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Transcript
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Take five of New Orleans’ emerg-ing musical theater perform-ers singing a bunch of songs
new and old, but mostly new, from stageand screen, and what do you get? A deli-cious cabaret showcase for some brightnew talents entitled Bitter/Sweet.
This “celebration of thwarted ambi-tion, unrequited love and hilarious disap-pointment” wove a story of sorts throughmusical numbers and a script by SeanPatterson “paraphrased by the cast” thatgave a peak behind the scenes whilecommenting on the goings-on. Call it ameta-cabaret.
Whatever it is, Rich Arnold, Trina Beck,Natalie Boyd, Michael Tramontin &Meredith Long presented us with a reper-toire of songs that were neither too pop nortoo “arty” that, the requisite Sondheimmedley aside, came from some of Broad-way/off-Broadway’s newest offerings—Avenue Q, Nick and Nora, Songs for aNew World, etc. Now I love me my Rodgers& Hammerstein and Cole Porter as muchas anybody but how nice to hear somedifferent tunes for a change!
Under Frankie Kelly’s topnotch musi-cal direction, Beck was mesmerizing asshe spat out the words to Company’sGetting Married Today with comic des-peration and perfect diction. Her nicenessworked in her favor to contrast the naugh-tiness of Everybody’s Girl from Kander &Ebb’s Steel Pier. And if her voice becamea tad strident in [title of show]’s A WayBack to Then, she & Long, in her bestperformance yet seen here, provided oneof the evening’s highlights with Class fromChicago. Why ever did they cut this brilliantsong from the movie?
Boyd scored with the comic The Alto’sLament and, with Tramontin sparredthrough Therapy from Tick, Tick Boom,so convincingly they made you wonderwhat exactly was going on backstage.
I’m not familiar with the musical TheApprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz but ifTramontin’s account of St. Urbain Streetfrom it is any indication, it would make awonderful vehicle for him. Tramontin hasthat rare mien that makes you wonderwhat exactly is going on underneath thesurface; should a musical version of TaxiDriver or a Woody Allen film come along,
he just might be the man for the lead.Joined by Tramontin, Arnold took the
lead and played piano for Fred Jones, Pt.2 from Ben Folds’ Rockin’ the Suburbs;though lovely, they could’ve offered anyeven more penetrating interpretation of it.Their moodily effervescent Little NightMusic duet, It Would Have Been Wonder-ful, could hardly have been improved on,however. If the appropriate material couldbe found, these two could become theHope & Crosby of New Orleans musicaltheater.
Though the opening medley, “All ThisHappiness,” was good it lacked a certainfocus and, likewise, I sometimes won-dered where the connection was amongthe numbers but those are minor quibbles,the result, I suspect, of a somewhat bumpyrehearsal process. (Such credits as “Origi-nally Conceived by Rich Arnold; Recon-ceived by Rich Arnold & Sean Patterson”struck me as more Hollywood than BigEasy.)
Although Bitter/Sweet has ended itsrun at Le Chat Noir, if it should return foranother engagement, as rumor has it, donot miss it. Or better yet, see it for a secondtime. At 65 delightful minutes, you won’twant it to end.
The Dining Roomat the Actor’s Theatre of NO
A.R. Gurney’s The Dining Roomportrays the slowly vanishingWASP civilization where
people effortlessly sprinkle their conver-sations with such phrases as “coup degrâce” and “Let’s review the bidding”, in-dispensable maids take care of families,and uptight people are constantly lookingfor love and approval but not always find-ing it.
In a series of narratively unrelatedscenes featuring variations on the proto-typical WASP family, conflicts betweenparents and children of all ages are playedout around a dining room table. Whilethere are occasional servings of love andtenderness, Gurney’s overall tone can berather harsh. These are not always verynice people.
Under Stocker Fontelieu’s smoothdirection, the entire cast (Chelle Ambrose,Helen Blanke, Leon Contavesprie, JimmyMurphy, Arvilla Miller Riddick, Michael
Sullivan, Andrea Watson) was quite goodthough each member had some scenesthat were better than others. Highlightsincluded Ambrose as a confused modernyoung woman; Murphy as her emotionallyconstipated father; Sullivan as anotherfather concerned with his legacy; and aparticularly nice depiction of an incipientflirtation with Murphy as a carpenter in-specting Watson’s table that needs re-pair.
Riddick did particularly well as a se-ries of housekeepers, bringing differenti-ating details to each one, and as a grandedame succumbing to Alzheimer’s. Watson,an actress new to me, submerged herown personality as she metamorphosedwith the utmost clarity from one characterto another.
The cast was at a slight disadvantagein that most (Riddick and Murphy excepted)didn’t look typically WASPy, though thatdoesn’t forgive them for not always fullyevincing the characters’ essential patri-cian-ness. Yet the only egregiously off-putting sections were when they wereasked to become young children; in one ortwo instances I couldn’t be sure if theywere supposed to be mentally challengedor not. Believe me, there are some 5-year-olds from that milieu who have the sophis-tication of 30somethings.
Still, though I overall enjoyed theActor’s Theatre of New Orleans’ DiningRoom, I couldn’t help wondering why, otherthan in honor of its 25th anniversary, didthey do this play about an insular group ofpeople almost as foreign to us as we NewOrleanians are to them. While certainlyparallels exist to Uptown types, our uppercrust generally has a joie de vivre and anearthy eccentricity lacking in the WASPculture.
Having directed this play previously,Fontelieu’s current production was miss-ing that frisson of excitement that comeswith embarking upon creative discoveriesfor the first time. If a revised and updatedDining Room existed that might includeWASPs’ reactions to cell phones, theInternet, AIDS, and having one of their ownin the White House as well as his son, I’dsay “Bring it on!”
Or if ATNO wants to do suchdramedies, why not unjustly neglectedworks such as Susan & God or Biographywhich have recently been rediscovered inworthy off-Broadway revivals.
But having programmed Fat Pig, APiece of My Heart and the forthcomingBoy Meets Girl, ATNO has set the bar highfor itself and I, for one, hope they willcontinue at such a level.
The New Orleans BINGO!Show at Le Chat Noir
The New Orleans BINGO! Showpromises “that which is old becomes new once again in this
ever-evolving sideshow cabaret.” Boy,does it ever! I can’t be sure but I have asneaking suspicion you could have foundsomething like this in 1920s Berlin. It justwouldn’t’ve been as good as BINGO!
Featuring a six person performanceartist/musical clown/cineaste ensemble,BINGO! offers “two music sets plus agame of bingo and even an original film.”
The film, Life is Complicated, is a funromp through the Quarter pre-Katrinathat’s worthy of MTV or 6 digit hits’ worth onYouTube. The winner of the bingo gamesgets flowers, a Burger King crown and a
chance to dance with the slinky tattooedmaiden.
But these are just lagniappe com-pared to the music sets. If the songs aremore or less standard indie rock with atouch of the blues, the presentation isrevivifyingly unique. Leader Clint Maeggenplays a mean sax and oversees the cre-ation of a elaborate rhythmscape that in-cludes an accordion, a ukelele, kazoos,saws, a guitar with a broken string, potlids, broken glasses and who knows whatelse. Bullhorns and walkie-talkies filtersounds to tantalizingly disorienting effect.Mix in Su Gonczy’s muscular lighting that’senhanced by hand held devices of varioussorts and the son et lumiere aspects aloneare pretty jaw-dropping.
And when was the last time you sawa theremin on stage? Casey McAllisterplayed one marvelously, among other in-struments, giving an even moreotherworldly aura to the proceedings thanthey already had.
But wait, there’s more! Ronnie Num-bers and The Turk, the former in a bowler,the later in a fez, play clowns that look likethey wandered over from a Brecht/Weillextravaganza. It all adds up to very theatri-cal, anarchic fun.
What you gotta admire about thisgroup is that none of the performance arescripted nor are they afraid to start a songover if the tempo isn’t right. And not only didthey manage to incorporate a playfuldrunken audience member into the actbut when, as she was finally escorted out,she discovered she had lost a shoe, a cryof “Cinderella in the House” went up withthe fervor of a revival meeting.
Perhaps Le Chat is almost a bit toorefined for BINGO!; I kinda miss their morefunky Fiorella’s setting. And when it comesto heckling the audience, these folks arekinda tame compared to Bianca del Rio.But I had a smile on my face their entiretime on stage, the kind of smile that comesfrom seeing pure, original talent.
BINGO! simply defies description. It’ssomething you have to experience for your-self. You can do so June 6 and 13. Miss itat your own risk.
Gem of the Oceanat the Anthony BeanCommunity Theater
Having proven Broadway crit-ics wrong with his magnifi-cent production of King Hedley
II three years ago, I was hoping lightningwould strike twice as Anthony Bean tookon Gem of the Ocean. Alas, though we gotfire, water, wind and some brimstone,there was no lightning this time as Gem issimply, well, no gem.
The penultimately produced play inAugust Wilson’s cycle of works chroni-cling the African-American experience inthe twentieth century, Gem stands firstchronologically taking place in 1904, atime when former slaves still lived amongus yet younger blacks were feeling cut offfrom their history.
In Gem, Citizen Barlow, a young manrecently arrived in Pittsburgh from theSouth, turns up at the home of Aunt Esterwhom he hopes can “wash his soul.” Asin a Greek drama, one relatively smallaction sets in motion a series of eventsthat ends in large scale tragedy.
A lot happens in Gem and Wilson has
[continued on Main-19]Rich Arnold, Natalie Boyd, Trina Beck & Michael Tramontin in Bitter/Sweet
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written some extraordinary scenes but toomany too talky passages cause the play tofeel rambling and repetitive. Worse, aftera wonderful opening scene, the scriptmostly loses its dramatic immediacyowing to Wilson presenting his charac-ters as symbolic archetypes rather thanfully fleshed out living beings.
Even Bean, with his special affinity forWilson’s writings couldn’t overcome theplay’s shortcomings. Yet working with agenerally outstanding cast, he gave hisproduction a propulsive momentum thatheld an audience’s attention throughout.
As Aunt Ester, Adella Gautier went farbeyond the sassiness she displayed inPhyllis Clemons’ HouseWarming to giveus a woman who was by turns sly, forceful,serious, loving, determined and capableof forging a connection for her people backto Africa. Though Ester can begin to soundlike the host of an inspirational programon cable TV, Gautier, unselfconsciouslyplucking hairs from her chin, groundedher with an unwavering belief based moreon common sense than in anything mys-tical.
That fine actor Donald Lewis cap-tured Citizen’s desperation but his mellif-luous voice and naturally regal bearingwere at odds with the “country boy newlyarrived in the city” nature of his character.And as he cast a sometimes too skepticaleye at some of Aunt Ester’s pronounce-ments, Lewis occasionally seemed moreearly 21st century than early 20th century.
Wilbert Williams, as Ester’s aide decamp, and Harold Evans, as a feisty sellerof dog doo and a former conductor on theUnderground Railroad, were wonderfulas always, but Wilson did not allow theircharacters much emotional growth. CotiGayles, making her theatrical debut withpoise and assurance, gave a lovely per-formance as the heir to Ester’s legacy.Charles Bosworth was good as a sympa-thetic traveling salesman.
Among these more experienced ac-tors, Escalante Lundy, an engaging pres-ence in Clemons’ The Papaya Man, sim-ply couldn’t hold his own. Lacking therequisite bone deep menace as Gem’sbad guy, an enforcer of the whiteestablishment’s rules, he threw the pro-duction distressingly off balance.
John Grimsley & Matt Borel’s parlorset had an air of lived-in reality. If only thecharacters inhabiting it had felt as real,Gem would’ve been a jewel.
Kennedy’s Children at TheHi-Ho Lounge
In Kennedy’s Children, the 1960sare refracted through different per-spectives and they ain’t pretty. Rob-
ert Patrick packs his five interlocking con-fessional monologues with so much dis-illusion that by the end you begin to won-der if the ‘60s were really that depressing.
Children continues a tradition of suchplays as The Time of Your Life and TheIceman Cometh in which a barroom’sdenizens go on about their hopes, dreams,frustrations, etc. Patrick’s most autobio-graphical monolog, an idiosyncratic viewof the beginnings of off-off-Broadway, ringstrue; the other portraits (a would-be ac-tress, a soldier in Viet Nam, a hippie child,and an office worker obsessed withKennedy’s assassination) come off as abit generic. Occasionally cliched, a bit
draggy at times, Patrick never gets fullyunder the skin of these characters whichmay be why he’s never broken into the toptier of American dramatists.
Yet under Michael Martin’s fluid direc-tion at The Hi-Ho Lounge on St. ClaudeAvenue, the whole was greater than thesum of its parts. I loved the production’senvironmental quality with entrances andexits coming from real doors or going intoactual restrooms. I’m just disappointedthat I attended the one performance whenno neighborhood character, oblivious tothe show going on, broke through themetaphorical fourth wall and inserted him/herself into the play.
Blessed with a strong (actual) cast,Martin elicited passionate, well-chiseledperformances from each actor that coa-lesced into a panorama of fury tinged withsadness.
As a flower child looking back withruefulness on her cross-country odyssey,Carrie Anne Rose created an indelibleportrait. With a natural shlumpiness and
world-weary whine of a voice, you couldfeel her grunginess and cynicism. Amusedand appalled at her pushing cheap drugson the street while working at a rehabcenter, Rose’s outrage at how the decadeturned out was palpable.
Michael Aaron Santos added to hisgallery of memorable characters asPatrick’s stand-in who crawls out of thegutter to join the vibrant world of seat-of-your-pants theater. Yet here Santos was afew degrees off from his usual flawless-ness, a question of “playing” gay ratherthan “being” gay. Not that Santos resortedto fluttery cliches—he’s much too talentedto do that—but he seemed to miss certaindelicate nuances which prevented himfrom being completely heartbreaking. Thenagain having seen Santos in drag (and itwasn’t pretty) maybe I just had a hard timebuying that some sailors could’ve mis-taken this six foot plus tall man for a girl.
Bridget Erin made an appropriatelyhard-edged wannabe actress, pretty butmore talented in bed than on stage. Yet
trodding the boards ...from M-18
she left out a certain bigger-than-life qual-ity that such a gal would likely need tosucceed; without it, I couldn’t help butwonder why Shirley Knight would havewon a 1976 Tony Award for the role. Still,Erin had the best moment in the play asshe described what happened as shemounted a would-be sugar daddy afterdrinking too much.
Paul Atreides, as the soldier whodoesn’t know whom he can trust, andKathryn Talbot, as the woman haunted bythe Kennedy’s, each did well by their some-what less interesting personas, thoughTalbot swallowed some of her words inher chirpy voice.
While I can imagine that Kennedy’sChildren once seemed like a report fromsociety’s frontlines, with the passage oftime, it now comes off as a history play, notquite, say, Henry V, but still somethingrather distant, especially for those 35 andunder. Here’s to Martin & Co. for keepingthe history alive.
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You can imagine our surprisewhen we were contacted totest the Oster® Counterforms™
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New OrleansRestaurant Guide
Bywater Bar.B.Que, 3162 DauphineSt., is noted for its gumbo, barbeque, pizza,sandwiches and specials. Tuesday isMexican day and night, while Sundayevening is Prime Rib night. Hours areMon., Tues.Thurs., Fri.11am-9pm; Sat.& Sun. 9am-9pm. ClosedWed. Call944.4445 for ad-ditional info.
C a f eAmelie, 912Royal St., offersromantic court-yard or indoordining along withboth eclectic cu-linary creationsand drinks, pluslive entertain-ment some eve-nings. Servinglunch: Wed.-Sun. 11am-3pm,dinner: Wed.-Sun. 5-10pm,Sat. & Sun.Brunch 11am-3pm. Call412.8965 forreservations oradditional infor-
mation.
Clover Grill, 900 Bourbon St., is open7 days and features breakfast includingbuild your own omelettes. But let’s notforget their fab burgers grilled right undera hub cap and then there’s all those sand-wiches, sides, desserts and shakes. Call598.1010 or visit CloverGrill.COM.
Marigny Perks, 2401 Burgundy,serves gourmet coffee, sandwiches, past-ries, danish and cakes. Open 7 days 7am-10pm. Call 948.7401 for additional infor-mation.
Meauxbar Bistro, 942 N. RampartSt., serves classic contemporary bistrofare in the Quarter on the edge. Servingdinner and drinks Tues.-Sat, 6-10pm. Call569.9979 for reservations or information.
Mona Lisa Restaurant, 1212 RoyalSt., features Italian specialties includingsalads, pizzas, sandwiches and both lunchand dinner entrees. Lunch 11am-5pmThurs.-Mon., Dinner 5pm-10pm 7 days.Call 522.6746 for info.
Petunias, A Restaurant, 817 St.Louis, is open daily 8am-3pm serving
breakfast, lunch, crepes, po-boys, saladsand gumbo. Dinner 3-10pm Thurs.-Sun.serving Creole and Cajun delights. Call522.6440 or visitPetuniasRestaurant.COM.
Quartermaster: The Nellie Deli, 1100Bourbon St., was voted Restaurant/Deli ofthe Year once again and is open 24 hours7 days. Serving breakfast, lunch and din-ner, the deli offers free delivery. Call529.1416 to order.
RICHE, Fulton Street at Poydras in-side Harrah's Hotel, brings Chef ToddEnglish with his one and only Frenchbrasserie-style restaurant to the city. Juststeps from the Convention Center andHarrah's Casino, call 533.6117 for reser-vations and information.
TOMATILLO'S RESTAURANT, 437 Es-planade Ave., is open Mon. 3-11pm; Sun.,Tues., Wed., 11am-10pm; and Thurs.-Sat. 11am-11pm. The restaurant refers toitself as "A Mexican Joint" featuring appe-tizers, soups, salads, make your own com-bination plates, house specialties,burritos, desserts, and of course, spe-cialty margaritas. Call 945.9997 for reser-vations or information.
