Closer than Ever – Musical Perfection at ICT Long Beach

Posted on by Diversions LA

 

closer 1

The International City Theatre in Long Beach is hosting a powerhouse of a musical through March 6th. And by musical, we mean all music, all the time.

There’s not a word of spoken dialog here, instead audiences find some twenty five story-songs composed by lyricist Richard Maltby Jr., with lush music by David Shire.  This off-Broadway classic is extremely well served by its vibrant and versatile cast members who combine strong voice with often heartbreaking emotion.

The stories these songs tell are of love – of life, of relationships -boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife, love lost, found, illicit, sexual, platonic, desired, and abandoned.

With no spoken dialog how does it work? Think vignettes, musical vignettes, think clear voices, spirited delivery, and a mix of the comic and the tragic. Highlights include the absolutely riveting tale of the loss of a marriage and the life of a liberated woman sung by Valerie Perri, “Life Story,” and the rageful, hilarious “You Wanna Be My Friend” sung by Katheryne Penny when she discovers her boyfriend just wants to be friends.

On the distaff side, the men in the cast are no musical slouches either. Kevin Bailey’s loving father/son tribute “If I Sing,” is also a heart-melter. Adam von Almen’s “One Of The Good Guys,” a tribute to fidelity and lost chances both, is also deeply moving.

And let’s not forget the music supporting these stand-out, indefatigable singers. Theater music director Gerald Sternbach on grand piano and Brad Babinski on bass.

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When viewing this production, we had no idea that the play was not an original production for ICT. The fact that it’s a classic piece of theater makes it no less vital – this “Closer than Ever” is “Fresher than Ever” thanks to its incredible cast and simply great score.

The International City Theatre is located in the Long Beach Performing Arts Center, 300 E. Ocean Blvd., Long Beach

  • Genie Davis; Photos by Tracey Roman

Dreamcatcher at the Fountain Theater

Posted on by Diversions LA
Dreamcatcher 2
The diminutive Fountain Theater may be small in size, but the performances and theme of its current offering, Dreamcatcher, are huge.
Written by Stephen Sachs, the theater’s artistic director, the play, running through March 31st, on the surface tells the story of Roy (Brian Tichnell) a passionate solar engineer bent on helping the environment, and Opal (Elizabeth Frances) the vibrant young Mojave woman with whom he’s having an affair. They find themselves at odds over the fact that Roy’s company is planning to build a massive solar energy project on ground that Opal has just discovered holds an ancient burial ground.
Beneath the surface of this dilemma is another: Opal may be pregnant, Roy may be married to someone else.
Taking place on a stage in the round that’s been transformed to a circle of desert that’s basically sand and rock, the sometimes steamy, always morally provocative dialog rockets the audience through the single act play constantly on edge. Who is right and who is wrong here? Are moral concerns to be put aside for the “greater good,” whether that is the ecology of the planet or the wife Roy left behind in Massachusetts? Are traditions, lives, past lives, animals, humans merely particles caught in a corporate machine, no matter how well-intentioned?  What is of value? An idea, a science, love, the hapless birds whose fiery deaths Roy jokes about having witnessed as they plummet into the heat of the solar panels?
Dreamcatcher 1
All of these questions simmer while Roy and Opal’s relationship boils over in a fight both physical and emotional, cathartic and heart-breaking. While the play may at times skim over the hard choices both the audience and the characters must make, the political, social, environmental, and moral choices and ambiguities are entirely relatable and extremely timely.
Take this one in – it’s the kind of tough, makes-you-think theater we need more of in a city of thoughtless celluloid super heroes.
The Fountain Theater is located at 5060 Fountain Ave. in Los Angeles.

 

 

 

PhotoLA – A Snapshot of Time

Posted on by Diversions LA

What the eye sees, what the camera sees, what the eye of the beholder of what the camera sees: that’s PhotoLA.

The art renaissance that is taking place in Los Angeles is coming to a momentous peak this January, with PhotoLA the first in a string of large scale events including the LA Art Show, Fabrik Expo, and Art Los Angeles Contemporary, which are all opening this week.

PhotoLA was held last weekend at The Reef,  the cavernous 2nd floor space at LA Mart in DTLA. The opening night gala, benefiting Best Buddies, was crowded for the event’s tribute to Los Angeles artist James Welling.

The city’s longest-running art fair, PhotoLA ran the gamut of cutting edge pieces, historical photos, stunning landscapes, political art, abstract photos, and pop art. Eclectic panels populated the weekend, too, including provocative subjects such as “The Instagram Effect: How Instagram is Changing the Way We See Photography”; “Robert Mapplethorpe: Beyond Good and Evil”; and “Artists Take Issue: Perspectives and Practices in Activist Photography.”

What was our take? A wide range of exceptional pieces, with a number of standout independent photographers and curated group exhibitions.

Photo LA Welling

The honoree of the opening gala, James Welling. This post-modern photographic artist has a storied career experimenting with a variety of photographic mediums from digital prints to Polaroids.

Photo LA Weller

Some visual highlights: below, the haunting and riveting work of Kathy Curtis Cahill, whose art is dedicated to revealing “how fragile young children are, and how everything matters in the home environment.”

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Fascinating historical photos – and the  music of David Bowie.

Photo LA Bowie

Photo Pop Art – the striking and amusing work of Marianne Hess.

Photo LA Haas

National Geographic landscape stunners – sometimes a straight forward shot of natural beauty evokes feelings beyond what is seen.

Photo LA landscape

Below: a delightfully different approach to scene: the fine work of Osceola Refetoff, also a panel speaker on activist photography moderated by Shana Nys Dambrot. Refetoff’s work, among other cutting edge pieces, was curated by VICA, the non-profit Venice Institute of Contemporary Art.

photo LA Osceola

Below: the opening night crowd viewing PhotoLA  – reflected in a San Francisco skyline.

photo LA san fran

Artist Jeffry Sklan’s enormous – and enormously beautiful flowers, below. Impressive detail and color.

Photo LA Sklan

Artist Sklan  below – photo by Nina Bonyak

photo LA sklan 2

To sum up: Photo LA presented an international eye on the world, vibrating through the lens of many Los Angeles area curators and artists. What you see is literally what you “get” out of interpreting an artist’s own unique vision of the world.

  • Genie Davis

Lamb: Like Lolita Without the Sex

Posted on by Diversions LA
RGB tiff image by MetisIP
RGB tiff image by MetisIP

Moving, strange, mythic, and beautiful, Lamb takes the novel of the same name by Bonnie Nadzam and crafts superior cinema that will have viewers talking for a long time.

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Viewed at a screening held at the Cinefamily in LA – with a robust q and a led by Mark and Jay Duplass, close friends with star and director Ross Partridge – Lamb evoked a hushed, palpable tension in the audience. Would the unthinkable happen? Would the balance tip?

Partridge plays 47-year-old David Lamb, dealing with the recent loss of his father, about to be divorced, holding his office-romance lover at bay. That’s the back story, but the tale being told is that of his unlikely relationship with 11-year-old Tommie (the brilliant Oona Lawrence.) Their friendship is based on mutual loneliness, on Tommie’s desire to be noticed – her mother and mom’s boyfriend are dismissive – and on David’s desire to…be a father figure? Brother? Reconnect with his own painfully lost childhood? Something darker?

Soon David invites her to join him on a trip out west to his family’s cabin, just for a few days. Tommie agrees, and a nerve-wracking but surfacely beautiful – and chaste – idyll occurs, interrupted when David’s girlfriend arrives for a surprise visit.

LAMB_Still4_Oona Laurence_Photo Cred Mel Eslyn

Both Lawrence and Partridge are riveting, and pity, loathe, fear, or be charmed by David, the film takes you on a ride right along with the characters, in a relationship which walks a very fine line indeed between platonic, profound love and emotional abuse.

The beautifully shot and acted film was filmed in just 18 days. Partridge discussed the making of the film and the role of Lamb. “When you put an 11-year-old and a 47-year-old man together on screen, you have to find deep psychological contexts. You play it as honest as possible with this crazy conflicted person that David is, but you don’t instantly judge the character. I was compelled to do the story,” he explains.

With a shoot that fast paced, Partridge had to just “trust the process. There was no time for playback.”

So was David’s relationship to Tommie ultimately good for the girl? “When rehearsing with Oona, I had to believe it was as an actor. The story is truly about two people who didn’t get the love they needed as children. For David, this is his last attempt to do something that in his mind, in his broken world, was seen as salvation.”

Lamb is available on VOD – watch it, and get ready to think about it, discuss it, and recommend it.

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  • Genie Davis; Photos courtesy of Brigade Marketing