How to Succeed in Business... Davis Musical Theater Center

This past Saturday evening Carolyn and I spent a delightful evening at the Davis Musical Theater production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying."  The play was inspired by a paperback book of the same name which was published in 1952.  The book by Shepherd Mead was close to biographical, describing Mead's meteoric rise in a corporation, so the play is biographical as well. Both the book and the play are also grossly satirical --  poking fun at corporate culture such as sending a memo to attempt to rein in excess memos. But it (they) is also dated.  In the 50's corporations were largely male dominated, sexual harassment was not a problem, and a chairman of a board apparently has more power in daily decisions.  Thus, the play comes off as an old relic.

But for doing such an old looking play, the cast did a marvelous job.  Casting was, as usual, right on the money.  The principals all sang in tune and with a suitable accent when required. Choreography involved more than just dancing and was carried out with precision and energy.  I was exhausted just watching them.

The music was fun rather than memorable.  You won't go away humming a tune or even remembering one from the show unless it's "I Believe in You" or "The Brotherhood of Man."

I would recommend the  DMTC's production of "How to Succeed" as a great example of what a community group can do with a dated production.

Picasso at the Lapin Agile (play review)

"Picasso at the Lapin Agile" was written by one of our foremost modern comedians Steve Martin. If for no other reason than that, I was interested in seeing the play currently playing at the Chautauqua season tickets there was a pretty good chance that we'd see it. Just who would go with us was a question almost up to the curtain. Turned out that the traditional dinner before the play was transformed to a celebratory dinner to mark two very important tests that Tiffany finished, Then we had to decide which 2 of their family would go with us. Ed and Timothy won out.

The jist of the play is that Einstein and Picasso, being contemporaries, happen to meet and get acquainted at this Parisian bar - The Agile Rabbit. There they discuss art, physics, (naturally) and what should be the appropriate 3rd point of a world-changing culture which has those two points as beginning points. There are a lot of philosophy jokes and a lot of intense discussion where these armchair philosophers attempt to prove their branch is the best. The humor is either slapstick or obscure. After a "red herring' candidate for that last corner of the triangle, a messenger from the future who looks oddly enough like a young Elvis Presley drops in, the play sort of winds up rather than coming to an end.

I personally don't think it's Steve's best work although our players appeared to do their best to bring life to this slightly dead play. I'm proud of Tim for actually staying awake through the whole play.

The Sound of Music - a play review

The Sound of Music by Rogers and Hammerstein has been so popular that I think I should have seen it a dozen time in Southern Calilfornia and at least a couple of times since we've been here. But as I try to remember when or with whom, I can't remember. If so, it must have been at least 10 years ago, maybe longer.

In any case, the musical is being performed by the Davis Musical Theater Company who have worked their usual magic in bringing the talent out in a large group of amateurs. Kay Hight, who plays Maria Rainer for example, is like Julie Andrews, not an instantly recognizable beauty. But when she smiles, her face actually glows and her eyes glisten. She therefore makes a believable Maria. And each of the 7 von Trapp children are believable and lovable.

The choir of all the nuns steals the show. What great harmony and tone! The greatest enigma of the whole performance was Captain vonn Trapp. His character played by Giorgio Selvaggio did everything to excess - marched stiffly but stiff to the point of rigidity; spoke roughly but to the point of robotic; and appeared to make rash decisions regarding his marriage.

The person having the most fun during the play had to be Herb Schultz who played Max Detweiler and hammed it up about as much as he could have.

You can try to get tickets at dmtg.org but they were playing to a full house yesterday.

Twelve Angry Women - play review

The local community theater for which we have had season tickets for several years now are presenting the play "Twelve Angry Women", a complete "rip-off" if you will of the play "Twelve Angry Men". The latter play was made into a movie in 1957 starring Henry Fonda in the pivotal role.

The plot is simple and straightforward - the 12 angry women constitute a jury which has been listening to 6 days of testimony and explanation of a murder in which a young man is accused of killing his father with a knife. As the play opens they are just receiving the judges instructions about needing to be unanimous if they vote guilty and about voting "not guilty" if they have a reasonable doubt about the young man's guilt.

It sounds like everyone feels it's an open and shut case so a show of hands vote is called. Everyone expects a unanimous verdict and it is, almost. There is, to everyone else's chagrin, one lone hold-out. She is accused of stupidity, being a liberal or bleeding heart, or just a plain troublemaker. She tried to make her point but no one is listening. Finally in frustration she says that they should vote again and if she is still alone, she'll capitulate. The vote, secret written this time is 10-2.

So it goes throughout the whole play with the count slowly and sometimes uncertainly moving to not guilty. Along the way we see how "reasonable doubt" can be adapted by different people in different circumstances. We also see how tempers can flare with hot and uncomfortable conditions under stress. We also naturally see how 1 person can make the difference between "not guilt" and the death chamber, although that wasn't emphasized. During this election time I thought it had an additional message that the more certain we are of our position, the more we should be listening to the other side to see if they might have some of the truth as well.

The Chautauqua players did as good a job as they have ever done, to the point where most of the audience began thinking they were watching a real jury.

Highly recommended.