February 21, 2009
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The Sunshine Boys and Stuff
I just returned from seeing the Sunshine Boys at Kelsey Theater. A very good production directed by Ruth Markoe (Martha in Woolf). Solid performances by Paul Saunders and Charles Leeder as Willie Clark and Al Lewis better known as Lewis and Clark. Doing a play like this that has such a memorable movie (George Burns and Walther Matthau) attached to it is difficult without channeling the other actors. Sanders and Leeder do a great job of making the roles their own. Mark Violi is excellent as the exasperated nephew. Special shout out to Melissa Rittman as the "comic nurse." She seems to have walked right off of a burlesque stage. This is all the more remarkable given that she's too young to remember a time without Facebook, let alone burlesque. Ruth Markoe obviously did a great job of teaching bumping and grinding. Go see it, good show. http://www.kelseyatmccc.or
g I got the script for All Shook Up. I know this comment will come back to bite me in the ass, but this is the silliest script I've ever read. Makes Bye Bye Birdie look like Antigone. Don't get me wrong, when it is infused with youthful exuberance I can see where it will be a fun evening but it reads...not so hot. I am psyched though to begin rehearsals on Monday.
Lou Stallsworth alerted the world that PinnWorth Productions has obtained the rights to do Equus in October. I immediately offered Lou the use of any of my bodily orifices for the right to do the role of the psychiatrist, Martin Dysart. If I had a "bucket list" of roles to play, this one is definitely up there, way up there.
Speaking of bucket list roles, I have an audition for Sweeney Todd at Kelsey. The show goes up in June. Either Sweeney or Turpin would just be a capstone for a fantastic season. I will do my absolute damnedest to make it happen.
