation. He suggests that humanity when faced with the direst of circumstance, will not only survive but perhaps even thrive, learn, and laugh. Ionescopade gives us a sampler of his insights. Here we are in a ‘post 9-11 world’ that views war, terror, paranoia, and fear differently than a ‘post WW2 world’ did - and then again those dark thoughts and upsetting conditions are somehow the same. Each time I revisit the show, I find new dimensions that unite humanity through time and still allow us our own moment on this planet.”
He adds that, over the years, Mildred Kayden (composer, lyricist & co-conceiver) continued to tweak the work. “Ionescopade is made of short plays, playlets, journal entries, and songs inspired by Ionesco’s characters. When reviving the piece, Kayden (sometimes with me) changed the order, made cuts, and substituted plays, keeping the overall concept of an Ionesco ‘sampler presented in vaudeville format’ intact. So, not only is the show a great piece of art that remains relevant and insightful, as the play-maker continued to morph it - it could even more deftly reflect the current world conditions.”
So what is the best way to view a work like this and make sense out of its many seemingly nonsensical pieces? For Bill, “the best way to experience this wacky, odd, and singular theatre event is like walking through a gallery.... you look at one of the works, experience it, allow it to touch you - then move on to the next and then the next. I think allowing each episode to make an impression is more valuable than trying to understand each one in the moment. Laugh and get provoked in the theatre; think about it and figure it out later.
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| Joey D'Auria, Kelly Lester and Alan Abelew (2013) |
Most importantly, Ionescopade is funny - sometimes just plain silly (like life can be), and sometimes hilarious, as we look at our own behaviors when in love, in conversation, or in shock. The show never fails to provoke thought, offer insight, and make us laugh at ourselves. It stitches together the hijinx of modern clowns, the beauty of lofty language, and the innocence of human nature, with a keen observation of our challenges, triumphs, and shortcomings.
The internet speed at which we live redefines ‘non-sequitor.’ Our cultural obsession with celebrity and all the details of stars’ lives redefines ‘absurd.’ Ionesco insists that the best way to cope is through humor – isn’t that a good idea?”
Ionescopade runs May 31 – August 11, 2013 at the Odyssey Theatre located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles, 90025. For reservations and ticket information, call (310) 477-2055 or go to www.OdysseyTheatre.com.
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Labels: odyssey theatre
Wednesday, April 24, 2013
What's Happening Around Town for April 24, 2013
Ionescopade Returns to The Odyssey
Thirty years after directing and choreographing the Odyssey Theatre’s award-winning west coast premiere, and following a wildly successful Off Broadway revival last season, Bill Castellino reunites with musical director Gerald Sternbach to charm audiences with a revitalized, updated version of Ionescopade at the Odyssey Theatre beginning May 31. Inspired by the work of playwright Eugène Ionesco, Ionescopade is a zany musical vaudeville featuring mime, farce and parody – all hilariously balanced on the edge of madness featuring music & lyrics by Mildred Kayden.The show stars Alan Abelew, Andrew Ableson, Joey D’Auria, Cristina Gerla, Kelly Lester, Tom Lowe, and Jennifer Malenke. Scenic design is by David Potts, lighting design is by Jeremy Pivnick and costume design is by Mylette Nora. Ron Sossi produces for the Odyssey Theatre Ensemble. Performances run May 31 - August 11. The Odyssey Theatre is located at 2055 S. Sepulveda Blvd., West Los Angeles, 90025. For reservations and information, call (310) 477-2055 or go to www.OdysseyTheatre.com.
MISCAST
MISCAST is back, Monday May 20 at The Mint with songs from Chess, Annie, A Chorus Line, Side Show, and more. Our mission is to entertain the pants off of you with Musical Theater songs sung by fantastic singers, who would never get the chance to perform these roles, because of their race, age, gender, level of physical attractive-ness, etc. Proceeds go to Project Angel Food whose mission is to bring nourishment to those living with AIDS, cancer or other life threatening diseases.The cast for this MISCAST includes Mandy Kaplan, Will Collyer, Jennifer Hall, Patrick Gomez, Todd Sherry, Netta Most, Julianne Grossman, Kevin Kelly, Melissa Disney, and Brett Ryback. Doors opens at 7:00 pm and the show starts at 7:30 pm on the dot. There is a full food and drink menu available (But no minimum required). Tickets are $15, cash only at the door. For more information, go to www.themintla.com/.
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Labels: odyssey theatre