THEATER REVIEW - "The Lady with All the Answers"

A decade ago, everyone knew who Ann Landers was, but today, I'm not so sure everyone would know who "The Lady with all the Answers" was. David Rambo's 2005 one-woman show, which premiered at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego, is now at the Pasadena Playhouse.

At two hours, the show runs a bit long for a one-person production, particularly when there is no dramatic action and the action doesn't span a long time period. Gary Wissmann's set gives us a well-appointed apartment, beautifully furnished and stylish but not flashy. As dressed by Holly Poe Durbin, Mimi Kennedy's Ann Landers, known in real life as Esther "Eppie" Pauline Friedman Lederer, is well-turned out--not a trendsetter, not sexy, but someone that anyone would feel comfortable with.

Set in June 1975 in the study of a fourteen-room high-rise apartment on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, this lady has to write a column, one that must be typed out on a real typewriter and not a word processor. She must meet a certain number of column inches and she must count the words instead of expecting her software to do it for her.

During the night, she gets a call from her identical twin sister and rival Pauline Esther Friedman Phillips, the woman who wrote Dear Abby (from 1956-1995 and now written by her daughter Jeanne Phillips), as well as her daughter, Margo Howard, who would eventually write the advice columns Dear Prudence (1998-2006) and Dear Margo (2006 to the present).

Rambo's script, written with the cooperation of Howard, is warm and funny and finds this lady pondering over how to make an announcement that would seem to contradict a column she had written several years earlier. She had ventured to make a glowing commentary on her marriage, but now must reveal to her readers that her husband was divorcing her to be with a younger woman--one younger than their only child. Rambo's script doesn't dig particularly deep. We don't feel her despair, grief or remorse. Kennedy's Ann Landers doesn't get angry of display inner angst.

The bath she supposedly takes when the audience is at intermission resolves her writer's block and she will carry on. Rambo's script doesn't give us any answers about this lady who doled out answers to millions of readers daily. Under the direction of Brendon Fox, the pace seems a bit leisurely--not like a frantic reporter or columnist on deadline. There are no chips in the polish of a woman who's hair was, most likely with the help of substantial amounts of hair spray, perfectly in place--even, as she admits in the play, in the muggy heat in Vietnam when she visited soldiers and comforted the wounded.

Ann Landers did have some good advice to give and verbally whipped herself with a wet noodle when she admittedly gave out some questionable guidance. Rambo's play gives us the lady as she presented herself to the world and Kennedy fills the role with grace and the kind of warmth one expects from a favorite aunt. This production is entertaining without being enlightening.

"The Lady with all the Answers" continues until Nov. 23 at the Pasadena Playhouse, 39 S. El Molino Ave., Pasadena. Tuesdays-Fridays, 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 4 p.m.; Sundays 2 and 7 p.m. Dark Nov. 5 and 12 evenings with special matinee performances instead. $25-$65. For more info, call (626) 356-PLAY or go to www.PasadenaPlayhouse.org.

Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451

A lot has happened in the world since Ray Bradbury wrote his 1953 "Fahrenheit 451." Bradbury has adapted his novel for the stage and it is the current guest production by Bradbury's Pandemonium Theatre Company at the Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena. Bradbury's play starts slow, with some weak transitions, and yet there are some promisingly powerful moments.

For those that are more familiar with Michael Moore's documentary, "Fahrenheit 9/11," a title that Bradbury protested, this story is about book burning. The title refers to the temperature that books will ignite and yet the story is not meant to be about censorship.

There is, in this script adapted by Bradbury and directed by Alan Neal Hubbs, a slight speech about how minorities worked to condemn certain books, but according to Bradbury, this story was originally written to express his great love of books and his fear that the boob tube was making us mindless.

In the future, firemen do not put out fires, they burn books. Guy Montag (David Polcyn) is one such man, following in the footsteps of his father. During one such burning, he secretly takes a book and this brings him to the attention of his captain (Michael Prichard) and scares his wife (Meaghan Boeing). He also finds himself drawn to his young neighbor Clarisse (Jessica D. Stone). He eventually is forced to flee and joins other lovers of literature.

Yet the future Bradbury imagined in the 1950s doesn't reflect what we know now. Sure there are now huge televisions, but what about the Internet, GPS and books online? A few miles away, a rare book was on display at the local botanic garden--totally on a computer screen. Bradbury's script doesn't attempt to address issues that the audience would be familiar with. If you argue Bradbury is staying true to his original vision, he has already made some changes to the plot for the play.

Aside from the clash between the imagined future and our present, the play suffers from some awkward transitions, abrupt endings of scenes that do not flow into the next one and some scenes that seem extraneous. Some things remain unclear. At first I thought Clarisse was meant to be a child, or a girl not quite yet a woman and that gave Montag's attraction to her sort of a creepy undertone. The first scene is feeble yet the ending gives a different dimension than other interpretations I have seen, one that makes sense and resonates with the whole context of a play. You'll have to see this production to understand what I mean. No spoilers in this review.

Certainly this production shows promise, but could stand some editing and re-working.

"Fahrenheit 451" continues until June 8 at the Fremont Centre Theatre, 1000 Fremont Ave (at El Centro) in South Pasadena. Thursdays-Saturdays, 8 p.m. and Sundays,3 p.m.
(323) 960-4451 or Plays411.

A Noise Within's Don Juan

Lord Byron portrayed Don Juan as a victim of Catholicism's sexual repression and of women's desires, but in Moliere's version, "Dom Juan ou le Festin de Pierre," Don Juan is an atheist condemned to hell. The current production of "Don Juan" at Glendale, California's classical repertory theater, A Noise Within, maintains the integrity of Moliere's script, managing to mesh a tragic moral tale with moments of brilliant comedy.

Moliere's genius is giving us Don Juan's put upon servant, Sganarelle, who acts as Don Juan's conscience and yet he is forced to retreat, bend his words into convoluted excuses as he is beaten down by his humble position and his master's complete selfishness. Don Juan's latest conquest is Elvira (Libby West), whom he has lured from a convent. To defend her honor, her brothers (Stephen Rockwell and Dale Sandlin) vow revenge. Yet justice will come from a statue.

As Don Juan, Elijah Alexander is handsome and virile and often bare chested. He has a manly command of the stage while JD Collum shifts between momentary heroics and shrinking into comedic cowardice. Yet, Alexander's Don Juan is a man without a sense of humor; he is a straight man driven by his own lusts. He has no morale compass. We see this as well as his modus operandi as he plays the two peasant girls (Abby Craden and Sarah Green) against each other.

Director Michael Michetti, working with Richard Nelson's translation, skillfully gives us elegance, dashing charm and yet over the top comedy in this serious moral tale. Having Rockwell and Sandlin dressed in black and white--the overall color scheme of this production--with flourishes of pink is inspired. Yet the two stray locks that Rockwell flips back every now and then (wigs and hair by Monica Lisa Sabedra) and his hilarious lisp gives this fop hysterical panache. Sandlin, a bit huskier than Rockwell, wears an ill-fitting costume--he can only button the top few buttons and his belly hangs out. One senses from Sandlin's portrayal that this nobleman is too vain to admit he needs a new outfit and assumes that no one notices. Rachel Myers costume design gives Alexander swashbuckling swagger to contrast these two aristocratic buffoons.

Still we do not admire Don Juan. We sympathize with Sganarelle and grow fond of the two brothers and admire Elvira when she comes to her senses and accepts responsiblity for her own mistakes, but we do not protest Don Juan's fate. We do not wink at the troubles and heartbreak he has caused for Michetti has shown us a man who can speak sweet words without seducing us into actually liking him, not an easy task, but both Michetti and Alexander are up to this task. This excellent production ends on May 24.

THEATER REVIEW: Egos Collide in "Orson's Shadow"

The Pasadena Playhouse's production of "Orson's Shadow," is a provocative behind the scenes look at stage actors, in this case famous actors. Egos explode, but this production is a well-acted celebration of theatrical fireworks and wit with dead-on comedic timing.

For those who love movies, you might remember Orson Welles as a man whose early promise was killed by ego and studio politics. He had taken on Randolph Hearst in his 1941 movie, "Citizen Kane." Hearst's media empire boycotted the film that went on to be nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Welles) and Best Director (Welles) and won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay (Herman J. Mankiewicz and Welles).

Yet Orson as an icon has influenced popular culture, despite the desperation of his later years when he was often scrambling for financial support for his projects.

Based on true events, Austin Pendleton's play looks at the collision of narcissistic men and the death of a marriage in London 1960. A desperate Welles (Bruce McGill), trying to raise money for his next project ,agrees to direct an egotistical Laurence Olivier (Charles Shaughnessy) ,who wants to be relevant to a younger generation, and Olivier's young lover and future wife, Joan Plowright (Libby West). Olivier is still married to Vivien Leigh (Sharon Lawrence). Olivier and Plowright are founding the British National Theatre for which they will perform this new play, Eugene Ionesco's "Rhinoceros." Critic Kenneth Tynan (Scott Lowell), who wishes to leave something more than just words as part of his legacy to the theater world, is the one who suggests this meeting of creative artists of the stage. Tynan begins as our narrator, but Pendleton ends with Plowright, the only person still alive of the four, giving an epilogue.

Perhaps this is why "Orson's Shadow" is the kindest to Plowright and even, to a certain extent to Olivier.

In 1960, Olivier was still married to Vivien Leigh. They had become lovers while playing lovers in the 1937 movie "Fire Over England." Both were still married. Leigh was married to Herbert Leigh Holman, a barrister, in 1932 and had given birth to a daughter the next year. Olivier to actress Jill Esmond in 1930 whom he met on a film when she was more famous. Esmond and Olivier had just had a son in 1936. When Olivier and Leigh both divorced their respective spouses in 1940, they quickly married. Olivier seemed to want them to become a great theatrical couple, the Oliviers, often directing as well as starring opposite of Leigh--something he had not tried with Esmond.

Leigh had already attained film star success from her 1939 appearance as Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone with the Wind" for which she won a Best Actress Oscar. Olivier had starred in the 1939 "Wuthering Heights." Olivier would have to wait until 1948 to win an Oscar as Best Actor for "Hamlet." He also won for Best Director. The previous year, he had been given a special Oscar for his "Henry V."

She would later win another Oscar in 1951 playing Blanche Dubois in Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire." She had already played that role on stage under Olivier's direction in London, one that Olivier had interpreted differently than the film director Elia Kazan. Tynan had criticized Leigh's stage performances--including her Blanche, suggesting that Olivier was compromising his own talent for hers.

Leigh was a mercurial actress and was increasingly plagued by her bipolar disorder and Pendleton chiefly attributes this to the break up of the Oliviers marriage. There's little mention that Plowright was married when she met Olivier in 1957, during rehearsals of a play that John Osborne had written for Olivier, "The Entertainer." Plowright, who was 16 years younger than Leigh, did not divorce her husband until 1961, the same year she married Olivier to become his third wife.

According to IMDB.com, Plowright herself has even suggested that Olivier was somewhat difficult: "If a man is touched by genius, he is not an ordinary person. He doesn't lead an ordinary life. He has extremes of behaviour which you understand and you just find a way not to be swept overboard by his demons."

Although she was listed as the co-respondent in Leigh's divorce from Olivier, IMDB.com also quotes her as saying, "I have always resented the comments that it was I who was the homewrecker of Larry's marriage to Vivien Leigh. Danny Kaye was attached to Larry far earlier than I." Either way, both of the Oliviers were having affairs.

Pendleton sidesteps and streamlines all of this hubris. His Olivier is a charming, egotistical man, somewhat jealous of Welles' early success, constantly reliving his theatrical and cinematic successes with Leigh (e.g. "That Hamilton Woman"), still hurting from Tynan's harsh comments about Leigh's stage performances under his direction and Olivier attempts to control and mold the much younger (and less formal than Leigh) Plowright. Shaughnessy doesn't whine or weedle; he just makes helpful observations, hiding his own insecurities as he simply seeks better understanding while undermining Welles' direction. McGill's Welles is full of frustrated bluster. He can't finesse his way around Olivier's masterfully polite criticism and obsessive attention to detail. Yet he never becomes down right nasty. After all, Olivier and Welles had been friends. Welles has a tender spot for the troubled Leigh.

Lawrence's Leigh flutters in and out of control of her mania, we see lightening quick changes flash across her face as she struggles to maintain control of her emotions, particularly at a time that most women would find impossible--when facing your husband's much younger mistress. Lawrence's Leigh sparkles with tragic fragility and draws our attention from the much more down-to-earth West as Plowright.

Under the direction of Damaso Rodriguez, Welles, Olivier and Leigh are larger than life--fitting for the venue. Lowell's Tynan is a man with a vision that becomes a nightmare. The snappy pacing and witty exchanges without a razor sharp edge of hate or bitterness, prevent this production from being a poignant plunge into darkness. The real cypher is West's Plowright. The audience can't be sure why she loves Olivier, a man still very attached to his second wife.

"Orson's Shadow" debuted the Chicago Steppenwolf Theatre in Chicago in early 2000 and was staged at the San Diego Old Globe Theatre later that same year. In 2005, there was an off-Broadway production at the Barrow Street Theatre. In 2001, I saw this play produced at the much smaller Black Dahlia Theatre. From what I recall, compared to this Pasadena Playhouse production with wonderfully solid backstage views by set designer Gary Wissmann, that production was much darker in both tone and general staging. In a small venue such intimacy allows for more subtle character nuances and the set design more minimalistic. Rodriguez's ensemble plays this mostly in the light although almost predictably, our first view of Welles' is of his shadow. This interpretation is less tragic, a bright and intelligent piece of entertainment.

In restrospect, perhaps there was a reason for Olivier to doubt himself. Leigh's Scarlett O'Hara and Blanche DuBois live on in popular culture. Welles' shadow looms larger still. Even if you haven't seen "Citizen Kane" or his "Chimes at Midnight" or "Touch of Evil," he voiced the original trailers for the 1977 "Star Wars" and 1979 "Star Trek: The Motion Picture." The character of the intelligent lab mouse, The Brain, in "Pinky and the Brain" is loosely based on him. He was, until his death, the voice of Robin Masters, on the "Magnum: P.I." television series. A genus of spiders was named after him.

This production will entertain those who know about Welles, Leigh and Olivier and even, to a lesser degree, Tynan and Plowright. For those who don't, it will still be an enjoyable romp backstage as egos clash and a marriage implodes and, perhaps, pique one's interest in the long legacy of all the characters involved. "Orson's Shadow" continues until February 17 at the Pasadena Playhouse.