SOUVENIR ltw show

NOTEWORTHY "SOUVENIR"

Carlisle Ellis and Michael Martinez in "Souvenir"

photo by Ryan  Fagan

Blessed with far more money than talent, Florence Foster Jenkins financed her own desire to sing the classical soprano repertoire despite her inability to do so. She was also blessed with timing, in the sense that her career took place between the two world wars.

As for musical timing, well, she wasn't any better at that than she was at singing on pitch and sustaining a single note for more than a couple of seconds. Some recordings that showcase her lack of talent are posted on YouTube, should you be tempted to think that "maybe Florence Foster Jenkins wasn't all that bad."

We also see that Tucson's own actress Carlisle Ellis sounds remarkably like those recordings while performing in the Live Theatre Workshop production of "Souvenir" written by Stephen Temperley and directed by Stephen Frankenfield.

The only other cast member is pianist/actor Michael Martinez as Jenkins' accompanist Cosme McMoon. There couldn't be a better name for this musical enabler of Jenkins' need to believe she is a great soprano.

Temperley centers his play backstage just before Jenkins is to give her first and only performance at Carnegie Hall in the autumn of 1944. McMoon in his tuxedo sits at a piano reminiscing over the controversial career of his patron.

Through Martinez' subtly shaded performance we easily believe he felt sincerely sorry for Jenkins, even as he rode her unusual popularity to greater heights than he could have expected on his own.

Historically, Jenkins became quite popular for all the wrong reasons. She had no talent for singing, but threw herself into every performance with such unbridled brio that audiences didn't know what to think.

This being a time when well-educated New Yorkers still valued manners and civil attitudes in public, they did not want to laugh out loud. They felt embarrassed for her, so they applauded outwardly while stifling their laughter.

Jenkins felt vindication in their applause, and interpreted their muffled laughs as the sounds of their pleasure.

It is Ellis' responsibility to convey all this misunderstanding through her conversation and body language, also while implying such a clueless attitude that she becomes funny – but not in a nice way.

Talk about a tough assignment.

Frankenfield walks an equally tight rope developing these two characters, avoiding obtuse awareness on one side and artless arrogance on the other.

The artistic achievements of all three are so strong, it is only after walking out of the theater that one begins to think about people around Tucson right now who have similar blind spots about their own talents.

"Souvenir" continues through Nov. 16 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 3 p.m. Sundays, at Live Theatre Workshop, 5317 E. Speedway Blvd. Tickets are $18, with discounts. For details and reservations, 520-327-4242, www.livetheatreworkshop.org

 

 

FIFTH ESTATE loft movie

"FIFTH ESTATE" AN ESSENTIAL REMINDER

Swashbucklers with laptops, Julian Assange  (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Bruhl) take on the world.

"The Fifth Estate" is getting a pretty good pummeling by film critics, which can only mean veteran direct Bill Condon ("Dreamgirls," "The Twilight Saga") is on to something genuine.

Hopefully there is some investigative film critic somewhere who is digging to uncover which censor insured this cinema tribute to the greatest whistle-blower of all time would not be offensive to any government department or official.

Maybe we wouldn't expect the American feds to lionize Julian Assange or Pvt. Bradley Manning, but certainly all United States citizens do need to know the U.S. federal government is suspicious of all its own citizens.

Sure, we sort of knew that. But now we really know it.

"Fifth Estate" begins with the mercurial personality of blond-haired Assange, an Australian visionary who believed the anonymity of the internet would make it a modern day trumpet of the people – a weapon for justice powerful enough to bring down the most arrogant corporation…or government.

Assange (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his WikiLeaks website are introduced doing good, toppling high powered scoundrels. Assange acquires a devoted disciple, Daniel Domscheit-Berg (Daniel Bruhl), and WikiLeaks becomes an international player of consequence on the digital scene.

That's when the consequences with content begin. Assange is portrayed giving in to his dark side, being more selfish and less idealistic. Domscheit-Berg begins to see Assange's feet of clay and distances himself from the new schemes of Assange to publish online that massive trove of classified U.S. government documents.

We all know the story. It was in all the newspapers.

What we don't get is anything new. All the cinema action comes from dramatizing the race to prevent the release of this information before Assange decides when and how to release it.

"Fifth Estate" doesn't take us too far down the rabbit hole. Laura Linney and Stanley Tucci play a couple of extremely upset mid-level officials in the State Department, wailing about treasonous acts. Army Private Bradley Manning is nowhere to be seen, except for a photo of Manning in a screen tableau of the mainstream media coverage.

So…what are we left with? A very sanitized version of the affair, based on Domscheit-Berg's own book "Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website."

Whether or not "Fifth Estate" is a good movie isn't the point. Everyone should see this film just to be reminded that powerful and omnipotent (and often hidden) government forces are at work right now in our native land.

 

WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF THUNDER beowulf alley oct 2013

SATIRICAL SOAP OPERA: "WHAT IS THE CAUSE OF THUNDER?"

Lucille Petty plays Ophelia, Ada's daughter.

There is genuine talent onstage at Beowulf Alley Theatre. The satirical comedy, "What Is the Cause of Thunder?" by Noah Haidle, has had successful productions in other cities.

But this particular Tucson production doesn't quite make it. There are some extenuating circumstances involved, to be sure.

 Hearing the actors is often a problem at Beowulf Alley because the theater itself contains a lot of echo. Big voices work much better here than normal conversational voices.

  Susan Arnold plays Ada, a soap opera actress

But speaking in a loud voice which sounds natural and effortless isn't easy. More rehearsal time would have helped, too.

At last night's opening performance, the many roles played by Lucille Petty -- and the inability of Susan Arnold's character to tell the difference between real life and her fantasy life -- often made all the characters feel blurred.

There are no other actors in the cast. Leslie Miller is directing.

At times it was difficult to keep track of all the twists and turns Haidle has written into his story of Ada's (Arnold) battle with mental illness. Or maybe it isn't mental illness. Maybe it is a projection of dreams continually frustrated by reality.

Petty plays Ophelia, the daughter of Ada, and several other women who have an impact on Ada's unsatisfied life. As well as those on the TV stage set who complicate Ada's make-believe life.

Ada is the perennial soap opera actor who can never get into "real" acting. After 27 years in the daytime version of show business, her career stalled out quite some time ago.

Ophelia wants to be supportive, but she has plenty problems of her own – including a twin sister trapped in an off-again, on-again coma for six years. But that may be two of the characters she plays on the soap opera…I think.

That title comes from a line in "King Lear," and is also the name of the soap opera on which Ada has toiled so loyally for so long.

"What Is The Cause Of Thunder?" continues through Oct. 20 with performances at 7:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, 2:30 p.m. Sundays, at Beowulf Alley Theatre, 11 S. Sixth Ave. Tickets are $23 general admission, $10 students with ID. For tickets and reservations, 520-882-0555 or www.beowulfalley.com

RUSH movie oct 2013

"RUSH" TO GET YOUR SEAT

James Hunt and Niki Lauda love their red Formula One race cars.

Although that title "Rush" doesn't tell us much, it refers directly to the adrenaline rush that fueled the drivers of Formula One cars racing through Europe's twisting road courses in the 1970s – before the annual fatality rate of Formula One drivers finally forced them to face their own suicidal death wish.

Actually, it wasn't a death wish so much as it was a fantasy of invincibility in a world of millionaires willing to spend vast sums of money to build race cars that kept getting lighter and faster. Since ordinary safety equipment adds weight without contributing to speed, it wasn't very high on any car owner's list of requirements.

As for the Formula One drivers themselves, few pursuits in Europe had more cachet. The grounds of Formula Two and Three race tracks were full of bravado and guys willing to risk a fatal crash to win a race.

Two of them were English playboy James Hunt and Austrian gear head Niki Lauda. Both came from extremely wealthy families. Hunt (Chris Hemsworth) was the daredevil with lightning reflexes. Lauda (Daniel Bruhl) was the auto analyst who could squeeze more performance from any machine.

Taken together, their fabled duels for dominance in the mid-1970s personified the classic clash in all of art between impassioned intuition and fabled technique.

Howard's most brilliant film yet captures this magnificent conflict in ultra high definition cinematography on giant screens with beefed  up theater sound systems able to reproduce the chest-pumping roar of those unrestricted engines.

Yes, race fans, the track scenes of actual racing feel absolutely authentic. And there are lots of them. Eschew the special digital effects and artificially pumped up engine screams. Part of the film's mythology is that several days were reserved for getting in the cars, with cameras mounted all around, and going racing.

The film roughly spans 1975-76 when Hunt and Lauda were rising fast through the Formula One ranks as Howard hones his edge to this high octane duel of RPMs at the redline.

What's best is the quality of off-track acting as Hemsworth and Bruhl deepen the driven personalities of these two competitors.  

Hunt's easy charm and world class bank account are only the surface of a man determined to show he is worth something more.

Lauda is equally brutal with recognizing his own lack of social skills as he is sizing up an inferior race car. But Lauda also knows he has some genius qualities in setting up and driving these cars. What he lacks in charisma he is determined to make up in racing success.

The stage is set, and history has already recorded the result.  If you know who won this competition, keep it to yourself. Screen writer Peter Morgan ("The Queen," "Frost/Nixon," "The Last King of Scotland) does an excellent job putting in enough racing terminology to keep the most unaware audience member up on the importance of this competition.

In the pantheon of sports movies, "Rush" easily secures its place among the front-runners.

 

WHEN COMEDY WENT TO SCHOOL loft documentary oct 2013

TAKE MY WIFE...PLEASE

Sure, this lovable doc could include more jokes. Blame the early days of black-and-white television for my love of vaudeville humor.

But the heartfelt documentary "When Comedy Went To School," now playing at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd., can still fluff up a lot of fondness for those standup comedians who plied their trade in upstate New York's Catskill mountain resorts after World War II.

We learn Grossinger's, for example, was originally a forgotten farmhouse with a lot of rooms, purchased during the early 1900s by Asher Selig Grossinger, who offered guests a kosher kitchen.

And talk about an odd couple, Buddy Hackett and Lenny Bruce were once Catskill busboys who roomed together.

Jewish American culture sank deep roots into such mountain hotel giants as Grossinger's, the Flagler, the Concord and the Pines. Colonies of rental cabins added their own unique flavor of camping out under the trees.

But even though the established places put a lot of emphasis on their endless food service and energetic social directors, we are here to celebrate the comedians, especially the Jewish ones.

Before Woody Allen and Jerry Seinfeld there was Sid Caesar and that noisy kid Jerry Lewis. Mort Sahl was there, too, followed after a time by Joan Rivers and Rodney Dangerfield.

These performers and lots more are represented in this 70-minute film. But they aren't telling jokes so much as they are talking about the atmosphere and attitudes of "working in the Catskills" where established comedians could safely experiment with new routines before taking them out in public – and the young guys could learn from the masters.

For anyone who has any connection at all to that scene, the manners and the jokes, "When Comedy Went To School" is like thumbing through the high school yearbook, laughing at the clothes as well as the humor while still feeling the comfort of sharing old times again.

 

 

"+1" loft movie oct 2013

"+1" MULTIPLIES THE ODDSEven frightened teens have metaphorical lives in "+1".

The oddly titled "+1" is sort of a "Ground Hog Day" for teens combined with a touch of aliens invading from beyond. Lovers of philosophical metaphor, however, can have some deeper fun with this off-kilter pic now playing at the Loft Cinema, 3233 E. Speedway Blvd.

There is the repetition of daily life in every high school, the daily skirmishes between the cool ones who constantly need to prove themselves, and the uncool ones who can't stop striving to prove they are good at something…anything.

And most fascinating of all, in every one of these hallway conflicts, is the wish of all teens that they could go back and start over, skip that blood-curdling awkward moment, that tongue-tied response to the one person who's been the object of their every fancy since forever.

What kid hasn't dreamed of a parallel universe where it was just the other people who got caught doing dumb stuff?

Actually, to tell you the truth, every student who wants to be a filmmaker one day should see "+1." There are the germs of so many terrific ideas planted here like germs cultivating in a petri dish, this movie deserves a special award for idea germination.

 Rhys Wakefield from Australia plays David, the cute boy everything happens to. Logan Miller is Teddy, the somewhat dufus sidekick of David. Natalie Hall is the hot girl with no name and Jill (Ashley Hinshaw) is David's bitchy girlfriend.

A little more metaphor arrives in the setting, a wild party full of strangers in a strange house where anything can happen (as well as a couple of curious product mentions for Home Depot).

You remember how, when you party with people who don't know you, it is easier to show off a little more, flirt a little more, maybe do other things…. And invariably stumble into a room where you shouldn't be.

All sorts of things like that happen, as the idea of what every 15-year-old guy thinks goes on at college fraternity parties, is portrayed in full excess.

So OK, then we get to the sci-fi "Ground Hog Day" part which is, admittedly, somewhat confusing. Our four central characters establish themselves then begin to notice there is a certain repetition going on, like they are caught in a time loop.

They also notice, after awhile, that this party contains another person who looks exactly like each one of them. Is it a parallel party in a parallel world?

But interestingly, these doubles don't have the same memory bank of new experiences as their "originals." So the originals can share information which the doubles don't know because it hasn't happened to them yet.

This becomes a key ingredient as the story evolves, but don't worry too much about it. Making sense is not the objective here.

Anything that gets you in more of a party mood would be appropriate, though, before buying that ticket and settling down in the theater.

SISTER ACT bwy in tucson oct 2013

"SISTER ACT" FEELS GOOD

These nuns get the church rockin' to the Seventies in "Sister Act."

If you loved the movie starring Whoopi Goldberg, or just love the idea of poking some gentle fun at Catholic nuns who still haunt your memory, you will love the "Sister Act" production Broadway in Tucson has brought to Centennial Hall at the University of Arizona.

Full of energetic performers and vibrant stage sets, this show has the feel of a genuine New York production. The church where much of the second act action takes place wins kudos for its towering Madonna figure and faux stained glass window treatments.

All the original songs have echoes of the "Philadelphia Freedom" era, with pumped up disco, jumpsuits and bell bottoms…and a mirror ball, for those who remember the Seventies. My personal favorite touch was Monsignor O'Hara (Richard Pruitt) speaking from the pulpit with a sexy Barry White voice.

Ta'Rea Campbell has the Goldberg role of Deloris, singing in a Supremes-type trio on Christmas Eve in Philadelphia, with her show business career as big a dream as getting a nice gift from Santa Claus.

Campbell has a strong voice and packs a lot spunky sass into her role. She isn't a comic performer so much as she is an enthusiastic one, which is plenty good enough.

At times she is nearly upstaged by Hollis Resnik as the staunchly conservative Mother Superior. Resnik with her older, more mature presence gives her musical moments a more resonant touch that just feels deeper than the others.

The story, of course, sets up Delores as a gangster's moll who accidentally witnesses a murder. For her own protection, Delores is sent by police to hide in local convent.  

The reserved personalities of all the sisters in their drab black robes get a good shaking up when Delores starts to roll. As she turns the staid chorus into a joyful celebration of life, everybody feels lots better.

All the secondary cast members pitch in on their numbers to keep the energy building. A trio of gangsters sings like the Bee Gees, several of the nuns have engaging turns as they come to life under Delores' influence.

"Sister Act" is a feel-good musical for all the family, flaunting its innocence about life and making you love it. Performances continue evenings at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 6:30 p.m. Sunday, matinees are 2 p.m. Saturday and 1 p.m. Sunday, at Centennial Hall, 1020 E. University Blvd., on the University of Arizona campus.

Tickets are $29-$75 through Broadway in Tucson. Details and reservations, broadwayintucson.com, or in person at the Centennial Hall box office.