TheatreDate.com Reviews

Just in time for Father’s Day fun, the Chico Theater Company presents a family show about a family man in their production of “Father Knows Best.”

Based on the show that amused both early television viewers and radio listeners alike, this production is entertainingly outdated.

The play revolves around one man’s home coming after a long day at work. Jim Anderson (played by Darren Clark) comes home expecting to find a hot meal and a happy family. He takes off his sports jacket and slips into a comfortable, baby blue sweeter anticipating some peace and quiet. But his peace is quickly broken when his loving wife Margaret (played by Andrea Doughman) informs him that the washing machine is on the frits and even worse, dinner isn’t ready.

Jim makes the best of the situation by sitting down with his daily newspaper before dinner for some quiet reading. But he reads troubling news about a teenage couple’s failed elopement. Outraged by the over-sexed youths of the day he forbids his oldest daughter Betty (played by Cassi Nicolas) from going out on a date she has planed for the evening.

In an attempt to protect his family from a hostile world he demands that all his children and his wife cancel their evening plans. His son Bud (played by Kevin White) can’t go to basketball practice and his youngest daughter Kathy (played by Courtney Doughman) has to cancel sleep over plans with her friend Patty (played by Katie Van Patten). Instead of going out, Jim tells his family to invite their friends in. Soon Betty’s date Ralph (played by Tyler Davis), Bud’s basketball team and 10-year-old Patty are all set loose around the house.

In addition to their other guests, Margaret’s rumor spreading society friends (played by Lindsay Ashcraft, Morgan Reeves and Ronda Morse) drop by, along with a washing machine repairman (played by Roger Hart) and Jim’s prospective business client Mr. Brinkworth (played by Marc Edson).

When Jim’s daughter Betty tries to escape with her date in all the pandemonium, Jim calls the police, and the party is soon joined by Officer Johnson (played by Mark Doughman) and wayward youth specialist Detective Jenkins (played by Brandy Jackson).

All of Jim’s best intentions turn against him and everything that can go wrong does. But like all good sitcoms peace is soon restored and, of course, it all works out in the end.

Director Joe Garrow loved the script when he and producer Marc Edson read it over vacation, he said. Of the dozens of scripts they read “Father Knows Best” stood out.

“We really look for more family oriented, light hearted stuff,” Garrow said. “I’ve always been a fan of the old black and white sitcoms.”

Indeed “Nick at Nite” would be proud of this production, which draws upon all the old sitcom sappiness. Clark’s portrayal of the overbearing 1950’s style dad is comical and committed. His interaction with the other members of his family builds on the strong foundation of the Kristin Sergel script.

In addition to the fine work of the cast playing the Anderson family, the colorful collage of supporting cast members adds a good deal of depth to the comic layering of the play.

Garrow was pleased with the efforts made by the cast of mostly fresh faces, he said. Actors with limited stage experience filled many of the play’s lead roles.

“There are a lot of new comers in this show,” he said.

But at least one of the play’s performers is no newcomer to the CTC experience. In fact he’s kind of the theater’s resident father himself. Marc Edson is the theater’s owner, and although he obviously spends a lot of time around the set, he’s not usually on stage.

He asked to be in the show, Garrow said, and the director was happy to put him in the cast.

“One thing about Marc and I is we really work well together,” Garrow said.

Edson’s addition to the cast rounded out a quality group, and if you want to see him on stage this might be you’re only chance till next season. Directing shows and running a theater doesn’t leave much time for acting Edson said, so this was a pleasant, but rare experience for him.

“About once a year I can get up there,” he said after the show.

So go see him and the rest of the cast before it’s too late. And if you still can’t decide what to get your own father for Father’s Day, don’t forget that there is a special Father’s Day matinee at 2 p.m. on June 17th.

In the spring of 1939 one of the most daring Hollywood producers of the day, David O. Selznick, began production of what would one day become one of the greatest Hollywood epics of all time.

Everyone he knew told him it would be a turkey.

But he was determined to see it through. Still, after one week of production on the film “Gone With the Wind,” he saw his vision of the story falling apart.

After just one week of production he halted the shooting of the film, fired his director and threw out his original screenplay.

He needed a new script and a new director and he needed them both fast. He turned to longtime friend and screenwriter Ben Hecht, who met with Selznick in his office early one Monday morning. Director Victor Fleming soon joined the two. What happened next has gone down as one of the strangest myths of Hollywood screenwriting.

The play “Moonlight and Magnolias” showing at the Paradise Theater on the Ridge explores what might have happened on that spring morning and the events of the subsequent days. Legend has is that Selznick kept Hecht and Fleming prisoners, locking himself and his two cohorts in his office until the new script was written.

Feeding his prisoners nothing but bananas and peanuts for five days Selznick and Fleming act out the novel in its entirety for Hecht, who hasn’t read any of the book with the exception of the first page.

The play is delightfully funny and the actors wonderfully charismatic. Selznick (played by Richard Lauson) is quirky and crazy. He seems unconcerned that his writer hasn’t read the book upon which the movie is being made, and acts blasé about shutting down production. But the audience gets the sense that his nonchalance is all a performance for the benefit of his coworkers. Lauson gives Selznick sudden eruptions of anger and agitation, adding to the complexity of producer’s character.

His interaction with Hecht (played by Michael Clemens) is uproariously funny at times and darkly meaningful at others. Hecht tries to act as Selznick’s conscience, reminding him of his responsibly as a Jew to tell audience members of the injustice of tyranny and oppression. As he becomes familiar with the storyline of the book his sympathy remains with the slaves and not with the main characters of the book, the elite southern landowners. Hecht draws parallels between the slave owners of the south and the tyranny of the Nazi invasion that was sweeping through Europe at the time.

Clemens was wonderful to watch. His portrayal of the cynical Hollywood screenwriter was immaculate. At the start of the second act all three men are ragged and tired. The office is strewn with the peanut shells and banana peals. Crumpled paper is everywhere and Hecht is asleep at the desk, comically typing involuntarily. Clemens looked as though he was genuinely and simultaneously going crazy and falling apart.

And then there was Victor Fleming (played by Jim Allison). Allison’s portrayal of the rough and tumble chauffeur turned director was an entertaining counter point to Selznick’s eccentricity and Hecht’s cynicism. While acting out the book for the benefit of the writer, he hams up many of the characters of the novel. Most memorably perhaps is his portrayal of the pregnant Melanie while Selznick danced around excitedly, acting out the part of the fiery heroin Scarlett.

Finally there is the small but important role of Miss Poppenghul (played by Teresa Hurley) Selznick’s secretary. She enters the office to replenish the peanut supply and tidy things up from time to time and seems almost more effected by the stress of the situation then the men actually being held against their will.

The play is well written, well produced and well cast. The set is by far one the best I’ve seen, full of the kind of details necessary for a set in such an intimate theater.

Director of the play Judy Clemens talked about the appeal of the Ron Hutchinson play.

“It’s really a great, great, great script,” she said. “It was the funniest thing I’ve read in a long time. I love the whole concept of the show.”

The challenge of directing a play with such a small cast didn’t slow her down at all, she said. She relished the chance to work with the actors to make the script come to life.

“I like working with smaller casts with a really meaty script,” she said. “It (the script) just makes me laugh, it makes me laugh out loud.”

Equal parts eerie and elegant, strange and beautiful, the show “Goblin Market,” now playing at the Blue Room captures something both childish and erotic.

Based on a poem supposedly written for children by Christina Rossetti, the adaptation by Polly Pen and Peggy Harmon is full of overtly sexual undertones. An alluring blend of music, poetry and prose, the show is experimental and edgy, the kind of daring performance the Blue Room is justly known for.

The two women show tells the story of a pair of sisters, Laura (played by Allison Rich), and Lizzy (played by Ashley Mauerhan). The play begins in song, with the two adult Victorian era women returning to their childhood nursery.

Together they are magically transported back to childhood and their room is transformed to a woody glen, a wilderness inhabited by fruit gobbling goblins. Laura is enticed by the fruity offerings, Lizzy wary. The diametrically opposed personalities of the sisters are illustrated by the difference in their costumes, Laura wearing black lingerie with hell-fire red fringe, and innocent Lizzy gingerly sporting virginal pink and white.

The two are transported through the childhood fairyland and ushered on by absinth and alluring recollections of adolescence.

Like all good poetry the message is mired in language and metaphoric imagery, leaving the audience to draw what they will from the performance.

The show itself has been bouncing around the Blue Room for over a year, the idea kicked from hand to hand, Rich said. It finally found a home in the directorial dome of David Davalos, and the script landed in Rich’s lap.

“I fell in love with it, you know,” she said. “The language is so beautiful.”

Joe Hilsee gave her the script and music and asked her to find another performer who could join her in the show, she said. Having just worked with Mauerhan at a production for Chico State she proposed the part to her.

“I went to Ashley ’cause she’s perfect,” she said. “Her voice is just perfect for this role.”

Mauerhan is perfect for the part, but she was apprehensive before opening night.

“I was nervous all day,” she admitted.

Part of her apprehension comes from the fact that her role calls for nudity during the climactic song of the show, and she was more nervous about the exposure then the notes, she said.

“It [the nudity] kind of works to work with the nervous energy,” she explained.

The show is a wonderful and highly experimental piece of poetic play work. Maybe not a family show if you’re uncomfortable with your kids seeing flesh, but still a show that should satisfy all age groups. Rich in meaning and very imaginative, the show is full of playful imagery. Everything in the performance has its place.

“It’s wonderful,” Mauerhan said of the staging. “Everything has a point. There’s nothing that doesn’t have meaning on stage.”

Shakespeare’s plays, though well written, are full of deception, trickery, and fornication. In other words, they were made for Hollywood.

Back in 1934, Warner Brothers put that thinking to the test. The play “Shakespeare in Hollywood,” now showing at the Chico Cabaret, explores what might have happened on Director Max Rinehart’s set during the filming of the major motion picture, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

The movie features performers like Joe E. Brown, James Cagney and Dick Powell. In the play these actors and many more become involved in a tangled love affair when The Bard’s most infamous fairy’s, Oberon and his right hand “man” Puck, descend magically on the set.

Oberon (played by Cabaret newcomer Gabriel Moss) falls in love with one of Hollywood’s up coming actresses, a young woman named Olivia (played by Kate Ruttenburg).

Director Max Reinhardt (played by Jeff Dickenson) finds himself in need of actors to play the fairies in his film. He stumbles upon Oberon and Puck (played by Keilana Decker) entangled in an argument and casts them on the spot.

Oberon instructs Puck to use a magic flower to draw other suitors away from his beloved Olivia. But Puck, who is wrapped in a vale of newfound stardom, bungles the job. And of course hilarity ensues.

The cast is a comic mix of characters, amusingly arranged by director Sue Ruttenburg. She enjoys plays by writer Ken Ludwig because they often incorporate lager casts and lack a single starring role, she said. When she’s looking for plays to feature at the Cabaret, that’s what she’s looking for.

“It’s a real ensemble cast,” she said.

The actors in the show have a healthy understanding of comic timing and put on a high-energy show. Studio mogul Jack Warner (played by Tony Varicelli) and his male secretary Daryl (played by Conan Duch) keep the laughs coming along with help from Warner’s love interest Lydia (played by Jennifer McAfee) and many others.

Even the extras, which were not written into the play’s script but are an invention of director Ruttenburg’s imagination, create a sense of action on the set and provide a healthy heap of laughs.

But the creative culprit who steals all the show’s comic currency is undoubtedly Decker. Playing Puck, she steals every scene with a mix of physical comedy, funny voices and a healthy blend of theatric “magic.”

Director Ruttenburg, has put together a must see comedy show, but she admits she had a lot of help from the cast.

“I was just really lucky,” she said.

And so is everyone who catches this show.

Honey, put the kids in the minivan, we’re going out to the CTC.

The Chico Theater Company is putting on a show for the whole family. Disney’s “High School Musical” is a high energy, fast-paced look at high school life, Disney style.

The show, directed by CTC owner Marc C. Edson, follows the lives of two high school kids. Not necessarily star crossed lovers, but something along those lines.

High school basketball star Troy Bolton (played by Bryant Jarrard) is drawn into trying out for the school musical, a secret he wants to keep from his macho jock friends.

At the same time the new girl in school Gabreilla Montz (played by Emily Peitz) tries to find her place in her new environment. Before long she exposes herself as a math wiz and falls in with the brainiac crowed.

But the two have a past that none of their friends know about. Over winter break they met at a ski lodge and melted the nights away with hot karaoke. A shame Bolton doesn’t think he can live with if his teammates find out.

The story is as old as time, but the young actors give it new life. The two try to keep their affection for each other a secret from friends, family, and rival lovers. Bad luck, bad timing and bad people spoil all their plans, and just when things look hopeless, everything works out just right.

It’s just the kind of family show Edson likes to put on at the CTC, he said. His daughter turned him on to the project about two years ago, and when the licensing was made available, he put in a bid the same day. Friday night he watched the kids he directed take the stage.

“I was really happy with them,” he said. “They just really came alive tonight. They really wanted to work hard and put on a good show.”

The show itself was robust with multiple full-cast dance numbers and songs that showed the exuberance of the young cast. Their energy kept the show entertaining and interesting. Quick set changes and good pacing kept the audience engaged from the time the curtain went up, until it dropped again.

Anytime you get young actors on a stage there are going to be some rough edges, and this show is no exception. There were some missed notes and some dropped choreography, but nothing that couldn’t happen at any show and certainly nothing that took away from the over all enjoyability of the performance.

The choreographic accomplishments were especially impressive when you consider the limited experience of the majority of the cast.

Choreographer Joe Garrow was more then pleased with the way the performance went.

“These kids just worked really hard to accomplish what they did,” he said. “Believe it or not, none of these kids are dancers.”

All and all I was impressed by the maturity and over all professionalism of the cast. But above them all, Petiz showed like a bright light. To say that she stole the show with her performance would be an understatement. Her voice was crisp, clear, strong, soft, evocative and engaging. It’s hard to believe that at the age of 18, she wasn’t nervous before taking the stage for her first big lead, but she maintains she was the essence of cool.

“I’ve been more nervous before other shows,” she said. And with the kind of talent she has, I think we can believe that she had nothing to worry about. She’s got a lifetime of experience to draw from. “I’ve sung ever since I was young,” she said. If we’re lucky, she’ll still be singing even when she’s old.

The Blue Room is playing host to “Nixon’s Nixon” a powerful political performance that speculates what might have happened August 7, 1974 in the Lincoln sitting room of the White House. That night President Nixon summoned Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to the presidential home; the next day he announced to the world his intention to resign.

The two-man show staring local Joe Hilsee and play write David Davalos is intriguing, entertaining and well performed.

The show follows the two men through the late summer evening. They chat and bicker like old friends over countless glasses of brandy while recounting in vivid detail some of their memorable presidential moments. They take turns doing impressions of soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev, they act out their interview with Mao Zedong, and they even do imitations of each other.

The audience gets an inside look at some of the presidents dirty little secrets, and although Russell Lees’ scripts is not necessarily sympathetic to the two statesmen, it does humanize them and show a certain uncharacteristic complexity.

Hilsee and Davalos — who first read through the script in Hilsee’s living room sometime last summer — recruited Director Jerry Miller into the project, Hilsee said. Miller was all too happy to work with the accomplished performers.

“We were all pretty much on the same page on this,” Miller said. “I’d show up at rehearsals and it would just be fun all the way.”

That amusing, playful energy seeps into the audience, who gets to laugh along with the tasteless frat house humor of the president and the self-serving seriousness of the secretary.

Davalos, an actor, director and playwright who splits his time between living in Denver and New York, portrays the President with such realism that at first you think Nixon must be rolling over in his grave, and then you swear he got out of the grave to play himself on stage. Davalos not only nails the Nixon manner of speech, he also masterfully manipulates his body, performing the quintessential Nixon mannerisms right down to the President’s stooping posture.

Hilsee also did a wonderful job with his role as the straight man in the slapstick duo. Although he put less focus on trying to impersonate Dr. Kissinger, he did capture something of the uptight Jewish immigrant.

“It comes down to how far do you want to go with an impression,” Hilsee said.

Although the character portrayals were good, what really makes the show impressive is the casual banter between the only two actors on stage. Like a well-choreographed dance, the conversation is so realistic that at times it’s hard to remember that the show is scripted.

It’s an even more impressive accomplishment when you take into consideration the fact that the two have only been rehearsing for a week. Because of Davalos’ obligations back East, he only came into town a few days before the show opened, Hilsee said.

All and all this show is a real winner. Its got it all: laughs, tears, and incriminating tapes. The show is fun for all ages, not just those who can remember the events portrayed in the play first hand.

The helpful and informative program has a list of world leaders, first family members and presidential henchmen to help younger audience members understand what’s going on. It even has a time line of events that starts in 1948 and walks readers through the official resignation on August 9, 1974.

Catch this show before it leaves office forever.