Theater review: Topol stays in character for Dallas Summer Musicals' 'Fiddler on the Roof'

10:15 AM CDT on Thursday, May 21, 2009
By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning Newsltaitte@dallasnews.com

Nobody finds it odd when a violinist or pianist is still playing a favorite concerto at the end of a 40-year career. So why be surprised that Topol is still playing Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof?

The Israeli actor had racked up a number of stage performances even before he made the 1971 movie. Now the total is around 2,500. In what is billed as his final tour, he arrived in Dallas for a one-week run at the Dallas Summer Musicals on Monday.

The performer still has what the role requires. That sonorous bass-baritone peals magnificently through the low notes. The stately, if world-weary, bearing and the soulful countenance, blazing eyes clearly visible in the back rows of the huge theater, give Topol, 73, a patriarchal aura. He could as easily be playing Moses or Rasputin – if it weren't for all the droll bits of low humor he tosses off so nonchalantly.

It must be said that spontaneity is not a factor here. Every mournful growl at a bit of bad news, every joyful roll of the eyes, appears calculated and polished to the nth degree. Naturalism also goes out the window in favor of this delicately calculated theatrical flair.

Many old-fashioned masters of comic shtick destroy their material by sending it up. Not Topol. No shred of cynicism or self-indulgence gets in the way of Fiddler's emotional journey. Before empty-nest syndrome had a name, this great musical explored the agonies of letting go – and the star plays them for all they are worth.

The current tour has selling points beyond its leading man. Susan Cella as Golde and Mary Stout as Yente are also masters of the broad comic style. Among the lovely daughters, Jamie Davis' Hodel stands out for her soaring voice. Steve Gilliam's storybook set invests the village of Anatevka with a quaint charm.

Best of all, director-choreographer Sammy Dallas Bayes has reproduced Jerome Robbins' exuberant first-act dances with fiery precision. An important secret of Fiddler's success is the sheer animal energy that drives these sequences. They keep this tale of loss and aging young and vital.

As young and vital as its septuagenarian star.

Theater review: RENT brings New York polish to Music Hall stage

By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News
ltaitte@dallasnews.com
12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, May 6, 2009



A little distance brings things into focus: Rent is incomparably the greatest Broadway musical in, say, the last 30 years, and the farewell tour that the Dallas Summer Musicals brought to Fair Park Music Hall on Tuesday is probably your last chance to see it in pristine shape, as good as when in opened in New York 13 years ago.

The back story, of course, is so sad and perfect it seems made up. The young genius who wrote Rent, Jonathan Larson, died of an aneurysm right before the triumphant first performance. His transposition of the story of La Boheme to downtown Manhattan won every prize going, and this tangled skein of sex and romance (straight, gay and bi) in which half the characters are trying to live with AIDS won a whole new generation of fans to the theater.

From the screeches that greeted the first two actors onstage Tuesday, you'd think all those fans were in attendance to greet the show's original stars. Anthony Rapp, as detached filmmaker Mark, looks just like he did in 1996; if anything, his timing and diction are sharper and his performance more engaged. Adam Pascal, playing alienated songwriter Roger, looks leaner and meaner, neither inappropriate to the character; his singing voice has taken on a rasping rocker's edge that works well, too.

Original director Michael Greif has knit the rest of the cast into a tight ensemble. Amazingly, you can hear almost every word in this often intractable space. Former American Idol contestant Lexi Lawson eases her way uncomfortably through Mimi's precarious dance on the fire escape, but her voice and her onstage presence are both gorgeous. Nicolette Hart makes a hilarious Maureen, and Michael McElroy brings his sonorous voice and vast stage experience to Tom Collins. Unfortunately, Justin Johnston doesn't have that seraphic aura you ideally want in the role of Angel, but he dies magnificently.

Ultimately, it's Larson's tingling melodies and handcrafted lyrics (and his skill at building large forms out of both) that make Rent so special. Its frankness about sex and drugs means it's not for everyone. Still, if you are curious or perhaps already know the score, but have never seen the show (or have only seen the dispiriting 2005 screen version), you owe yourself a trip to the Music Hall.



PLAN YOUR LIFE Through Sunday at Fair Park Music Hall. Runs 165 mins. $15 to $85.

Buy tickets here: http://www.ticketmaster.com/promo/vf0c6y?camefrom=DSM_WEB_RENT_BLOG

Theater review: Stacy Keach is a marvel in 'Frost/Nixon' at the Majestic

11:20 AM CDT on Thursday, April 30, 2009

By Lawson Taitte / The Dallas Morning News
ltaitte@dallasnews.com

President Richard M. Nixon may never have achieved the rehabilitation in public esteem he so craved in his lifetime. He's got it now, though, at least as Stacy Keach plays him in Frost/Nixon.

Peter Morgan's play about the TV interviews Nixon gave to talk-show host David Frost had its origin in that most fecund of London theatrical enterprises, the Donmar Warehouse. The show then traveled to Broadway and went on to become a major film, winning Tony Awards and Oscar nominations both for the vehicle and the star who played the president, Frank Langella.

If there's any actor on the American stage with more stature, more sheer talent, than Langella, it's Stacy Keach. He headlines the touring version that the Dallas Summer Musicals brought to the Majestic Theatre on Wednesday.

The marvelous Langella brought depth and tragic dignity to the role of the disgraced President three years after his unparalleled resignation from office. But he also brought a certain smarminess to the role and a whiff of parody in the ways he adapted some of Nixon's well-known mannerisms and vocal patterns.

Smarmy is not a word you'd ever use to describe Keach's Nixon. Tortured, self-regarding, yes, perhaps even venal. But this figure projects a fallen grandeur and canny, self-possessed intellect that command respect – and maybe even affection.

The touring version (directed, like the original, by Michael Grandage) does have its own quota of smarminess. Alan Cox's Frost oozes slime right up to the final moments when he at last gets Nixon to confess wrongdoing on camera (something that never actually happened in real life, by the way). Even that formidable journalist Jim Reston in this young incarnation (as played by Brian Sgambati) is lightweight and petty in comparison with the wounded-bear Keach as Nixon.

It's too bad that Keach probably won't be touring his version of King Lear (to be seen in Washington, D.C., this summer) and that he hasn't been seen more frequently in great plays in New York and around the country. He commands the stage as only a couple of American actors of his generation do. Whatever your politics, don't miss the chance to see him do his stuff in Frost/Nixon.

Entertainment Bailout Special Discount on THE PAJAMA GAME

Hello to all the DSM fans!

As I mentioned yesterday, I was blown away by THE PAJAMA GAME on Tuesday night. #1 -- I couldn't believe they fit a set that elaborate on to that stage, because the Majestic stage is considerably smaller and intimate than the Music Hall stage. #2 The choreography, singing and acting were superb -- parts of act 2 are very reminiscent of CHICAGO!

At ANY rate -- with the economy being a bit *oy*, DSM is offering a 50% discount for THE PAJAMA GAME. Times are tough, but we also know that's when our patrons may need their spirits lifted, so we want to help!Here's the details:

-visit this link:http://www.ticketmaster.com/promo/h3b715?camefrom=DALLASSUMMER_PAJAMA_ONLINE_FB2

-Use password SAVE (case sensitive)

-Enjoy the show at half price!


the normal legal stuff:
Tickets are subject to availability. Service charges and handling fees will apply. Facility fees may apply. Performance prices, dates, and times subject to change without notification. This offer is available through ticketmaster.com, Charge-by-Phone 214.631.ARTS. Offer expires on 3/15/09 at 8pm. No refunds or exchanges. This offer is not valid on previously purchased tickets or in combination with any other offers.

Theater Review: 'The Rat Pack - Live at the Sands' is almost as good as being there

12:05 AM CST on Wednesday, March 4, 2009
By LAWSON TAITTE / The Dallas Morning News ltaitte@dallasnews.com Original post

An airline ticket can get you to Las Vegas quite reasonably these days. A time machine that'll get you there a half-century ago is another matter.

That's the goal of The Rat Pack – Live at the Sands, the London hit that Dallas Summer Musicals brought to the Majestic Theatre on Tuesday.
You can guess the format from the title: Singers portraying Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. cover the stars' greatest hits. A 16-piece band (something of a luxury in the theater these days) plays onstage, and three curvaceous backup singers add a considerable amount of what in those days was called sex appeal.
This may sound like a dubious proposition, but people apparently are still eager to hear numbers out of the great American songbook (alongside tunes of lesser pedigree) sung by voices of substance and backed by choirs of actual saxes, trumpets and trombones.
Of the three leading performers, only Stephen Triffitt's Sinatra provokes the occasional internal double take, providing reassurance that this is only a latter-day impersonator rather than the real thing. At first, he's almost too successful in duplicating Sinatra's every rhythmic and phonetic inflection. Eventually, he makes us forget the mechanics and just listen to the music – especially the torch song "Angel Eyes." He's also got the physical manner, at once regal and offhand, down pat.
His pretend buddies both boast fine voices, but the illusion is weaker. Davis sometimes trod perilously close to self-parody, which makes things doubly hard for David Hayes. He's lively and he can hoof it, but he lacks the grit under the original star's larger-than-life exterior. Mark Adams projects Martin's macho appeal, and the voice evokes the star without imitating him slavishly. But Adams works too hard at ingratiating himself with the audience, whereas you could always see a dead chill of indifference in Martin's eyes.
The Rat Pack brims with the buddies' horseplay (complete with sexist, racist and boozy jokes authentic to the period). What it leaves you with, however, are meditations on Frank Sinatra's unique career. Not only does Triffitt bring him to life, he sings the questionable later material, especially "My Way," with genuine feeling that we didn't always get from the man himself.
PLAN YOUR LIFE
Through Sunday at the Majestic Theatre. Runs 140 mins. $12 to $71. Ticketmaster at 214-631-2787, www.ticketmaster.com.

DSM and Social Networking

Are you curious about this increasingly ever-present catch phrase called "Social Networking"?

...About Facebook, Twitter, Myspace & Yelp, to name a few of the more than 1000+ and growing networks online?

Think of all the ways you network in real life--jobs, friends, family, etc... Social networking sites are simply a way to contact and connect people more quickly online; like a giant interactive phone book! Here is a quick 1:48 long video entitled "Social Networking in Plain English" that may also help to illustrate this type of networking.

How does DSM use Social Networking?

Like most any technology and marketing, there are nearly unlimited ways to use Social Networking.

DSM uses it to carry on conversations with our patrons: Advance special announcments, alerts, customer care questions, and also simply for performing arts enthusiasts to have another way to interact with one another.

We primarily use Facebook, Twitter, Yelp & Myspace as a way to bring information to where people are. We know life is very busy and you may not always have an opporunity to get to our website. And we also know that millions of people are daily checking their "social sites" daily like email. As a convenience we have established a presence on the sites listed above, not to replace our site by any means, but to enhance the ease of our value patrons being able to quickly gain the information they are looking for.

Below, you'll find basic primers about the Social Networking sites we use:

FACEBOOK
From Wiki: Facebook is a popular, free-access social networking website that is operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school, and region to connect and interact with other people. People can also add friends and send them messages, and update their personal profile to notify friends about themselves. The website's name refers to the paper facebooks depicting members of a campus community that some US colleges and preparatory schools give to incoming students, faculty, and staff as a way to get to know other people on campus.

Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook while he was a student at Harvard University. Website membership was initially limited to Harvard students, but was expanded to other colleges in the Ivy League. It later expanded further to include any university student, then high school students, and, finally, to anyone aged 13 and over. The website currently has more than 140 million active users worldwide.

Facebook on Reuters Download 7 things to know about Facebook 7 more thing to know!

TWITTER
From Wiki: Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that allows its users to send and read other users' updates (otherwise known as tweets), which are text-based posts of up to 140 characters in length.

Updates are displayed on the user's profile page and delivered to other users who have signed up to receive them. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends (delivery to everyone being the default). Users can receive updates via the Twitter website, SMS, RSS, or email, or through applications such as Tweetie, Twinkle, TwitterFox, Twitterrific, Feedalizr, and Facebook. Four gateway numbers are currently available for SMS: short codes for the United States, Canada, and India, and a United Kingdom-based number for international use. Several third parties offer posting and receiving updates via email. Twitter had by one measure over 3 million accounts and, by another, well over 5 million visitors in September 2008, a fivefold increase in a month.

Twitter on Time.com Download 7 things to know about Twitter

YELP
From Yelp.com: Yelp is...

...the ultimate city guide that taps into the community's voice and reveals honest and current insights on local businesses and services on everything from martinis to mechanics.

...just real people, writing real reviews, and that's the real deal.

...a fun and engaging place for passionate and opinionated influencers to share the experiences they've had with local businesses and services.

...the definitive local guide in the Dallas, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, New York, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle... But really, we're everywhere in the U.S. and now Canada & the U.K.! From Austin to Edmonton and everywhere in between, reviews are coming in from all over!

...word of mouth marketing - amplified. Savvy local marketers now have a great channel to effectively target local consumers.

MYSPACE
Myspace is kind of grand-daddy of modern social networking sites.
From Wiki: MySpace is a free social networking website with an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs, groups, photos, music, and videos for teenagers and adults internationally. Its headquarters are in Beverly Hills, California, USA, where it shares an office building with its immediate owner, Fox Interactive Media; which is owned by News Corporation, which has its headquarters in New York City. In June 2006, MySpace was the most popular social networking site in the United States. According to comScore, MySpace was overtaken internationally by main competitor Facebook in April 2008, based on monthly unique visitors. The company employs 300 staff and does not disclose revenues or profits separately from News Corporation. The 100 millionth account was created on August 6, 2006 in the Netherlands and the site counted approximately 106 million accounts on September 8, 2006. MySpace.com attracts 230,000 new users per day.

Shortly after MySpace was sold to Rupert Murdoch, the owner of Fox news and 20th Century Fox, in 2005 they launched their own record label, MySpace Records, in an effort to discover unknown talent currently on MySpace Music. Regardless of the artist already being famous or still looking for a break into the industry, aspiring artists can upload their songs onto MySpace and have access to millions of people on a daily basis. Some well known singers such as Lilly Allen and Sean Kingston gained fame through MySpace.
The availability of music on this website continues to develop, largely driven by young talent. Over eight million artists have been discovered by MySpace and many more continue to be discovered daily.

FROST / NIXON: Movie vs. Stage Production

Happy New Year all,

Here is a re-post from the Minneapolis Post regarding the hit show that is coming to The Majestic Theatre. (Tickets are not yet on sale--stay tuned for the on sale date!)

Minneapolis Post
Review: ‘Frost/Nixon’ (the play) packs a lot of punchBy
Ed Huyck Published Wed, Jan 7 2009

You can take in the film version of "Frost/Nixon" at a lower price than the touring production inhabiting the State Theatre in Minneapolis, so why choose the play? I could go on about the connection between the performer and the audience, maybe even toss out fancy words like "gestalt,” but the answer is pretty simple: Stacy Keach (as Richard Nixon) and Alan Cox (as David Frost) fully inhabit their roles to the point that the verbal battles between the two at the show’s climax feel as intense as the real thing.

The film explores the aftermath of Nixon’s presidency via the famed TV interviews conducted by Frost in 1977. As one of the characters notes, the two spar like fighters. Playwright Peter Morgan has a knack for exploring the human toll of politics (past work includes "The Queen,” about Tony Blair, Queen Elizabeth II and the death of Princess Diana) and that’s in full effect here.

While it gets off to a slow start, "Frost/Nixon" finds its pace and drive once the two characters begin their on- and off-screen battles. Keach certainly gets the meatier role here, and takes full advantage of it, making his complex character come to life. Cox has a tougher role, as Frost buries his doubts beneath his playboy image. This comes into sharp focus in the play’s final quarter as the men share a late-night phone conversation. Frost asks Nixon the questions that everyone wants answered, and the disgraced former president obliges.

In the end, this smart and well-paced production scores with the intensity and immediacy of the two main performers -- and that’s something you can never get on the movie screen.

There have been a number of presentations that have graced both stage & screen--what is your preferred medium?