Avenue Q, Austin Theatre Project, May 30 - June 16, 2013

By Brian Paul Scipione

Can You Show me How to Get to Avenue Q?

Long past are the days when musicals were solely the domain of prancing pirates and line dancing debutantes. The villains sang in baritone and the hero, a lilting tenor, as he won, lost and re-won the girl in different fantastical settings. There is the theme song, the hero’s lament, the song that exposes the girl’s conflicting feelings, the growling villain’s rant-song, and a choral effort by all the scrappy townsfolk who may help or hinder the hero. Oh yes, and a lot of love songs.

And though Avenue Q doesn’t stray too far from this formula it is part of the movement of modern musicals away from Disney-like, parentally approved, mores. Controversy and transgression has indubitably long been the territory of the dramatic arts, but singing about it joyfully has only come into the mainstream of Broadway during the last twenty years or so.

And Broadway loves it! Avenue Q won Tony Awards for best musical, best book, and best score in 2004. 2011’s Tony Award winning musical The Book of Mormon suggests that this isn’t going to change anytime too soon. Musicals have been tackling larger issues and using melody to express complex emotions since their inception. West Side Story is about gang warfare, murder, and racism. Yet it approaches these issues with kid gloves. The 1993 Tony Award winning musical Kiss of the Spider Woman was one of the first to include the grittiness and crudity that were attached to its themes on stage. In other words, it wasn’t afraid to try to make the audience cringe.

In the case of Avenue Q, this translates to onstage puppet sex. For this reason it is often billed as Sesame Street for adults. It isn’t out to change the world or hide its harsh realities from the audience. In the end it straddles the line between fun and message by introducing subjects like getting fired, being crushed by bills, and wanting companionship, and then dismissing them as things no one can do anything about.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

AVENUE Q, Austin Theatre Project at the Dougherty Arts Center, May 30 - June 16, 2013

[Austin Theatre Project, performing at the Dougherty Arts Center, 1110 Barton Springs Rd. - click for map]

presents


















    
Tickets $15 - $30 plus service fee at





 The Tony-winning musical AVENUE Q is the hilarious and heartfelt story of a bright-eyed college grad who comes to New York with big dreams and little money. He can only afford to live on Avenue Q but (good news!) his neighbors turn out to be a remarkably funny bunch of characters.

Imagine an adult version of "Sesame Street," with the preschool banter replaced with irreverent songs such as "It Sucks to Be Me," "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist," "The Internet Is For Porn," and "If You Were Gay." But don't let the light-hearted melodies and adorable puppets fool you... This is NOT your child's favorite street!

STARRING: Michelle Alexander, Isaac Arrieta, Matthew Burnett, R. Michael Clinkscales, Marett Hanes, Rachel Hoovler, June Julian, Ashley Laverty, Eric Meo

DIRECTED BY: Marco Bazan
MUSIC DIRECTOR/CONDUCTOR: David Blackburn
LIGHTING DESIGN: Taylor Whitmire
SOUND DESIGN: Sam Kokojko
SET DESIGN: David Blackburn

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Event AVENUE Q The Tony-winning musical AVENUE Q is the hilarious and heartfelt story of a bright-eyed college grad who comes to New York with big dreams and little money. He can only afford to live on Avenue Q but (good news!) his neighbors turn out to be a remarkably funny bunch of characters. Imagine an adult version of "Sesame Street," with the preschool banter replaced with irreverent songs such as "It Sucks to Be Me," "Everyone's A Little Bit Racist," "The Internet Is For Porn," and "If You Were Gay." But don't let the light-hearted melodies and adorable puppets fool you... This is NOT your child's favorite street! STARRING: Michelle Alexander Isaac Arrieta Matthew Burnett Rmichael Clinkscales Marett Hanes Rachel Hoovler June Julian Ashley Laverty Eric Meo DIRECTED BY: Marco Bazan MUSIC DIRECTOR/CONDUCTOR: David Blackburn LIGHTING DESIGN: Taylor Whitmire SOUND DESIGN: Sam Kokojko SET DESIGN: David Blackburn

DEX & ABBY by Allan Baker, staged readings at the Salvage Vanguard Theatre, March 11 and 16, 2013

Abby Productions

presents staged readings of

Dex & Abby

by Allan Baker

directed by Stacey Glazer


and featuring Matt Burnett,Tom Byrne, David Henne, Jenny Lavery and Kelly Matthews

Monday, March 11 and Saturday, March 16, 7:30 p.m.
Salvage Vanguard Theatre, 2803 Manor Rd. -- click for map

supported by a grant from Scriptworks

Though Sean and Jim are enjoying the beginning of a relationship and their new home together, their dogs, Abby and Dex, are not. Abby, Sean's young dog must learn to deal with Dex, who has been Jim's companion and protector for thirteen years.

Over a period of two years we watch the development of these two relationships and see how the dogs both resolve their conflicts and aid Sean and Jim in the resolution of theirs. Fortunately, all four characters are able to communicate in lovely and very unexpected ways. A funny, sweet and very moving tribute to the importance of the companions with whom we share our lives.

(Click to go to the AustinLiveTheatre front page)

Cabaret by Kander & Ebb, City Theatre, August 16 - September 9

by Michael Meigs

It's enticingly easy to imagine yourself away to 1930's Berlin in this staging of Kander and Ebb's Cabaret, for the City Theatre's space creates exactly the right dynamic. There are rules-of-thumb for successful parties. The first involves adequate supplies of liquor, but the second one, in fact the more important, requires fitting the numbers of guests to the space. The City's 85-seat intimate space is exactly right, both as a cabaret world where performers will joke, wink and jiggle just for you and as a combustible concentration of expectations.

Why Cabaret? It's a warhorse of the American stage, of course, packed with thrills, pleasures and very familiar music. In part it's a coming-of-age story, both for our naïve protagonist Cliff the aspiring novelist and for the naïve United States that he represents. There's a Freudian sting to it as well, for Cabaret balances the pleasure principle and coyly concealed visions of violence and death -- and incarnates them in the character of the EmCee. In that role, relative newcomer to Austin Johann Robert Wood is absolutely terrific -- an enticing guide to the hells of temptation. Charismatic, muscular, graceful and mocking, he dominates that stage even when it's filled up with quivering pink pulchritude.

Read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: The Eight: Reindeer Monologues, City Theatre, December 2 - 18

Found on-line:

presents

The Eight: Reindeer Monologues

by Jeff Goode

directed by Stacey Glazer

December 1 - 18

**AFTER HOURS SHOWS** Fridays and Saturdays at 10 p.m., Sundays 8:00 p.m. (no show Dec. 11.)

City Theatre, 3823 Airport Rd, behind the Shell station (click for map)

For reservations, call 512-524-2870 or e-mail info@citytheatreaustin.org. General seating $10.
www.citytheatreaustin.org

A wickedly funny alternative to traditional candy-cane cheer. Scandal erupts at the North Pole when one of Santa's eight tiny reindeer accuses him of sexual harassment. As the mass media descends upon the event, the other members of the sleigh team demand to share their perspectives, and a horrific tale of corruption and perversion emerges - which seems to implicate everyone from the teeniest elf to the tainted Saint himself. With each deer's stunning confession, the truth behind the shocking allegations becomes clearer...and murkier... Don't miss this hilarious holiday spectacle.

Featuring the cast of Clay Avery – Dasher, Matthew Burnett - Cupid, Toby Minor – Hollywood, Mindy Rast-Keenan – Blitzen, Mario Silva – Comet, Megan Ortiz – Dancer, Andy Brown – Donner and Lesley O’Neal – Vixen. Directed by Stacey Glazer.

Upcoming: The Fantasticks, Silver Spur Theatre, Salado, May 13 - 14

Received directly:

presents

The Fantasticks

7:30 p.m., May 13 & 14

Silver Spur Theater, 108 Royal St., Salado (click for map)

Admissions are $15 for adults; $12 for senior citizens, military personnel and students with ID; and $8 for children aged 12. No matinee. Group rates are available. For reservations, call the box office at 254-947-3456.

This romantic musical with music by Harvey Schmidt and lyrics by Tom Jones, has deep Texas roots and a UT-Austin connection before becoming the longest running musical in New York at more than 50 years. It's a moving tale of young lovers schemingly pushed together by parents. The couple becomes disillusioned, only to discover a more mature and meaningful relationship. The show is punctuated by a bountiful series of catchy, memorable songs, like "Try To Remember." For directions or more play info, visit www.saladosilverspurtheater.com.

Barbara Schuler Productions (BSP) of Cedar Park, TX, will reprise its 2010 anniversary production of the popular musical with two performances only at 7:30 p.m. on May 13 and 14 at the Silver Spur Theater, (108 Royal St.) in historic Downtown Salado. Video clip at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UK8Q4lZEqVs.

“BSP brought the revival of this romantic-but-bittersweet charmer to the Spur in mid-January and we’re glad to have them back,” said Grainger Esch, Co-founder and Executive Director of the Silver Spur Theater, a seven-year-old professional theater.

Theatre-goers who’ve seen this show before will enjoy it again, and those patrons who’ve never seen it will discover the magic that has made it a worldwide success,” Esch said. “At the heart of ‘The Fantasticks’ are breathtaking poetry and subtle theatrical sophistication, a purity and simplicity that transcends cultural barriers.”

Admissions are $15 for adults; $12 for senior citizens, military personnel and students with ID; and $8 for children aged 12. There will be no Saturday matinee. Group rates are available. For reservations, call the box office at 254-947-3456. For directions or more play info, visit www.saladosilverspurtheater.com.

The Silver Spur Theater serves wine, beer, cider and expanded food choices at evening shows (only) at The Spuradical Social Club in its lobby. http://www.spuradicalsocialclub.net/ Membership is achieved by swiping your driver’s license before purchasing.

“We’ve got a great cast and a brilliant music director” (David Blackburn),” said Barbara Schuler, a professional actress and director of the show. “We are all thrilled to have a chance to work together again in this revival of our March production.”

Upcoming: Cabaret, Georgetown Palace Theatre, May 13 - June 12

Received directly:

presents

Cabaret

the musical by John Kander and Fred Ebb

May 13 - June 12

Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 p.m., Sundays at 2 p.m.

The Georgetown Palace Theatre

810 South Austin Avenue, Georgetown (click for map)

Ticket prices are $24 General Admission, $22 Seniors (55+), $14 Students (13-22) and Active Military, and $10 Children (12 and younger). Contains Mild Profanity, Sexual Content, and Adult Themes

Welcome to the Kit Kat Klub! For this production only, Row AA has been removed and Row A has been fitted with special cabaret tables for two! For ticket price plus $10 per seat, this includes being seated by a cast member, complimentary refreshments to enhance your Kit Kat Klub experience. Only 6 tables per show. To order simply click on an open seat on Row A. We will seat only adults, 21 and over, in these special seats.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com . . . .

Upcoming: A Night on the Red Carpet, Georgetown Palace Theatre, June 6

Received by e-mail:

The Georgetown Palace Theatre Events

A Night on the Red Carpet
The Georgetown Palace Theatre
Saturday June 6, 7:30 p.m

The Palace Theatre Guild announces a Gala show featuring Palace fan favorites performing various musical numbers from Oscar winners to numbers from past Palace productions. This is a special event not to be missed!

Including Performances by Rick Felkins, Joe Penrod, Patty Rowell, Cathie Sheridan, Wendy Zavaleta, Cliff Butler and Matthew Burnett.
And enjoy a special sneak preview of The Odd Couple.

Tickets are $10 each for this special event! Log on to www.thegeorgetownpalace.org to buy tickets online or call 512-869-7469 to order over the phone. Walk-up tickets may also be available.

The Georgetown Palace Theatre
810 South Austin Avenue
Georgetown, Texas 78626
512-869-7469

The Little Shop of Horrors, Georgetown Palace, May 1 - 31

The Georgetown Palace does its familiar high-gloss finish on this production with talented actors, a vigorous show orchestra, and an impressively atmospheric functional two-story set presenting Muschnik's shabby flower shop in the even shabbier surroundings of a NYC "Skid Row." The audience appeared to enjoy the goings-on and the six- and eight-year-olds sitting near me in Row B were fascinated by the puppetry for Audry II, the extraterrestrial carnivorous plant out to conquer the world from those humble beginnings.

For me it was a Grade A production of a Grade D musical play.

This story started as the campy 1960s black humor movie shot in two days by Roger Corman, with Jack Nicholson in a minor role. The 1982 success in New York of the musical The Little Shop of Horrors prompted puppeteer Frank Oz to produce a movie version in 1986. The show has made the rounds ever since, usually accompanied by the teeny and the massive versions of Audrey II provided by Character Translations in Pennsylvania, based on designs by Martin P. Robinson, a Jim Henson Master Puppeteer.

I enjoy camp and I enjoy black humor. But in order to appreciate camp, you have to know and relish the art form or the artwork that is being exaggerated to pieces. Relating to this show, one of my blind spots, not shared by the majority of the American public, was cinematic. I don't know much about horror films, alien invasion films or creature films, except for Godzilla and King Kong (in the 1928 version, please). And the other blind spot was Audrey II. When I settled in the front of the Georgetown Palace last Friday, I'd never seen the play or either of the movies. So I was a blank slate for Howard Ashman's book and lyrics, as well as for Alan Menken's music.

Click to read more at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

Grease, Georgetown Palace Theatre, March 20 - April 19

The Georgetown Palace Theatre is back to doing what they do best -- a rollicking big musical comedy with lots of dance,sparkling with a glitzy coating of happy nostalgia. Grease is no trail breaker, but it's for sure an entertainment where the whole family can kick back and enjoy. With the bonus that they'll learn that live theatre is so much more than the talking pictures from the 1978 movie with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John.

Everybody's doing it. The Texas School for the Deaf puts on a version tonight and tomorrow, with the interesting twist that the the interpreters for the audience will be speaking, not signing. Tex-Arts is running a June theatre camp for youth that will culminate in performances of the show.



The Palace does the theatrical version of Grease, which originated in Chicago in 1971 and went on to Broadway. There's music not included in the movie version, but the story's generally the same: after a summer romance, sweet Sandy and greaser guy Danny encounter one another unexpectedly at their urban high school, with all sorts of social pressures from the Pink Girls clique and the guys' T-Birds gang (a pretty innocent group of gawkers, closer to the then-contemporary "Happy Days" TV show than to the gangs in West Side Story).

Scenes take place in the school cafeteria, at a slumber party, around a hot rod, in the burger palace, at the gym dance, at the drive-in movie, and at a party. No studying for these kids! Teachers are goofs and the class brain is, in today's terms, a nerd. But who cares? What's important is hormones, acting out, having a good time, and getting the chance to dance, dance, dance!

Read More at AustinLiveTheatre.com. . . .

The Producers, Georgetown Palace Theatre, September 26- November 2

This zany musical comedy comes bursting out of the Georgetown Palace stage like fireworks on the 4th of July.

Yes, we all know the story. After all, the Mel Brooks film about fraudsters producing a Broadway musical was released in 1968, forty years ago.

Brooks and co-writer Thomas Meehan turned it into a real Broadway musical in 2001, with musical numbers by Brooks, where it won an unprecedented 12 Tony awards and ran for 2500 performances. The London production ran for three years.

And in 2005 Sony Pictures made a movie of it – a movie about a musical about producing a musical, drawn from a movie about producing a musical.

But who cares? The Georgetown Palace production is terrific fun and its big- voiced glittering cast of 24 could have filled with music and laughter a hall ten times as large as the 300-seat Palace.

It’s gaudy, vulgar, suggestive, happy and filled with as many comics and Girls Girls Girls as any Ziegfield show.

Yes, you’ll recognize almost every bit from the movie(s) or the Broadway show – the fretful, mendacious Max Bialystock, his reluctant partner the nervous young CPA Leopold Bloom, Ulla the Swedish knockout with all those names, Otto the Nazi, flaming homosexuals, and the little old ladies enamored of Max. Mel Brooks spares no one, and that’s part of the fun of it.

When Jewish comedian Mel Brooks came up with the concept for The Producers and the musical number “Springtime for Hitler” back in 1968 it was a dazzling piece of audacity. For gosh sake, World War II had ended less than twenty-five years before that, and the “Greatest Generation,” contemporaries with Brooks, were in the spring of middle age.

Brooks was God’s fool, dancing on the rawest catastrophe of the western world and daring to laugh at the guilty, long and hard, while mocking the business of show business.

The Palace scrupulously advises its patrons, Rated PG-13 for sexual humor and references and is intended for mature audiences.

The shock value is mostly gone today, although I wonder what conversations parents had after opening night with the various ten- to twelve-year-olds dressed in their best and seated in the front rows. In fact, those youngsters were probably unshockable - - but maybe apprehensive about discussing sex jokes and flowering queens with their parents.

Stars Matt Gauck as Max Bialystock and Larry Frier as the worried young Leo Bloom are a great pair of song-and-dance comedians.


Gauck must have been stifling under the stage lights with that padded belly and an elaborate bald wig with comb-over; the ageing effect of his makeup was a bit too sharp in the opening scenes but the fast pace and relentless clowning got it properly blended in.

Bialystock is the epitome of an unscrupulous egotist, and the ongoing gag of his instruction of the naïve Bloom on Broadway ethics and morals was comic and cautionary.

A quick summary, in case you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last 40 years: Bialystock is on his way down, reduced to seducing a stable of little old ladies for funds. Visiting him, the grandma type nicknamed “Hold Me,Touch Me” suggests coyly, ”Let’s play the virgin milkmaid and the well hung stable boy!”



Bloom, the quiet, worried accountant, comments to Bialystock in passing that if backers lost money in a show, it would be easy to conceal contributions and keep excess financing. Bialystock leaps on the idea and pushes Bloom to become his partner in crime.





Bloom declines, but back at the Dickensean accounting office, he succumbs to visions of glamor, success and showgirls.


So B&B set out to find the worst possible script, the worst possible director, and the worst possible actors. And they succeed!

The script is “Springtime for Hitler” by unrepentent Nazi Franz Liebkind (Bill Lindstrom, also a fine hoofer, with accent, helmet and mad-eyed devotion). [German: "Liebkind" = English "Love Child."]


The director is Roger DeBris (Matt Connely), as wildly, extravagantly queer as one could imagine, shown here being coiffed by his sidekick Carmen Ghia (played with wicked, pouting, hip-swiveling delight by Palace regular Matthew Burnett). ["Bris" is the Jewish ritual of circumcision, carried out on a Jewish male child the 8th day after birth; the "Carmen Ghia" was a nifty sport car from the 1950s.]


And for the actors, Nazi Liebkind and the luscious Swedish cupcake Ulla Inga Hansen Bensen Yonsen Tallen-Hallen Svaden-Svanson. Bialystock explains to Bloom, “There’s always a part for the producer’s girlfriend!”

Nicole Pritchard as Ulla can act, sing, and dance, and she’s as tasty a bit of eye-candy as you’re likely to see. Pritchard has just gotten to Austin after playing Disney characters at Orlando for three years. Texans are clear winners by the change.



The show goes on, complete with that signature number, “Springtime for Hitler.”



Ulla plays a sort of Miss Rhinegold walk-on (a concept straight out of Ziegfield).




The show is a disaster. But only for Bialystock and Bloom. At the last minute they must substitute director DeBris for Nazi Liebkind in the role of Hitler, and a campy, crowd-loving Adolf makes the show a smash hit.

Max Bialystock gets arrested while Bloom and Ulla abscond to Brazil. Max waxes indignant in jail, recounting in fragmentary fashion the whole plot to that point, getting one of the biggest laughs in the show.

Bloom returns. Both go to prison, where they put on a wildly successful prison revue and get pardons. They celebrate with a fine bit of hoofing at the end.



Before the show, director Mary Ellen Butler greeted the opening night audience and invited them to the on-stage post-production party. She warned us that because technical director Ron Watson had just sprained an ankle, his substitute working the twelve sets of flies (hoistable scenery) might be shaky from time to time. And by the way, Austin’s Paramount theatre is equipped with only ten sets of flies.

So what’s not to like, already? This show has energy, glitter, comedy and class; it’s an insouciant salute to the big kid in all of us. It makes us say, like Leopold Bloom, I wanna be a producer, too.

Congratulations to cast, director, and crew. This was a huge, complicated piece to produce. Mary Ellen says that 2000 hours of volunteer labor went into construction of the sets. Ensemble members had up to 9 costume changes and pitched in to keep those scene changes running smoothly. They all appeared to be having the time of their lives. They certainly deserved that enthusiastic applause at the curtain call.


And congratulations once again to the Georgetown Palace Theatre for its vaulting ambition and the high quality of its entertainment!

Warren & Derrick's on-line favorable comments about this production, October 20

Ronnisrants comments, October 25

New York Times rave review of the Broadway production, April 20, 2001 - - “A Scam That’ll Knock ‘em Dead”

Wikipedia on The Producers (Musical)

The 1968 movie at Internet Movie Database (IMDB.com), with a 42-image slide show

IMDB memorable quotes (lots of them!) from The Producers, 2005 movie version