Theatre review: "La Cage Aux Folles" at Benedum Center

A touring production of La cage Aux Folles is here for a few days. And it does great things with Jerry Herman’s wonderful melodies and snappy lyrics, the cast singing superbly and the small orchestra sounding fine. Plus chorus people dance Lyn Page’s inventive choreography with great style and vitality while Tim Shortall’s sets do the show proud, especially the glitzy ones.

In case you don’t remember the essence, this is based on a 1973 French play of the same name by Jean Poiret, focusing on a gay couple at a French Riviera night club which features drag entertainment. Georges is the club manager and his long-time lover Albin stars there. Farcical things develop when Georges' son, Jean-Michel, brings home his fiancé Anne’s ultra-conservative parents.

Clearly the focus on gayness has made La Cage famous and special. As a play and a movie it mostly aims for comedy, given that being gay at the unspecified time of the story is not a time for openness. The best effect, though, would come from not pushing for laughs but by making Georges and Albin genuine people, sincerely in love, not simple-minded caricatures. The natural tendency, however, is to camp up the whole thing, as done frequently in this production.

Certainly Harvey Fierstein’s book milks some of the ideas, especially in a long-drawn-out scene in the second act when Georges tries to get Albin to look butch. And having Anne’s nasty father appear in drag to sing and dance in the finale goes overboard.

Movie star George Hamilton is the deliberate box-office draw. At age of 72 he carries off everything capably, with surface polish and a flashy-toothed, gleaming smile. Opening night he sang acceptably, wisely avoiding holding notes and, although going up on lines a couple of times, stayed adequately convincing. But he didn’t do enough to suggest that Georges and Albin are still in love, lacking obvious gestures of tenderness.

Not that Christopher Sieber’s Albin seemed that lovable. Sieber remained perpetually busy with verbal embellishments within dialogue and songs, sounding like throw-away ad-libs rather than like lines with meaning, comic or otherwise. Moreover Sieber popped into and out of various voices and other things designed to be funny, defusing a sense of character, as if doing a comedy act. Albin could legitimately be played sweet and vulnerable. At times Sieber did better, for example, when Albin pretends to be Jean-Michel’s mother. He didn’t overdo that. And he got genuine warmth and sincerity out of two good songs, “I Am What I Am” and “The Best of Times.”

Also taking the show too far, it would be hard to equal Jeigh Madjus’ over the top take on Albin’s dresser, Jacob. Less significant but also sloppy, Gay Marshall (yes. a woman cast member) as Jaqueline speaks with a French accent unlike all the other characters who are also French, but speak standard English. Since everyone speaks the native language, why would there be foreign accents?

This production has been on the road since October of last year and I have the feeling that some in the cast have been making what they think are improvements. Director Terry Johnson should come back and fix things especially since, with so many marvelous songs and a potentially endearing story, a really good shows lies within the glitz.

La Cage Aux Folles continues through 6:30 pm Sunday March 18th at Benedum Center, downtown. 412/ 456-6666 or online at www.TrustArts.org.

Playlist"The Best of Broadway" -Sunday 11th March 2012

Jerry Herman: music & lyrics "Parade" (original off-Broadway cast)Decca Broadway 440 064 738-2-excerpts w/Lester James, Fia Karin-Music director/pianist: Jerry Herman
"Milk and Honey" (original Broadway cast) RCA 09026-61997-2-excerpts w/Robert Weede, Tommy Rall-Max Goberman, music director
"Dear World" (original Broadway cast) Sony Broadway 59995-excerpts w/Joe Masiell, William Larsen, Clifford Fearl, Charles Karel, Zale Kessler, Charles Welch, Angela Lansbury, Pamela Hall, Milo O'Shea, Jane Connell, Carmen Mathews-Donald Pippin, music director
"Mack and Mabel" (original Broadway cast) MCA MCAD 10523-excerpts w/Bernadette Peters, Stanley Simmonds, etc.-Donald Pippin,music director

Playlist: "Classics" Sunday 11th March 2012

Vic Dickenson, trombone-"The Essential Vic Dickenson" Vanguard 99/100-"Nice Work if You Can Get It"/ "Keeping Out of Mischief Now" w/Sir Charles Thompson, p-Edmond Hall, cl-Shad Collins, Ruby Braff, tp
"Buck Clayton All Stars-Basel 1961" TCB 02072-"Outer Drive" w/Buck, Emmett Berry, tps-Dickie Wells, tb-Earle Warren, as-Buddy Tate, ts-Sir Charles, p
Al Cohn & Billy Mitchell, tenor saxes-"Xanadu at Montreux, Volume Two" Xanadu LP 163-"More Than You Know" w/Barry Harris, p
"Al Grey/The Thinking Man's Trombone" Argo LP 877-"Salty Papa" w/Mitchell, ts-Charlie Fowlkes, bs-Ed Higgins, p
"My Buddy-Joe Ascione Octet" Nagel-Heyer 036-"Love For Sale" w/Mitchell, ts- Randy Sandke, tp-Dan Barrett,tb-James Chirillo,g-Mark Shane,p-Bob Haggart, b
"Al Jarreau-Tenderness" Reprise 9 45422-2-"Save Your Love For Me" /'Summer Time" w/ Kenny Garrett, as-Joe Sample,p-Michael Stewart, tp-David Sanborn,as-Eric Gale,g
"1965 Al Jarreau" Bainbridge LP BT 6237-"A Sleepin' Bee" w/ Cal Bezemer, piano
"Bobby McFerrin-The Voice" Elektra Musician LP 9 60366 -1 E-"El Brujo"
"The Manhattan Transfer-Vocalese" Atlantic LP 8166-1-w/McFerrin, Jon Hendricks, vocals-"Another Night in Tunisia"
"The Modern Jazz Quartet-a celebration' Atlantic 82538-2-"Billy's Bounce" w/McFerrin
Yusef Lateef, oboe, tenor sax-"Cry Tender" Prestige LP 8234-"Cry Tender" w/Hugh Lawson, p-Lonnie Hilyer, tp
"Yusef Lateef-Morning" Savoy LP SJL 2205-"G.Bouk" w/Lawson, Curtis Fuller, tb, Doug Watkins, b
"Yusef Lateef-The Man With Big Front Yard" 33 Jazz 32059-"See Line Woman" w/Lawson

Theatre review: "Freud's Last Session" at Pittsburgh Public Theater. Sunday 11th March 2012

You’re in for a thought-provoking experience dropping in on Freud’s Last Session at Pittsburgh Public Theater. And it may seem like a dropping in, as if a visit to or a witness of a lively encounter between two significant real people coming together to debate the existence of God and such connected issues as the meaning of life, love, sex, war, suffering. It is called a play, of course. A play of minds would be a more precise definition, since it is actually a dramatization of the essence of Dr. Armand M. Nicholi Jr.’s book, The Question of God , juxtaposing writings of Sigmund Freud and C. S. Lewis on such subjects,as if they were conversing.

And the actors portraying these men superbly make them seem totally real. Mark St. Germain’s well-written, perceptive, intelligent script also keeps them vividly alive, during their sometimes amusing, sometimes dramatic 80 minutes together. Moreover St. Germain intensifies the meaning of this imagined meeting while the British prepare for the inevitable horrors of World War II and while Freud ponders ending his 83 years of existence.

The script does not attempt to support or endorse one man’s thinking over the other’s on any disputed subject, no more, evidently, than does the book. But it does make both men seem not just articulate,serious thinkers but also quite human, especially given Freud’s suffering the visible pain of progressively more deadly cancer. Among other things they also compare their childhoods, finding communality. And, along the way, they almost bond, despite deep,vigorously debated philosophical differences,never attacking each other personally.

David Wohl’s version of Freud capably personifies the man’s devotion to reason in whom there is a passion for ideas but whose other emotions remain masked by intelligence. Meanwhile, as Lewis, Jonathan Crombie excellently makes it clear that the man is vulnerable to being swayed by feelings, consistent with the idea that Lewis came to his belief in God in an epiphany. Credit too director Mary B. Robinson for bringing that out. Meanwhile her hand is never obvious as the actors move with unforced naturalness.

The setting is Freud’s study in London, imaginatively conceived by Allen Moyer as framed by a stunning tower of books, symbolic, no doubt, of centuries of accumulated thinking about the issues in this discourse. The rest of the set, appropriately, is never cluttered,as if to emulate the clarity of the minds active in it.It likewise adds to a sense of truth, even if such human searches for ultimate truth will never find definitive resolution. After all, how can the causes for religious faith be proved? And yet,how can they be denied?

Freud’s Last Session continues through April 1st at Pittsburgh Public Theater’s O’Reilly Theater 621 Penn Avenue, downtown. 412/ 316 1600 www.ppt.org

Playlist: "Classics" Sunday 4th March 2012

Bohuslav Martinu-"Martinu: Orchestral Works-Conlon" Erato 3984-24238-2-"Sinfonietta La Jolla" w/Jean-Francois Heisser, piano-National Orchestra of France-James Conlon, conductor
Pavel Haas-"Haas: Chamber Music" MDG 304 1527-2-String Quartet, No 3, op 15;parts w/Ensemble Villa Musica String Quartet
"Tarik O'Regan: Voices" Collegium COLCD 130-"Magnificat & Nunc Dimittis: Variations for Choir" w/Rafal Jezierski, cello-Philippa Boyle, Sarah Shorter, Ben Breakwell, Christopher Elcombe-The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge-Timothy Brown, conductor
Alban Bailly-"The Oscuro Quintet-Music for Tango Ensemble" Big Round Records BR 8919-"Five Procrastinations" Parts IV & V-w/The Oscuro Quintet
Anibel Troilo-"The Oscuro Quintet-Music for Tango Ensemble" Big Round Records BR 8919-"Maria" w/The Oscuro Quintet
Jean Francaix-"Francaix: A Huit-Divertissement-Clarinet Quintet-The Gaudier Ensemble" Hyperion CDA 67036-"A Huit" w/The Gaudier Ensemble
Karol Szymanowski-"Symanowski: Violin Concertos 1 & 2-Gorecki-Three Pieces-Baird: Colas Breugnon Suite" EMI 5 65418 2-Violin Concerto No. 1, Op. 35 w/Konstanty Kulka, violin-Polish National Radio Orchestra- Jerzy Maksymiuk, conductor

Playlist: "The Best of Broadway" Sunday 4th March 2012

Stephen Sondheim: music & lyrics-"Assassins" (2004 Broadway cast) ps classics PS 241-excerpts w/Marc Kudisch, James Barbour, Alexander Gemignani, Denis O'Hare, Jeffrey Kuhn, Mark Cantone, Mary Catherine Garrison, Becky Ann Baker, Michael Cerveris, Neil Patrick Harris, Brandon Wardell-Paul Gemignani, music director
Stephen Sondheim: music & lyrics-"Passion" (original Broadway cast) Angel CDQB 7243 555251 23-excerpts w/Jere Shea, Marin Mazzie, Donna Murphy-Paul Gemingnani, music director

Playlist: "The Best of Broadway" Sunday 26th February 2019

Reg E. Gaines: lyrics w/Daryl Waters, Zane Mark & Ann Duquesney: music-"Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring In'Da Funk"(original Broadway cast)RCA Victor 09026-68565-2-excerpts w/Ann Duquesney, Savion Glover, Jeffrey Wright, Baakiri Wilder, Jimmy Tate, Vincent Bingham-Zane Mark, music director
Judd Woldin: music & Robert Brittan: lyrics-"Raisin" (original Broadway cast) Sony Broadway SK 32754-excerpts w/ Ernestine Jackson, Virginia Capers, Elaine Beener, Walter P. Brown, Ted Ross, Joe Morton, Deborah Allen-Howard A. Roberts, music director