'You Can't Take It With You' but I did in Alexandria

From left, cast members of You Can't Take It With You at Little Theatre of Alexandria:  Bernard Engel (Gramps), Jonathan Gruich (Ed), Jerry Hoffman (Mr. Henderson), Ted Culler (Paul Sycamore), Amy Griffin (Penny Sycamore) and Raeanna Nicole Larson (Essie)/Photo by Matt Liptak

 It was a joy to leave the theatre and almost skip along the brick sidewalk in the rain which is the sensation I felt after seeing Little Theatre of Alexandria's marvelous new show, You Can't Take It With You. 

From the get-go, this is a lark. And you thought your family was crazy?

You ain't seen nuthin' yet.


Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman's 1936 Broadway show is lots of laughs and gaiety in 2019 when a young man takes his ultra-snooty parents to meet his fiancée's family and have dinner. 

Try canned salmon and frankfurters since, whoops!  They came on the wrong night.  Tony, the son, (Matt Tucker) screwed up his calendar, or did he?

Dressed to the nines in fur and tuxedo, the Kirbys (Kate Ives and James McDaniel 5th) arrive at the Sycamores' where the lady of the house, Mrs. Sycamore (Amy Griffin) has multiple hobbies, Gramps (Bernard Engel in as natural a role as anyone could expect) collects snakes and doesn't pay income tax, Mr. Sycamore makes fireworks in his cellar with an assistant, Mr. DePinna (Steve Rosenthal) who came for dinner and stayed eight years, and two daughters, who are ...

The "normal" one, Alice (Emmy Leaverton), who is Tony's fiancée, and the other one, Essie (Raeanna Nicole Larson), a dancing queen in constant motion, pirouetting and sticking her legs out whenever she can, always talking and never missing a beat.  (She wants to be a dancer.)  

She is married to Ed (Jonathan Gruich) who plays the xylophone.  

Essie's Russian instructor (Peter Halverson is Boris ) arrives, and a drunk "Grand Duchess" (Melissa Dunlap) slips in and crashes upside down on the sofa.  (Don't ask. You have to be there.)

The kitchen help (Chantel F. Grant is Reba and Robert Freeman is Donald) are a sane couple who bring levity and reason to the crazies found in the living room.


The star of the show, Amy Griffin as Mrs. Sycamore, begins the show pecking away on her typewriter on her newest hobby, play writing.  

Surely a next year nominee for a WATCH  Outstanding Actress, she's like a butterfly which flits and floats from one topic to the next, but always exuberant. 

The single set scene is the Sycamores' cluttered living and  dining room in New York City (but any place will do), nicely designed by Grant Kevin Lane, assisted by many. 

Costume designer Erin Nixon dresses her in June Cleaver fashions (from Leave It to Beaver, if anyone is old enough to remember that) with pearls, constant dresses, and high heels, at home.  (That's the way they used to dress...supposedly.)
 
Meanwhile, here come the FBI and the IRS,  and you get the picture, or you will, if you can still get a seat and come away from it all.

Others in the cast are Jerry Hoffman and Mark Stein as "the men."  

The play won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and when made into a motion picture in 1939, won Best Picture and Best Director (Frank Capra) and was nominated for six more Oscars. 


Masterful direction by Stephen Jarrett, assisted by Matthew Munroe; choreography by Melissa Dunlap ; sound by Janice Rivera and more (how about an explosion in the cellar accompanied by pow! zoom! wow! lighting by Franklin C. Coleman?), hair and makeup by Susan Boyd; dialects coach, Julia Abakaeva; fight choreographer, Michael Page; stage managers, Samantha Jensen and Shannon Starcher; producers, Jamie Blake and Eileen Doherty and many more help bring it all together and make for one enjoyable time at the theatre.
 
What: You Can't Take It With You

When: Now through March 16, 2019. Wednesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. The Sunday March 10 matinee has sold out.


Where: Little Theatre of Alexandria, 600 Wolfe Street, Alexandria, VA 22314

Tickets:  $21 to $24

Rating:  "G"

Public transportation: The closest Metro station is King Street, about 13 blocks away.  From there, a Dash bus will take you near the theatre.

Parking:  On the streets and in many garages nearby.  If Capital One Bank at Wilkes and Washington streets is closed, the bank's lot is open to LTA patrons at no charge

For more information:  703-683-0496

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Olney's outstanding 'Once' extended

Gregory Maheu, the "guy" and the ensemble of Once at Olney Theatre Center/Photo: Stan Barouh You can hear the music from the pictures.

It's a wonderful night (or day) at the theatre. They sing! They dance! They act! They play! 

You like music?  You're gonna love Once at the Olney Theatre Center and its common language which speaks throughout the world.

Malinda Kathleen Reese is "Girl" and Gregory Maheu is "Guy" in Once at Olney Theatre Center/Photo: Stan Barouh

The music starts before you enter the theatre when the troupe's music rings out in the entrance hall to welcome you and tease with the promise of a good time ahead.

How can things go wrong with such a dandy beginning?  What's a play, a novel, life, without a bit of contrast, some problems? It's all about ups and downs and taking advantage of every single day.

And isn't that what entertainment is all about?

John Sygar (Andrej), Carlos Castillo (Svec), Daven Ralston (Reza), Malinda Kathleen Reese (Girl), Somaya Litmon (Ivanka), and Emily Mikesell (Baruska) in Once at Olney Theatre Center/Photo: Stan Barouh

A "Guy" (Gregory Maheu) is down in the dumps in Dublin (or any city) suffering ill effects of unrequited love when suddenly (you never know what the day is going to bring), a "Girl" (Malina Kathleen Reese) appears.  She tries to drag him out of his slump from the dump in Dublin, and there they go!

A woman rescues the man!  (That they have no names means they are everybody.)

Mr. Maheu plays the guitar and Ms. Reese, the piano, and, like the rest of the cast, they sing and dance practically non-stop.

They've got talent!

Billy (Dave Stishan), one of my favorites who plays four instruments, is the virile shop owner, the "he-man" who takes guff from no one, including Guy who is a competitor for Girl, but she has no time for aggressors like Billy. 

In a post-show exchange with members of the audience, Baruška (Emily Mikesell) said one of the hardest demands on the actors is to sing while making music (she plays violin, ukulele, and accordion, but not at the same time), but the cast succeeds in making it look so easy.  

An actor's skill, no? 

At the audience session, actors credited voice and dialect coach Lynn Watson for their convincing Irish speech.

First a movie, then a play, Once's "Falling Shortly" received the 2007 Oscar for Best Original Song, and five years later, the production won eight Tonys. 

This band of strolling musicians  play banjos, accordion, piano, guitars, mandolins, electric bass, violins, cello, papoose (?), bodhran (?), ukulele, tambourine, melodica (?), castanets (?), and cajón (the instrument from Peru which looks like a box, acts like a box and sounds like a box when hit by fingers, hands and sticks).  

Except for the children, every actor plays at least one instrument in the show, and "Svec" (Carlos Castillo) plays six, and "Andrej" (John Sygar, the dance captain), five. (My notes say: "Buy the soundtrack" which is rarely found among my pages.)


As it should be, the set by Michael Schweikardt is simple and uncomplicated with colorful pieces of lumber hanging at angles for backdrop.  

The musicians sit in the shadows in a semi-circle while actors talk.  Scenes change quickly with movements of the piano, a chair or two, a cajón.

Costumer Frank Labovitz looks like he pulled every outfit straight from heaps of dirty clothes lying in millennials' bedrooms. It's the times!

Some of the memorable lines from the show: "This day has such promise. Every day has promise!" "Life is good." "Wasting life because you are frightened of it is terrible!"  "Those who live in fear die miserably in their graves." (Yogi Berra's name is missing from the credits.)

Congrats to Olney's music director, Christopher Youstra (four instruments) who acts as emcee in the show.

Other members of the cast are Katie Chambers, Nick DePinto, Craig MacDonald, and Brian Reisman. Daven Ralston is Reza, a "hot mama."  

At alternate performances, Kyleigh Fuller and Somaya Litmon share the daughter role. Swings are Linda Bard and Ian Geers.

It is astonishing that one person, Marcia Milgrom Dodge, directed and choreographed the show.

No wonder Once been extended.  A great way to celebrate St. Paddy's Day!

Other members of the creative team are Colin K. Bills, lighting; Matt Rowe, sound; Karen Currie, production stage manager; and Josiane Jones, director of production.
 
Music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglova. Based on the movie by John Carney.
 
What: Once by Enda Walsh

Where: Olney Theatre Center, 2001 Olney-Sandy Spring Road, Olney, MD 20832.

When: Extended through St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 2019, Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. with matinees Saturday and Sunday at 2 p.m. and a sign interpreted performance Thursday, February 28 at 8 p.m. 

Tickets: Begin at $42 with discounts for groups, seniors, military, and students

Ages: Olney rates Once as "R," appropriate for those age 16 and above. Adult language.

"Afterwords": After the matinees on March 2 and March 9

Duration: About two hours with one 15 minute intermission

Refreshments: Available and may be taken to seats

Parking: Free and plentiful on-site

For more information: 301-924-3400 for the box office or 301-924-4485.

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Movie winners, losers, and Oscar predictions

Tomasz Kot in Cold War. He won't win an Oscar (especially since he's not nominated), but he wins my heart.  Please read below.

 In alphabetical order: 

 At Eternity's Gate about Vincent van Gogh is a movie only for the hardcore.  It has too many scenes of the painter reaching for the sky, for wheat stalks, and thrusting his hands and arms to catch raindrops.  Too much rain and too much filler. Yawn.

Yes, Willem Dafoe's performance definitely warrants his nomination for Best Actor, and he may win. The visuals and scenics could win for Best Cinematography (not nominated). I read that the award for Best Makeup was being discontinued or relegated to commercial breaks, but the makeup department (22 artists) and their outstanding work fashioning the cast into keen likenesses of the people Van Gogh painted, especially at Arles like Madame Ginoux and Joseph Roulin, must be applauded. I would hire them in a New York minute for my next film.

The film is almost a documentary.  

Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Grant/IMDB

Melissa McCarthy's Can You Ever Forgive Me? is almost as boring as the title with the best part, the performance by Richard E. Grant who has been nominated for Best Supporting Actor. I hope he wins.  There is no chance she'll win Best Actress.


Cold War...uh, uh, uh, uh. I ain't never experienced love like this!  Wowee. This is passionate stuff, but a critics' fancy, which, understandably, lasted about two days in D.C. theatres, totally unappealing to Clint Eastwood, Tom Wilson types, but a chick flick for arty-farties.  I dig Tomasz Kot. He's the man.

The Favourite, oh please.  The "Most Boring" is the title I put on it.  Go here for a most unfavourable review. (British only spelling, please.)

It was easy to predict that Green Book would receive 2019 Oscar nominations for Best Actor (Viggo Mortensen), Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali), Best Original Screenplay (Brian Hayes Currie,

Peter Farrelly, and Nick Vallelonga), and Best Picture, and I thought it would earn one for Best Director (Peter Farrelly), too.
I don't know if it will win Best Picture. I don't think it is a "Best Picture."  I haven't seen all the nominees, but this does not quite match par.

It was a Christmas "feel-good" movie of which we could always use more, especially given the national climate since Santa came to town. Without the bad words, Green Book would be good family fare.

It's an excellent story, crafted from a real one starring a black classical pianist who is on a Southern tour in the early 1960s, chauffeured by a white boxer. The old signs, cars, motels, apparel are fun to see.

Too much time (and repetition) is spent on aerials of the car driven on two-lane country roads.

Both subjects, the gentlemen in the movie, died in 2013.


Oh, dear, If Beale Street Could Talk was another big bore.  Loaded with too many pregnant pauses and needing a chopping block to cut about half of it.  Obligatory breasts, included, natch. 

The only good part was the families' fight scene which occurs early on, and it's downhill from there.  Try seeing this and reading American Prison by Shane Bauer at the same time to send you in a downward spiral.

Maria by Callas is a must for opera fans but even for this newbie faux fan, the first half includes too much music.  Huh?  It's about the diva Maria Callas, right?  I went hoping to learn more about her life.  

It does cause one to question anew: Why did Jacqueline Kennedy marry Aristotle Onassis? At the time, "everyone" said it was money. He didn't have the courtesy to give Maria the news, that he was marrying Jackie. Ms. Callas had to find out the worst way, via public notification. Onassis did return to her while he was married to Jackie, according to reports.

Maria Callas died at age 53, a victim of a heart attack. 

RBG is, without question, a slam dunk to win Best Documentary given its quality, the political climate and the absolute detest Hollywood feels for the occupant of the White House.  Highly recommended.

Shoplifters, oh, what a bore. What a merry-go-round of the same constant scenes.  Please! For earlier review, go here.

Stan and Ollie is a pleasant time, another good one for nursing homes. Without checking, I would wager that most of it is based on fact. A "sweet" film.

Tea With Dames is excellent documentary fare, again for the diehard film fan whose stars are the  quartet of bevies, the crème de la crème of actors: Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Eileen Atkin, and Joan Plowright.

No script was necessary as they are of the age when they speak their minds.  What do they have to hide?

Widows, yes!  I loved it. For an earlier review, go here.

Mr. Rogers' movie, Won't You Be My Neighbor?  was nice and sweet like he was. It's not a surprise it was not nominated for Best Whatever given it is a bit of a bore, but I know most liked it and it hung around a while, a great sign for revenue. Zzzzzzzzz.  Good for nursing homes, if occupants can stay awake. It lacked much about his younger life.
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