Tuesday, January 12, 1999
Curtain Call
"The Last Session"
Through Feb. 14
Tiffany Theater
West Hollywood
Tickets: $33.50-$37.50
(310) 289-2999
When Gideon (Bob Stillman), an AIDS-afflicted singer and
songwriter, gathers his old musical colleagues at a recording
studio for a final album, he believes he will be seeing his friends
for the last time. The next day, Gideon plans to end his life.
Without notifying his friends of the reason behind a
get-together, Gideon invites diva Tryshia (Michele Mais), his
ex-wife Vicki (Amy Coleman) and Buddy (Joel Traywick), an overeager
fan of Gideon’s who is sent to his session by mistake.
This sets up the premise for a reunion of sorts for Gideon as
the final celebration of the past in "The Last Session." Like works
exploring the subject of AIDS and homosexuality as a physical and a
spiritual struggle like the film "And the Band Played On" and the
musical "Rent," the message of acceptance and tolerance is also
presented here, but this show is consistently funny.
Though AIDS is the focus of "The Last Session," the script is
always full of snappy one-liners for characters to zap each other
with; these are genuinely hilarious and unexpected. Sometimes, you
forget the story centers around a dying man with AIDS, as humor is
used throughout the performance to break up the tension that is
inevitable when AIDS is the subject.
Although some jokes may not be the most politically correct, the
humor is never in bad taste, but instead feels very real to an
intimate group of people who have shared much more than music in
their lives.
The songs, however, provide the forum for Gideon’s heartbreaking
experience with AIDS, such as discovering his positive result,
taking so much medication he wonders if living is worth the pain,
and watching his friends uncomfortably struggle to console him. The
10 songs within the musical are all powerful ballads, delivered
with impressive vocals by all four characters, accompanied by
Stillman’s seemingly effortless keyboard-playing.
But drama within the dialogue does ensue, and quite effectively,
when conservative Bible-preaching Buddy discovers that his beloved
idol is a homosexual and has AIDS. Buddy, the same hyperactive fan
who couldn’t stop praising Gideon in the beginning flees in horror
and disappointment. But he reappears again, determined that his
mission in life is to save Gideon from "hell-fire."
What follows is a theological chess match between Buddy and
Gideon, and their eruptive battle about the meaning of Christianity
and its place for homosexuality is intriguing. It’s impossible to
not get caught up in the two men’s struggle as they vehemently
argue their uncompromising points of view. Toward the end, it isn’t
a question of who is right, rather than the idea of letting someone
at least question the beliefs we think we know all too well.
"The Last Session" is incredibly appealing overall: storywise,
songwise and characterwise. All the characters, except for Gideon,
if described in a few words, would seem annoying as they are all
loud and quick with insults. However, all of them are fleshed-out,
three-dimensional characters, brimming with wry wit or the
outrageous lack of it (as in Buddy’s case). But they are also key
in retaining the energy of the play and of Gideon, a character
based on the musical’s composer, Steve Schalchlin.
Schalchlin wrote these songs while AIDS almost took his life,
but with the help of his longtime companion and the director and
writer of "The Last Session," Jim Brochu, they were able to make
this musical. With its success thus far in New York and other parts
of California, Schalchlin has also remarkably improved and has even
played Gideon in some of the shows.
It seems as if this is the same type of energy that has kept
Schalchlin performing and seeing others find personal meaning from
his story.
Schalchlin claims that this musical is not a completely
autobiographical account of his life, but if it were, he would be
the living spoiler to this amazing work.
Sandy Yang
Rating: 9
"Titanic"
Through Feb. 28
The Ahmanson Theatre
Downtown Los Angeles
Tickets: $30-$75
(213) 628-2772
The sensation of watching the musical "Titanic" might compare to
the ship’s real life sinking. In spite of occasional moments of
song and endearing chemistry between characters, the show never
quite stays afloat. Thus, the retelling of the fateful voyage
becomes a slow, sometimes agonizing experience.
One of the problems with the story’s structure is the
narrative’s meandering from character to character.
In order to represent every social class on board, the audience
gets only small glimpses of the hopes and dreams of the struggling
immigrants and the shallow qualms of the richer patrons.
Between second-class Alice Beane’s wish to rub elbows with
millionaires and third-class lass Kate McGowen’s desire to be a
lady-in-waiting in America, no particular passenger acts as an
appealing guide. Instead, the show relies on many overheard
conversations, which makes it difficult to feel involved in the
characters’ situations.
From the initial reaction of awe on the dock to the final
remembrance of the passengers left out of the lifeboats, the
musical is peppered with flat tunes that give the talented cast
plenty of chances to shine as a group. But the songs seep awkwardly
in between dialogue at times. With the incorporation of too many
details that contributed to the ship’s demise, the characters
sometimes sound like they are humming a U.S. history lesson.
However, some of the stage musical’s melodies help a few
passengers grow to win the audience over, such as Liz McConahay’s
amusing Alice Beane. Also, a lilting duet between radioman Harold
Bride and stoker Frederick Barrett is soulfully captured by Dale
Sandish and a charismatic Brian d’Arcy James – who took on the role
of Barrett in the original Broadway production.
The well-orchestrated sets bring only a piece of the huge boat
deck to life. Many of the scenes encompass a row of doors or
portholes in order to showcase the whole company simultaneously
reacting to the impending disaster. Because the ensemble switches
frequently between crooning and talking during their final breaths,
neither form of communication ultimately moves the audience.
Although the staged boat deck tilts on cue, there are no
visually stunning effects. And unfortunately, for theatergoers who
saw the film version, it will prove difficult to keep visions of
the full-scale ship from dancing in their heads.
Terry Tang
Rating: 4
"Heaven Knows"
Through Jan. 31
The Improv
Hollywood
Tickets: $7
(818) 986-1053
The tagline for "Heaven Knows" is: "A one woman show for three
actors." Shortly into the work however, it is actually a play
centered around struggling actress Kate (Beth Robbins). The other
two players (Mary Cadorette and David Herbelin) take on different
roles of people and beings who will impact Kate’s unsatisfactory
life in the next 48 hours.
But "Heaven Knows" does retain the personal quality of a
one-person show, and it is a very involving and thoughtful journey
into Kate’s life. Kate’s situation of helplessness in a life where
love and success has always eluded her is aided effectively by the
visuals of people responding to her and spare props, but the
strength of the show (as should be in a one woman show) is the
persuasive performance by Robbins.
The title suggests Kate’s plea for God’s help. Kate has spent
her whole life in pursuit of an acting career, but only lands gigs
advertising products like floor wax. Sinking fast into
helplessness, she wonders why life has never given her a break.
At an audition, God’s voice in the darkness (played by both
Cadorette and Herbelin) speaks to Kate. Kate asks, "Are you the
producer?" "You could say that," responds God. She asks why her
life has turned out the way it did. But God responds with more
questions than with answers, telling Kate, "I made human beings so
they can help themselves."
God persuades Kate to attend the 20-year high school reunion she
had planned on ditching. There, she sees an old drama teacher who
asks Kate if she ever learned to let go of her fear and an old
crush who used to be the most athletic girl in school, Laura. The
reunion is a lot of fun as Cadorette and Herbelin change maniacally
from character to character ranging from a lovable nerd to a woman
who can’t stop screaming.
Laura tells Kate, "The funniest person I know is always so
serious." Kate is horrified to see that Laura is confined to a
wheelchair and chastises God for robbing her of her dreams. In a
funny scene later on, Kate is asked to talk to her daughter about
acting and can’t answer why she needs to act.
These scenes provide the tension and incentive Kate needs to
reassess her life and eventually to answer the question she poses
to God.
Later, Kate is shown with her best friend Brian, who arranges a
blind date for her. In between, she is once again rejected for a
gig because she is too uptight, and in a moving soliloquy (or plea
to God) she asks what she has to do to not be such a control freak
because as we’ve seen in her life, that’s what’s hurting her.
Things do light up when Meg, the blind date, turns out to be
terrific and Kate has another chance at a great role. But God tests
Kate’s want to break out of her staunch single-sightedness when
Brian falls ill.
Every scene in "Heaven Knows" is well-acted and the script (also
by Robbins) feels very real at every turn from the high school
reunion to the blind date at Starbucks, and that’s why it is so
pleasurable to watch even if most of the scenes just involve Kate
talking to or awkwardly trying to talk to another character.
Cadorette and Herbelin do a great job in the many different
characters they have to take on, and if Kate is the anchor, they
are the sails that keep the story constantly moving.
Each scene flows into each other incredibly well, and by the
end, the whole is a powerful message of "Your life is your job,"
one of God’s lines, making the title "Heaven Knows" an
oxymoron.
Sandy Yang
Rating: 9
"The Last Session"
Through Feb. 14
Tiffany Theater
West Hollywood
Tickets: $33.50-$37.50
(310) 289-2999
When Gideon (Bob Stillman), an AIDS-afflicted singer and
songwriter, gathers his old musical colleagues at a recording
studio for a final album, he believes he will be seeing his friends
for the last time. The next day, Gideon plans to end his life.
Without notifying his friends of the reason behind a
get-together, Gideon invites diva Tryshia (Michele Mais), his
ex-wife Vicki (Amy Coleman) and Buddy (Joel Traywick), an overeager
fan of Gideon’s who is sent to his session by mistake.
This sets up the premise for a reunion of sorts for Gideon as
the final celebration of the past in "The Last Session." Like works
exploring the subject of AIDS and homosexuality as a physical and a
spiritual struggle like the film "And the Band Played On" and the
musical "Rent," the message of acceptance and tolerance is also
presented here, but this show is consistently funny.
Though AIDS is the focus of "The Last Session," the script is
always full of snappy one-liners for characters to zap each other
with; these are genuinely hilarious and unexpected. Sometimes, you
forget the story centers around a dying man with AIDS, as humor is
used throughout the performance to break up the tension that is
inevitable when AIDS is the subject.
Although some jokes may not be the most politically correct, the
humor is never in bad taste, but instead feels very real to an
intimate group of people who have shared much more than music in
their lives.
The songs, however, provide the forum for Gideon’s heartbreaking
experience with AIDS, such as discovering his positive result,
taking so much medication he wonders if living is worth the pain,
and watching his friends uncomfortably struggle to console him. The
10 songs within the musical are all powerful ballads, delivered
with impressive vocals by all four characters, accompanied by
Stillman’s seemingly effortless keyboard-playing.
But drama within the dialogue does ensue, and quite effectively,
when conservative Bible-preaching Buddy discovers that his beloved
idol is a homosexual and has AIDS. Buddy, the same hyperactive fan
who couldn’t stop praising Gideon in the beginning flees in horror
and disappointment. But he reappears again, determined that his
mission in life is to save Gideon from "hell-fire."
What follows is a theological chess match between Buddy and
Gideon, and their eruptive battle about the meaning of Christianity
and its place for homosexuality is intriguing. It’s impossible to
not get caught up in the two men’s struggle as they vehemently
argue their uncompromising points of view. Toward the end, it isn’t
a question of who is right, rather than the idea of letting someone
at least question the beliefs we think we know all too well.
"The Last Session" is incredibly appealing overall: storywise,
songwise and characterwise. All the characters, except for Gideon,
if described in a few words, would seem annoying as they are all
loud and quick with insults. However, all of them are fleshed-out,
three-dimensional characters, brimming with wry wit or the
outrageous lack of it (as in Buddy’s case). But they are also key
in retaining the energy of the play and of Gideon, a character
based on the musical’s composer, Steve Schalchlin.
Schalchlin wrote these songs while AIDS almost took his life,
but with the help of his longtime companion and the director and
writer of "The Last Session," Jim Brochu, they were able to make
this musical. With its success thus far in New York and other parts
of California, Schalchlin has also remarkably improved and has even
played Gideon in some of the shows.
It seems as if this is the same type of energy that has kept
Schalchlin performing and seeing others find personal meaning from
his story.
Schalchlin claims that this musical is not a completely
autobiographical account of his life, but if it were, he would be
the living spoiler to this amazing work.
Sandy Yang
Rating: 9
"Titanic"
Through Feb. 28
The Ahmanson Theatre
Downtown Los Angeles
Tickets: $30-$75
(213) 628-2772
The sensation of watching the musical "Titanic" might compare to
the ship’s real life sinking. In spite of occasional moments of
song and endearing chemistry between characters, the show never
quite stays afloat. Thus, the retelling of the fateful voyage
becomes a slow, sometimes agonizing experience.
One of the problems with the story’s structure is the
narrative’s meandering from character to character.
In order to represent every social class on board, the audience
gets only small glimpses of the hopes and dreams of the struggling
immigrants and the shallow qualms of the richer patrons.
Between second-class Alice Beane’s wish to rub elbows with
millionaires and third-class lass Kate McGowen’s desire to be a
lady-in-waiting in America, no particular passenger acts as an
appealing guide. Instead, the show relies on many overheard
conversations, which makes it difficult to feel involved in the
characters’ situations.
From the initial reaction of awe on the dock to the final
remembrance of the passengers left out of the lifeboats, the
musical is peppered with flat tunes that give the talented cast
plenty of chances to shine as a group. But the songs seep awkwardly
in between dialogue at times. With the incorporation of too many
details that contributed to the ship’s demise, the characters
sometimes sound like they are humming a U.S. history lesson.
However, some of the stage musical’s melodies help a few
passengers grow to win the audience over, such as Liz McConahay’s
amusing Alice Beane. Also, a lilting duet between radioman Harold
Bride and stoker Frederick Barrett is soulfully captured by Dale
Sandish and a charismatic Brian d’Arcy James – who took on the role
of Barrett in the original Broadway production.
The well-orchestrated sets bring only a piece of the huge boat
deck to life. Many of the scenes encompass a row of doors or
portholes in order to showcase the whole company simultaneously
reacting to the impending disaster. Because the ensemble switches
frequently between crooning and talking during their final breaths,
neither form of communication ultimately moves the audience.
Although the staged boat deck tilts on cue, there are no
visually stunning effects. And unfortunately, for theatergoers who
saw the film version, it will prove difficult to keep visions of
the full-scale ship from dancing in their heads.
Terry Tang
Rating: 4
"Heaven Knows"
Through Jan. 31
The Improv
Hollywood
Tickets: $7
(818) 986-1053
The tagline for "Heaven Knows" is: "A one woman show for three
actors." Shortly into the work however, it is actually a play
centered around struggling actress Kate (Beth Robbins). The other
two players (Mary Cadorette and David Herbelin) take on different
roles of people and beings who will impact Kate’s unsatisfactory
life in the next 48 hours.
But "Heaven Knows" does retain the personal quality of a
one-person show, and it is a very involving and thoughtful journey
into Kate’s life. Kate’s situation of helplessness in a life where
love and success has always eluded her is aided effectively by the
visuals of people responding to her and spare props, but the
strength of the show (as should be in a one woman show) is the
persuasive performance by Robbins.
The title suggests Kate’s plea for God’s help. Kate has spent
her whole life in pursuit of an acting career, but only lands gigs
advertising products like floor wax. Sinking fast into
helplessness, she wonders why life has never given her a break.
At an audition, God’s voice in the darkness (played by both
Cadorette and Herbelin) speaks to Kate. Kate asks, "Are you the
producer?" "You could say that," responds God. She asks why her
life has turned out the way it did. But God responds with more
questions than with answers, telling Kate, "I made human beings so
they can help themselves."
God persuades Kate to attend the 20-year high school reunion she
had planned on ditching. There, she sees an old drama teacher who
asks Kate if she ever learned to let go of her fear and an old
crush who used to be the most athletic girl in school, Laura. The
reunion is a lot of fun as Cadorette and Herbelin change maniacally
from character to character ranging from a lovable nerd to a woman
who can’t stop screaming.
Laura tells Kate, "The funniest person I know is always so
serious." Kate is horrified to see that Laura is confined to a
wheelchair and chastises God for robbing her of her dreams. In a
funny scene later on, Kate is asked to talk to her daughter about
acting and can’t answer why she needs to act.
These scenes provide the tension and incentive Kate needs to
reassess her life and eventually to answer the question she poses
to God.
Later, Kate is shown with her best friend Brian, who arranges a
blind date for her. In between, she is once again rejected for a
gig because she is too uptight, and in a moving soliloquy (or plea
to God) she asks what she has to do to not be such a control freak
because as we’ve seen in her life, that’s what’s hurting her.
Things do light up when Meg, the blind date, turns out to be
terrific and Kate has another chance at a great role. But God tests
Kate’s want to break out of her staunch single-sightedness when
Brian falls ill.
Every scene in "Heaven Knows" is well-acted and the script (also
by Robbins) feels very real at every turn from the high school
reunion to the blind date at Starbucks, and that’s why it is so
pleasurable to watch even if most of the scenes just involve Kate
talking to or awkwardly trying to talk to another character.
Cadorette and Herbelin do a great job in the many different
characters they have to take on, and if Kate is the anchor, they
are the sails that keep the story constantly moving.
Each scene flows into each other incredibly well, and by the
end, the whole is a powerful message of "Your life is your job,"
one of God’s lines, making the title "Heaven Knows" an
oxymoron.
Sandy Yang
Rating: 9Joan Marcus
David Beditz and Liz McConahay are a married couple in "Titanic"
the musical.
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