Six Dance Lessons in Six Weeks

http://www.falcontheatre.com/six_dance.html

I love going to the theater and getting a pleasant surprise. You're there because you know someone in the show who is very talented and want to support them but you're just not sure if the show will be any good. Well this show was... and Jason Graae was hilarious and charming... and Constance Towers also was a joy to watch. This is a very fun piece with heart and lots of laughs. The program notes say it has been optioned as a film so I wish the author great success in moving it to the screen. And I'll keep my fingers crossed for Jason to be cast in it.

Dreampeddler

Spring Awakening - Ahmanson Theater

Okay... I'm on the bandwagon. Big fan of this show. I haven't been taken away and washed over by the music in a musical in some time, but this score is like a pop CD. You can listen to it again and again and again...

Although this is is not a typical book musical, the exploration of teen angst is so vivid and well displayed through the outstanding direction of Michael Mayer. And the choreography by Bill T. Jones is also spot on.

This show is certainly a bit adventurous and not for the timid or repressed, but if you go you will definitely see the you you were, whatever that was, when your time for puberty came. Would never want to go back and experience it all over again, but it was sure a blast to go back there for two hours and watch it on stage. Perhaps I'm just getting old and nostalgic, but I still have a sneaky smile on my face and some pep in my step from seeing this show. In the vernacular of today's teens, it was TOTALLY AWESOME.

Dreampeddler

Smokey Joe's Cafe - The El Portal Theatre in NoHo

Hey all,

I've been doing some work for the historic El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood (Pegge Forrest manages the theater with Jay Irwin and I worked for her in CHESS at the Long Beach CLO for my second professional gig!). They are doing a version of SMOKEY JOE'S CAFE that will be directed and choreographed by Jeffrey Polk (who I used to work with at Miceli's as a singing waiter!). Oh the days.

It will be a great show. Click here to buy tickets!

Dreampeddler

Happy Days - The Musical

Went down to La Mirada to see the opening night on Saturday night. The cast was great, especially Felicia Finley (who I worked with at the El Captain Theater in Hollywood when she was a snowflake and I was a 4 part harmony boy in the preshow before 3 Musketeers and then again in the reading of "The Joys of Sex"). She plays the role of you guessed it, Pinky Tuscadero.

It was great to see all the legends of show business that are involved with the project including Garry Marshall of course, Paul Williams, John McDaniel (we did Grease! together way back when and he was the musical director when I played Jack in Into the Woods), Gordon Greenberg, Bob Boyett as well as Tom McCoy and Cathy Rigby.

If you are looking for a family friendly show with a heck of a production budget, this one is for you. It is certainly fun to remember all those great characters and how simple things seemed way back when...

Dreampeddler