'School of Rock' opens Palo Alto Players season

Jomar Martinez as Dewey (center) and his students display their talents. (Kate Hart Photography)

Palo Alto Players’ 92nd season is off to a rousing start with “School of Rock.”

This musical features a talented cast of 15 youngsters and 16 adults. The youngsters, mainly preteens, portray students in a pricey private school. Most of the adults, some playing multiple roles, play the kids’ parents and teachers.

The major exception is Jomar Martinez as Dewey Finn, a loser and aspiring rock musician, who becomes the kids’ substitute teacher by deception. He doesn’t know anything about the subjects he’s supposed to teach, but he soon fills the classroom with rock music.

Some of the kids play instruments, and others are pegged as backup singers. As they evolve into a large rock band, the kids start to blossom. For example, Tomika (Sadie Vaughn), is so shy that she can barely mumble her name, let alone say what’s bothering her. Dewey manages to bring her out of her shell, and she becomes an integral part of the group.

In another memorable scene, “If Only You Would Listen,” several students try to get their parents to really hear what they’re saying but get nowhere. Later, however, the parents hear and see the band and begin to regard the kids in a different light.

Of course there’s reckoning when Dewey’s subterfuge is discovered, but there’s a happy ending.

In a subplot, Dewey becomes unexpectedly enamored of the principal, Rosalie Mullins (Amy Kohmescher).

Based on a movie by Mike White, this stage version features a book by Julian Fellowes and lyrics by Glenn Slater. Andrew Lloyd Webber wrote most of the new music. One delightful exception is the virtuoso Queen of the Night aria from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” well sung by Kohmescher.

As Dewey, Martinez is high energy, almost manic at times, often in the first act, but his antics lead to laughter, too.

Ably directed by Doug Santana, the entire cast is praiseworthy, especially the kids. They obviously have rehearsed long and hard, as evidenced in the choreography by Joey Dippel. Daniel Lloyd Pias serves as vocal director, while Amie Jan and Lane Sanders are co-music directors. Jan conducts the band.

PAP artistic director Patrick Klein designed the sets, which smoothly segue from one scene to the next. Costumes are by Noreen Styliadis, lighting by Edward Hunter and sound by Anthony Sutton.

All of these elements, especially the cast, deserve their enthusiastic audience response.

Running about two hours and 40 minutes with one intermission, “The School of Rock” will continue through Sept. 11 at the Lucie Stern Theater, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto. For tickets call (650) 329-0891 or visit www.paplayers.org.

 

 

 

 

Audience favorite brings Chopin show to TheatreWorks

 

Hershey Felder in his Chopin persona. (Photo by Hershey Felder Presents)

Hershey Felder has become an audience favorite in the Bay Area and elsewhere for his one-man shows based on famous composers like Debussy, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Irving Berlin, Leonard Bernstein and George Gershwin.

Now he has brought another one-man show, “Hershey Felder: Chopin in Paris,” to TheatreWorks Silicon Valley.

In this show he becomes the composer-pianist teaching a piano class in Paris (with the audience as his students).

Along the way, he reveals much of Fryderyk Chopin’s history and performs some of his most famous piano works.

Felder bases his show on meticulous historical research and offers fascinating insights into both the man and his music.

Although Chopin was Polish by birth, he spent most of his adult life in Paris, with some sojourns to other major European cities. Still, he never forgot his Polish roots and always loved his native country.

This show takes place in Paris during the afternoon of March 4, 1848, the year before his death at the age of 39.

After an introduction, he goes to the grand piano that dominates his salon and plays his first composition, written when he was just 7 years old. He later says that he first became fascinated with the family piano when he was just 2.

In another segment, he bewails the Russian occupation of Poland and the suffering of his people – not unlike what’s happening in Ukraine today, but he makes no note of that.

He also goes into depth about his eight-year relationship with writer Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin, better known as the cigar-smoking George Sand, whom Chopin called Madam.

During a Q and A with his students (the audience), he cites Bach and Mozart as two of his major musical influences.

Toward the end of the show, he talks of what Sand called his melancholy, a trait evidenced in several scenes where he imagines terrible things happening to his family and others.

This show apparently is a revision of an earlier Felder show, “Monsieur Chopin,” seen at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in 2014.

Felder is an accomplished musician and story-teller, resulting in a fascinating, enjoyable theatrical work.

Directed by Joel Zwick, the show features the book and set by Felder with lighting by Erik S. Barry (too much red in some scenes).

Running about two hours, including the Q and A’s, but no intermission, “Hershey Felder: Chopin in Paris” will continue through Sept. 11 at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View.

For tickets and information, call (877) 662-8978 or visit www.theatreworks.org.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Local priest's story told in 'The Four Gifts'

Amanda Farbstein as one of the Joes. (Mark and Tracy Photography)

 

Father Joe Bradley has turned his autobiography, “The Four Gifts,” into a play of the same name being staged by Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory.

With editing by Antonia Ehlers and script supervision by Dan Demers, former Hillbarn artistic director, the play concerns a man who overcame a crisis of faith, substance abuse and major heart issues to become a Catholic priest serving at  Serra High School and St. Gregory’s Catholic Church in San Mateo.

Joe had wanted to become a priest from the time he was a teenager in the early ’70s, but his father encouraged him to experience the real world to be sure the priesthood was for him.

He got a ground crew job at San Francisco International Airport, where he began indulging in alcohol and drugs, especially after his father’s death.

Eventually he did become a priest, but he developed heart trouble and had to have a pacemaker and defibrillator implanted at UCSF.

(He could have gone to Stanford Medical Center, but refused because he was still angry at the way the Stanford band had made fun of Notre Dame during halftime of a football game.)

When his defibrillator went haywire, subjecting him to great pain, he wound up getting a successful heart transplant. In all, he spent a year in the hospital.

The medical scenes don’t place doctors in a very good light. Yes, they’re knowledgeable and effective, but the bedside manner of most of them leaves something to be desired.

For example, the doctor played by Amanda Farbstein is brusque and cold, not giving Joe much chance to respond or showing concern for him as a person.

His story is related by a cast of four women and six men who play multiple roles, including Joe. Each time another actor takes over the role, he or she receives a necklace with a cross from the previous Joe.

This gambit is fairly easy to follow but seems unnecessary. The story itself is interesting and would be better served if each character were played by the  same person.

Although the play doesn’t specifically enumerate the four gifts, Good Reads, an online site, lists them as faith, sobriety, a new heart and a fulfilling ministry.

Directed by Cara Phipps, the cast is quite good in varied roles. Among the standouts is Farbstein. Besides a doctor, she’s one of the Joes and a co-worker at the airport. Also noteworthy is Cody Wittlinger, who plays the first young Joe.

Patrick W. Lord has designed the simple set and the projections shown on three transparent panels upstage.

Costumes are by Pam Lampkin with lighting by Ron Ho. James Goode’s sound design features musical snatches from the Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, James Taylor and others from the ’70s.

Running about 90 minutes without intermission, “The Four Gifts” will continue through Aug. 21 at Hillbarn Theatre, 1285 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City.

For tickets and information, call (650) 349-6411 or visit www.hillbarntheatre.org.