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KPFA theatre critic Richard Wolinsky reviews the 42nd Street Moon production of “Scrooge in Love” starring Jason Graae, at the Gateway in San Francisco through December 22, 2019.

42nd Street Moon website

Text of review (differs slightly from audio version).

Often remembered and revived, the big hit musicals of the fifties and sixties will never leave us. But there were other shows, minor hits and flops on Broadway, and television musicals that never went that far. These shows had weak books, and usually undistinguished scores with one exceptional song that survives. Cole Porter’s Aladdin, Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Me and Juliet, The Adventures of Marco Polo. The shows served as a backdrop to the bigger ones, the ones we sing today.

So when you’re going to the Gateway Theatre to see “Scrooge in Love,” a sequel to A Christmas Carol, starring Jason Graae with music by Broadway veteran Larry Grossman and lyrics by Kellen Blair, it’s easy to imagine this show, first written and produced in 2015, being a revival of one of those shows from long ago, an imaginary black and white telecast on Kraft TV Theatre.

Jason Graae, Scrooge in the production (actuality)

It’s hard to hang anything heavy on a clothesline made of tinsel. When we last left Dickens’ Scrooge, his plate was full, with Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchit, with making up for years of greed. So does he need a mate? Not really. But if you accept the premise, then Scrooge does what it needs to do, in a 1958 kind of way.

It’s all kind of creaky, but not in a bad way.

Jason Graae, coming off a year and a half as the Wizard in the national tour of Wicked, dominates the stage, not only with his talent, but with his energy. And there is that one song, a lament sung by Scrooge in Act Two when his old love rejects him, A Kitchen Built for Twenty, which Graae knocks out of the park.

Broadway vet Larry Grossman thrives on the old style. No melisma, no rock or rap, nothing contemporary, a slight taste of jazz. In an era of throwing shade, Presidential tweeting, Facebook trolling, televised f-bombs and internet porn, sometimes you just need a little comfort food.

Scrooge in Love, starring Jason Graae, directed by Dyan McBride, plays at the Gateway in San Francsico through December 22nd. For more information go to 42nd Street Moon dot org. That’s 42ndStMoon.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA.

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KPFA theatre critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Groundhog Day: The Musical” directed by Susi Damilano, at San Francisco Playhouse through January 17, 2020

SF Playhouse website

Text of review (differs from the edited audio version)..

The entertainment world has always used branding to sell its products. Adapting best-sellers and hit plays to the screen, and adapting films to television has been going on for decades, using the same name as the book or the film to draw audiences into the new iteration.

For Broadway, it hasn’t quite worked that way. Musicals tended to take on new names. So Pygmalion became My Fair Lady, Anna and the King the King and I, Seven and a half cents the Pajama Game. But after Giuliani, Bloomberg and the Walt Disney Company turned Broadway into a corporate cash cow, branding now rules the street. Whether jukebox shows or film adaptations, the bigger the name the greater the hedging of bets by producers. But still, three quarters of all shows flop.

Which brings us to the musicals Pretty Woman, Tootsie, King Kong, and Groundhog Day – and this last one is getting its Bay Area premiere not in a touring company but in a production at San Francisco Playhouse directed by the company’s own Susi Damilano.

Here’s the thing, though – putting aside the Disney adaptations of animated musicals — the successful ones, like Kinky Boots or The Band’s Visit or Light in the Piazza, came about not because the brand was so great, but because the story itself could sing. Groundhog Day and those other shows came about because the names were brands.

What Groundhog Day, and its three compatriats all have in common is that the musical iteration, despite good reviews for all except Kong, failed to find audiences, and flopped. Familiarity apparently breeds not contempt, but indifference. Producers hedged their bets, and played not to lose. And as a character noted in the film Crazy Rich Asians, hopefully never a musical, if you play not to lose, you lose.

So Groundhog Day saw its shadow, went into hiding, and never went on tour, which allowed regional theaters like SF Playhouse to pick up the mantle. Luckily for the Bay Area, this production is very good indeed. Ryan Drummond takes the Bill Murray role in a new direction; he owns the part of Phil Connors in a way one might have thought impossible given Bill Murray in the film. Elizabeth Apostal as Rita, Phil’s foil and eventual lover, easily outshines Andie McDowell. In fact, the entire cast, the set, the revolving stage, all bring this show as close to a Broadway touring version as its going to get. Which helps a lot, because the songs by Tim Minchin aren’t memorable, and the script by Danny Rubin is constantly fighting itself to both be original and still maintain the iconic scenes that made the film a classic. It works, kind of, but also doesn’t work.

Ultimately, the story of Groundhog Day could also be a metaphor for Groundhog Day the musical. It’s hero Phil Conners, who sees the same day, over and over and over again, eventually achieves an epiphany. The audience of Groundhog Day, sadly, isn’t as lucky.

Groundhog Day, the musical, directed by Susi Damilano, plays at San Francisco Playhouse through January 18th. For more information you can go to SFplayhouse.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA>.

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KPFA theatre critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “The Tale of Despereaux” at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre through January 5, 2020.

Text of review (audio version contains actuality from co-director Marc Bruni and other changes).

Most classic fairy tales come down to us through history and the Brothers Grimm. But over the years, there have also been new fairy tales, stories that enchant younger generations, which over time will become classics in their own way.

One such story was “The Tale of Despereaux” written by Kate DiCamillo and published in 2003, which went on to win a Newberry Award and was adapted into an animated film in 2007. Now, “The Tale of Despereaux,” which tells the story of a young mouse with big ears, a rat with big ideas, and a kingdom damaged by grief, has become a musical created by the Pig Pen Theatre Company, at Berkeley Rep through January 5th.

In translating animated films to the stage, Disney has gone all-out with high tech special effects that could never be duplicated or even attempted in school and community theatres. Despereaux takes a different route: using theatrical tricks that have been in operation for decades, even centuries.

With puppets, dolls, shadow imagery, and all sorts of theatrical legerdemain, and most importantly, the audience’s imagination, The Tale of Despereaux emerges as a unique theatrical event.

The seven members of Pigpen play musical instruments throughout, and the cast is augmented by John Rapson, in fine Jean Valjean voice as the rat Roscuro, Dorcas Leung as the spunky mouse Despereaux, and other actors in multiple rolesThe songs, which come in quick succession, one after another, veer toward Les Miz at one end, and country or rock at the other. The eclecticism is fun, to be sure, but it adds up to a show without a single musical voice to carry it through. And even at a brisk 90 minutes, it can feel a bit long toward the end..

That’s the down side. The upside is a show for the whole family, that deals with adult concepts like grief, revenge, and most notably redemption.

During a time when most of Bay Area venues are showing Ebenezer Scrooge and Jane Austin and Santa Claus, an original holiday musical about rats and mice that surprises and delights in its cleverness and humanity is a welcome relief.

The Tale of Despereaux, from the Pig Pen Theatre company and co-directed by Marc Bruni, plays at Berkeley Rep’s Roda Theatre through January 5th. For more information, you can go to berkeleyrep.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA.

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Jason Graae, the star of “Scrooge in Love,” a 42nd Street Moon production at the Gateway Theatre in San Francisco, is interviewed by host Richard Wolinsky. Jason Graae has appeared on Broadway several times, is a noted cabaret performer, and recently played the Wizard in the national tour of “Wicked.”

In this interview he discusses his work and his career and tells anecdotes about working on “Wicked,” his first audition, dealing with hits and flops, and various other items.

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KPFA theatre critic Richard Wolinsky reviews “Cloud 9” by Caryl Churchill, at Custom Made Theatre in San Francisco through December 15, 2019.

Custom Made website

Text of review:

During the Victorian era, the tyranny of colonialism went unchecked, as did sexual and gender-based oppression. Straitjacketed in their roles through patriarchy, the power disparity between men and women paralleled the relationship of whites and people of color all through the British empire.

Those connections are explored, deconstructed and reconstructed in Caryl Churchill’s now classic play from 1979, Cloud 9, performed with gusto and bravado, and directed by Allie Moss, at Custom Made Theatre in San Francisco through December 15th.

The play functions in two symmetrical parts: Act One takes place during the 19th century, in Africa, and presents itself as comedy. To show how women’s roles were determined by men, the wife of Clive, the colonial administrator, is played by a man, and her young son by a woman, and to show the parallel with colonialism, their black manservant is played by a white man. The sexual repression is revealed through clandestine relationships played as a bedroom farce.

Act Two upends all that. These characters have returned to England after twenty five years, though the setting is now a hundred years later. Clive is gone, his wife is played by a woman, and a little girl by a man. The young son, now an adult, is gay, his sister, a baby in Act One, is an adult, and bisexual. Farce has been replaced by realism, as women and out gay men take center stage. The transition is startling but the themes remain the same.

This production of Cloud 9 is anchored by an excellent cast, adept at changing character and even costume with literally seconds to spare. It’s impossible to single out any particular actor: all work within a tightly woven ensemble.

Churchill’s strength in this is to weave disparate scenes, elements, characters and incidents that don’t easily fit together into a solid cohesive whole. The counter-casting, the illogical time shift and even the intermingling of characters from both acts all contribute to a sense of dislocation that slowly synthesizes. It’s a tightrope walk that works from beginning to end, and Custom Made’s production does this masterpiece justice.

Cloud 9 by Caryl Churchill, directed by Allie Moss, plays at Custom Made Theatre in San Francisco through December 15th. For more information, go to custommade.org. I’m Richard Wolinsky on Bay Area theatre for KPFA.

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