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| L - R Hughie Stone Fish, Jordan Stidham, Ari Stidham - Photos by Aaron Tocchi |
By Joe Straw
Hugh (John Ryan) has a highly active imagination as he waits
for his friend, who is always late, Colm (Jordan R. Coleman). The purpose of the meeting is for Colm to
read his script - a musical parody of the movie Star Wars.
But when Colm arrives late he is not too interested, says he
doesn’t read English, and really wants no part of it until he does. After all,
Colm implies he’s done it, read it, heard it, and smelled the Star War stories inside
out, outside in. There’s nothing much left
in the genre.
Sitting and reading the script Colm doesn’t see the light,
feel the action, or hear the John Williams music.
But, that doesn’t deter Hugh. Not one bit as Colm is handed the script and characters
suddenly appear on stage.
Grand Moff Levine (Ari Stidham) loves to break the fourth
wall and interact with the audience mostly urging them on to applaud his being
onstage. (A little less of this would work.) Grand Moff Levine is the good guy
or likes to think of himself that way.
(This Moff is a healthier version than the pale; sickly
looking Peter Cushing who played him in the films.)
Grand Moff Levine is the
protagonist, but how good can you be when you want to kill Han Solo (Jordan
Stidham) who has just crash-landed on the planet in Cloud City?
Well you sit down, or something, talk to your second wife
Galaxia (Selorm Kploanyi) and your daughter Annie (Kaitlyn Tanimoto) and come
up with a plan to rid the galaxy of Han Solo in order to gain favor from the
dark side of the force.
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| Jordan Stidham, Keenan Montgomery |
Han, in another location, needs a place to crash (pun
intended) and he meets with Lando (Keenan Montgomery) to see if he can hang at
his pad while he gets the Millennium Falcon together. Lando says okay and goes to sleep, cape
flowing behind as he escapes to his bedroom.
Meanwhile everyone wants something from Han, and Han, with
time management issues, wants to cram his life with adventures, every single
moment until the end, until Han Solo is dead, dead, dead.
SOLO MUST DIE: A Musical Parody book by Jordan & Ari Stidham, Music
& Lyrics by Hughie Stone Fish & Ari Stidham, and Directed by Ari
Stidham through May 27th, 2018 at the Hudson Backstage Theatre on
Santa Monica Boulevard on theatre row in Hollywood.
“Solo…” is a musical parody and in that aspect one must have
a familiarity to the films to get most of the jokes but it is not a necessity. The music by Hughie Stone Fish is enjoyable, keeps the night moving at light
speed, and overall the show is entertaining from top to bottom.
Tevyn Cole keeps
the night lively with his choreography that is enjoyable and manages to give
light to the parody.
Ari Stidham,
director, co-writer, stagehand, makeup artist, and as Grand Moff Levine has a
lot on his plate, but seems to be having the time of his life. (One would
suggest that he wear a belt to keep things up nice and tidy.) One get’s the mustache, but not the beard for
this character. Grand Moff Levine has his
reason for wanting Han dead and he moves in that direction for the most part. A
parody is something that accentuates a trait of a character to an extraordinary
degree and one is not sure how this is a Grand Moff parody. Also, the show
needs a better ending.
Jordan Stidham,
Co-Writer, and plays Han Solo takes a while to get used to but then manages to
capture the night in wig and song. Stidham has a charm and is funny throughout
the night. If adventure is what Han wants, Stidham should be searching and finding
creative ways to find it every moment he is on stage.
Alex Lewis plays
a number of characters Greedo, Kylo Ren, Postmate and others and has a nice
presence on stage and manages to keep the action moving with those characters.
Jordan R. Coleman
does some nice work as Colm, mostly stage right with expressive facial
expressions. It is difficult to
determine what Colm’s objective is in the manner he is dismissive of his
friend’s work. Coleman also plays Rogue One Leia.
Luke hasn’t got much to do played by Sean Draper in this musical parody mostly because he is not the
lead in a musical that is called “Solo Must Die”. He also plays the real Darth
Vader (not the one with a bucket over his head) and Priest.
Zach Green plays
Jabba The Hut and as strong as the character is on film, I don’t remember the parody
of this particular character. Possibly,
more needs to be added.
Cooper Karn has a
very nice look and presence as Chewbacca and a definitive charm on stage.
Selorm Kploanyi
is exceptional as Galaxia. She is an
excellent actor with a wonderful voice and also a character that needs more
time on stage, and one more song preferably a solo that highlights her voice. The lipstick was space age and wonderful.
Keenan Montgomery
as Lando is smooth. The character Lando
is a shade seedier than Solo and is ambiguous enough for the audience to never
get a handle on what he wants. Lando
would sell his mother for a cracker and a nice slice of Brie. There is much to
like in Montgomery’s performance and in his singing voice.
John Ryan is
rather impish as Hugh, a character who thinks like the thousands living in
Hollywood today that think they have created the next Star Wars. His beliefs are bigger than his imagination
and we never get a final resolution to the character as Ryan also hops into the
C3P0 and J. J. Binks roles.
Kaitlyn Tanimoto
is enjoyable as Annie, Grand Moff’s daughter, who is never satisfied with her
life or the things that her father is trying to accomplish. (A typical
daughter). Tanimoto is enjoyable as an
actor and singer.
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| Selorm Kploanyi, Ari Stidham |
Michelle Wicklas
has a strong presence on stage and is a trouper when it comes to operating BB8
(A white ball with duct tape and a pasta sieve). She also plays Smart House and Yoda. But, whenever she is on stage her craft is
prevalent and the force is strong with this one.
There is no credit for costumes but the costumes were just
enough to give flavor to the characters on stage.
Steven Brandon,
Producer, Ashley Tavares,
Co-Producer, and Alex Lewis, Co-Producer
give life and support to a large cast and musical accompaniment to the singers
on stage.
Jimmy McCammon was the Tech Director/Stage Manager. Nora Feldman
was Public Relations.
While there is really no one particular song by Hughie Stone Fish that a person sings
on the way out of the theatre all is not lost. (Cats only had one song.) The
singers are remarkable, personable, and give strength to the genre and that’s
more than half the battle.
The Act One Finale parodies Les Misérables and was wonderful.
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B - L to R - Michelle Wicklas, Alex Lewis, Cooper Karn, Sean Draper,
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Telephone: 323-960-7788
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