Allegory: a
representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material
forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another.
I worked with Yul Brynner on the “King and I” at the Pantages and boy
did that guy have a lot of superstitions.
Me, practically straight out of the backwoods of Tennessee and working
backstage, I was caught whistling as I walked to the backstage door.
Yul stuck his head out of his dressing room door and screamed, “Stop
whistling!”
And I thought to myself, “Was that Yul?”
I found out moments later that whistling backstage was considered back luck
and actors are sensitive to these omens of doom. - Narrator
Light Up the Sky by Moss Hart, directed by David McClendon, and
produced by David Hunt Stafford at Theatre 40 in Beverly Hills has a very
predictable story and is a heck of a lot of fun. And if you’ve ever been
attached to theatre in some form or another you will get the
predictability. All the more reason to
love Theatre 40’s presentation with some terrific acting and the finest
wardrobe, by Costume Designer Michéle Young, you will ever see on any actor, on
any stage, bar none.
David McClendon’s direction was almost flawless. But there were two scenes on this opening
night that cause a stir, a borborygmus of sorts, a mingling that caused me to
question the intentions of those actors in the scenes. I have more to say on that later.
The play takes place in 1948 at Ritz-Carlton Hotel in
Boston, Massachusetts. It is Miss Irene Livingston’s
(Stephanie Erb) room, a leading actress, and wouldn’t you know it but the only
sounds you can hear is a parrot, Orson who injects glib theatrical sayings, and
Miss Lowell (Cathy Diane Tomlin) banging on a manual typewriter typing a
manuscript.
“S. R. O.! No seats till
January. Bless you, darling!” – Orson,
the parrot
Miss Lowell doesn’t like the goings on from this parrot and
she covers him. And in this theatrical
world of luck and fortune, this was not a very good thing to do.
Carlton Fitzgerald (David Hunt Stafford), the director,
enters the suite and cries about the magic hour and the show going on in a few
hours. In fact he cries at “card tricks”.
“I bought a ticket. I’m going to
see what good that does.” – Miss Lowell
Carleton tells her of the restricted rehearsal last night. He had to move back because he was crying and
he didn’t want the cast to hear him sobbing.
“I’m sitting in the balcony.” – Miss Lowell
Undeterred by Miss Lowell’s monetary misfortunes.
“I saw them all from the balcony, Miss Lowell – all the great ones.” -
Carleton
Enmeshed in his story, Carleton cares little for this little,
young woman, and gives diminutive thought that she bought her own ticket and is
sitting in the nosebleed seats. Instead, he recounts the emotional wonderful
story of his youth, when as a small boy he pressed his tiny boyish chin against
the rails, staring at each performance. But, looking out the window, his mood
is suddenly transformed.
“That sign’s not lit yet, Goddamit.
Well, they’re not going to save current while we’re here. “ – Carleton
Not the sweet little cherub we thought, Carleton says he’s
going to come back later with a talisman for Irene and asks Miss Lowell to call
the theatre to have “those bastards” turn on the lights. (How quickly we turn
from joyful childhood experience to a triggered adult angst.)
Meanwhile Francis Black (Meredith Thomas) former ice-skating
star turned the producer’s wife enters dressed to the nines.
“If Sidney can sink three hundred thousand bucks into a play, I can
shop – and when I say shop, honey, I ain’t kidding.” – Frances
Later, former playwright to Miss Livingston, Owen Turner
(Martin Thompson) arrives and Miss Lowell introduces herself. She is aware of
his reputation and gloats that she is “that repellent literary invention – a
ghost writer.”
“Is a new play of yours opening up here, Mr. Turner?” - Miss Lowell
“No, I have no new play this year.
Thank God.” – Owen Turner
“Oh?” – Miss Lowell
“Are you very new to all this, Miss Lowell?” – Owen Turner
“Very. The literary world is my
bailiwick.” – Miss Lowell
“I’m afraid you wouldn’t understand then. It’s almost like trying to explain music to
someone who was born deaf.”- Owen Turner
Ouch.
Moments later Stella Livingston (Flora Plumb), a fresh
breath of foul air, enters and immediately sets her claws into Owen.
“Not fifteen minutes ago I walked into the Ladies’ Room downstairs and
your name was on the tip of my tongue.”
Stella
Leave it to Stella to say the wrong things at the right time
but she is stopped in her tracks when she sees Orson covered. Bad luck. Miss
Lowell, realizing her mistake, apologizes.
“Oh, it doesn’t matter. Nothing
can hurt this one. Just the curtain
going up is enough.” – Stella
And Stella knows because on the previous night, in sleuth
mode, she confides to Miss Lowell and Owen she saw the performance at a rehearsal,
dressed as a cleaning woman watching from the balcony. She recommends seeing this show on an empty stomach.
“Well, it may be that I’m crazy, but it may also be that this is the
biggest bunch of crap ever put on any stage.” - Stella
Peter Sloan (Nick Denning), the wide-eyed optimist and writer
of the play, arrives for a good luck toast.
He speaks to Owen about being as sick as a dog because of his show going
on later that night.
Sidney Black (Arthur Hanket), the good natured and anxious producer,
arrives for the toast. But, Sidney
thinks he has interrupted something important: two writers who make prodigious words
work.
“Me, I’m just a crepe paper moon over the Taj Mahal, waiting for
Scheherazade to start the entertainment.” – Sidney
All this commotion and no one have seen Irene. Sidney
figures she’s asleep but Sven (William Murphy), the masseuse, suddenly slithers
out of her room, as though he was caught doing something he should not have
been doing, says “Good evening.” and makes a hasty retreat through the front
door.
Irene, the star, comes out crying and everyone wants to know
why. She says she fell asleep during the
massage and in the dream she started saying everyone’s lines in the first act
for which she has no lines.
But Irene is over that for now, but not over her
superstitions. Owen, slightly stricken, by what Irene has just said has one gnawing
question.
“I’m mulling over the fact that you don’t speak a line for the first
act. What do you do, my dear-bark?” –
Owen
Moments later Carleton comes back with the talisman for
Irene. He presents to Irene the necklace
worn by Eleanora Duse.
“Mother, look! The necklace Duse
wore on opening night!” – Irene
“How long did the show run, dear?” – Stella
Others filled with optimism for opening night proposed a
toast including Carleton who thanks the scrubwoman, the harridan, with greasy
hair, and hapless bag of bones who witnessed the performance the previous night.
“To an unknown and unforgettable bit of human wreckage, who found
beauty and a moment of rapture in out play.” – Carleton
Later in the night, and after the performance, Stella said
she heard a patron say: “This play is either an allegory or the biggest joke
ever played on the City of Boston.”
And now the fun really starts and the blame games gets
really dicey when the characters go to vast extremes to blame each other.
By all accounts this is a remarkable cast, doing a job well
done on opening night and wonderfully directed by David McClendon.
Bryan Bertone
plays Tyler Rayburn a stockbroker who is Irene Livingston’s husband. Not a bad
job in a supporting role, and takes a pop in the face in the second act to boot,
but one thinks there must be more to this role than staying out of the way.
John Combs does a
wonderful job as Shriner/Businessman once a former amateur actor now wanting to
be involved with the wonderful world of entertainment if only he would stay out
of his own way and demand a piece of the action with his money.
Nick Denning
plays Peter Sloan, the writer and former trucker is strong and steadfast in his
resolve. Denning has a very nice voice
and a very committed objective that suits his purpose and does a splendid job. So determined is Peter Sloan that he has them
crawling back to him on their hands and knees as it should be for any writer.
Stephanie Erb
plays the star Irene Livingston and does a marvelous job with the role. Irene handles her relationships with her
compatriots and her mother with a grand uniqueness and with great distinction. Walking around in a negligee in the first act
begging all men to love her, to come to her, and to love her for who she is and
who she will become, despite her minuscule dramatic faults. Erb gives a terrific performance.
Arthur Hanket
gives a remarkable performance as producer Sidney Black. It is one of those rare performances you hope
to see when going to theatre. His mastery, technique, and voice were impeccable
as he figuratively danced crossed the stage floor, giddy and with a delightful
manner. Oddly enough, I heard a trace of an accent, an accent from the Deep
South, Louisiana, or possibly Atlanta, Georgia, and that accent, came through
his wonderful dialogue in an amazing tour de force. This is a performance not to miss.
Flora Plumb, the
prognosticator of doom, does a nice job as Stella Livingston and because of
this her relationship with her daughter is not as strong as it could be. But she has her daughter’s best interest at
heart. She also believes in good luck.
The character could take it up a notch when she sees the parrot Orson
covered which one believes is the ultimate kiss of doom. Also, the start of the
second act needs more umph! Stella must tell
her counterpart that she is in a lot of trouble when discussing the realties of
failed theatre ventures and she needs to do it with conviction.
William Murphy is
delightful as Sven, Shriners and Cop.
Each role was decidedly different and each performance was on the mark.
Murphy is a marvelous actor.
David Hunt Stafford
plays Carleton Fitzgerald with a simple elegance and a lot of tears. There is a
lot of good work going on here.
Meredith Thomas
is Frances Black and plays her with a lot of pizzazz. The start of the second act needed work,
because her life is falling apart, the vast amount of her wealth is threatened
and possibly all those clothes she bought and the Topaz ring will have to go
back. That should give her enough of a
reality to jump-start that scene. This is a character that can go to extremes
believing her husband one minute and doubting him the next and acting on those
extremes to reach her objective.
Martin Thompson
plays Owen Turner and while he did a marvelous job smoothing things over for
all of the characters in the cast, he is in fact, an out of work writer and it
is at this point in life, everything bothers him to some degree. Obviously he is there to see that the writer
fails miserably. He goes so far to usher
him out of town in the third act.
Why? Because he is hungry. Also, I
did not see this character with a lot of conflict, emotionally, or physically. I saw a lot of people criticizing him but he
passes that off as a casual remarks. These are not choices with a lot of strength,
conflict, or character conviction. Still
the manner with which he presents himself is more than adequate, one wishes a
little more from this character. How is he affected by the word bailiwick? Also,
the dialogue suggests he has a biting tongue, and he is not afraid to use it.
Cathy Diane Tomlin
plays Miss Lowell and has a very good look for this type of comedy. But as the
character Miss Lowell makes a lot of mistakes.
Covering the parrot is one mistake, a big one. Trying to gain sympathy
from the director is another with the ticket thing. (You’ll get not sympathy
from him.) Also, digging at an out of work writer is another. Despite these mistakes Miss Lowell really
needs this job. Her job is on the line
and entertainment people are the first to throw you out on your butt. But
there’s never a reaction from any of these mishaps. Which is not to downplay the work but to add
to an already delightful performance.
Elain Rinehart will
be playing Miss Lowell December 19 – 22, 2013 but did not perform the night I
was there.
David McClendon,
the director, does an amazing job with cast, especially with the supporting
players (the Shriners, the masseuse, and the cop). The opening scene with Owen and Miss Lowell
needs a fine adjustment as well as the opening scene in act II. Problems are possibly the result of opening
night jitters. These two scenes gives us
a flavor of what we can expect, they carry us forward, letting us know what kind
of people we are dealing with and what we can expect. Also the work between
Frances and Stella should give us an idea of how desperate and grave the
situation is in Act II. But, overall, a
terrific job.
David Hunt Stafford,
the producer, has done a remarkable job putting this all together. It is his finest work, that I have witnessed,
to date.
From my perspective, my seat, the press section, the gin
game was lost and the action on the couch facing forward was lost. Hearing was
fine during those times but the facial expressions were nonexistent.
Jeff G. Rack, Set
Design, has created a beautiful set with which the actors can perform their
magic.
Other members of the crew are Don Solosan the Stage Manager, Ric
Zimmerman, the Lighting Designer, and Bill
Froggatt, Sound Designer.
Run! Run! And take someone who makes an exceptional effort to cut off a black cat before it's too late.
THEATRE 40
In the Reuben Cordova Theatre
241 S. MORENO DRIVE
BEVERLY HILLS, CA
90212
WHEN: November 21- December 22, 2013. Thurs.- Sat. at
8:00, Sun. at 2:00. The performance on Friday, November 22 is by invitation.
Dark on Thanksgiving Thursday, November 28.
ADMISSION: Thurs. & Fri. $24. Sat. & Sun. $26.
RESERVATIONS: (310)
364-0535.
ONLINE TICKETING:
www.theatre40.org
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