Hillbarn stages timely, scary 'Daisy'

 

Clifford (Terrance Austin Smith, left), Tony (Michael Champlin) and Louise (Roneet Aliza Rahamim) confer about the LBJ ad. (Tracy Martin photo)

The events in Sean Devine’s “Daisy” happened some six decades ago, but the play presented by Hillbarn Theatre & Conservatory is timely and scary.

The title refers to an ad that ran once in 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson was running against conservative Republican Barry Goldwater of Arizona.

It shows a little girl counting the petals she removes from the daisy she holds. As she counts up from one, a male voice begins counting down from 10. When he reaches one, there’s a nuclear explosion.

It ends with the male voice saying, “The stakes are too high. Vote for President Johnson on Nov. 3.”

Although the ad was pulled immediately, it set the stage for negative presidential campaigns through 2024.

The action focuses on three writers for the Doyle Dane Bernbach ad agency. Their boss, Bill Bernbach (Glenn Havlan), has assigned them to create the TV ad campaign for Johnson.

As required by Clifford Lewis (Terrance Austin Smith), White House special counsel, they all must be Democrats.

A major player for them is Tony Schwartz (Michael Champlin), a sound theorist who records sounds of all kinds and files them in his basement studio. He’s brilliant, but he’s also agoraphobic, so he doesn’t want to venture any farther than four blocks from his home or be any higher than four stories up.

Perhaps the central character is Louise Brown (Roneet Aliza Rahamim), the only woman on the ad team. She embodies some of the moral dilemmas posed by running the ad.

Her two colleagues, Aaron Ehrlich (Keenan Murphy Flagg) and Sid Myers (George Psarras), get into sometimes heated discussions with her.

The acting is topnotch all around, with kudos especially going to Champlin as Tony, Smith as Clifford and Havlan as Bill.

Although the play is talky, director Jeffrey Bracco deftly guides his cast and keeps the action flowing smoothly.

He’s aided by Hillbarn artistic director Steve Muterspaugh’s set, which depicts Tony’s studio on one side, the ad agency office in the center and Clifford’s White House office on the other side.

He also is responsible for the projections featuring newsreel footage from the time: the beginnings of the Vietnam War, racial unrest and political events, among others.

Also instrumental in the production are the costumes by Lyre Alston, sound by Jeff Mockus and lighting by Pamila Gray.

Running about two hours and 15 minutes with an intermission, the timely “Daisy” will run only through Feb. 9 at Hillbarn Theatre, 1285 E. Hillsdale Blvd., Foster City.

For tickets and information, call (650) 349-6411. Ext. 2, or visit www.hillbarntheatre.org.

 

PA Players stages farce, 'Noises Off'

Kimberly Mohne Hill as Dotty in the opening scene. (Photo by Scott Lasky)

 

Presented by Palo Alto Players, Michael Frayn’s “Noises Off” looks at a third-rate English theater company rehearsing and then staging the world premiere of “Nothing On.”

The three-act farce starts with the final dress rehearsal. The second act takes place backstage during a performance about a month after the opening. The final act shows a performance from the audience’s perspective.

Each act gets progressively more frantic as the performers’ nerves are frayed and lines are botched. Jealousies emerge, as do outright efforts to sabotage the show.

As the show opens, Lloyd (Kyle Dayrit), the director, is trying to oversee Dotty (Kimberly Mohne Hill), the housekeeper of an English country home, as she deals with a telephone, newspaper and sardines (which figure into the action throughout the play), but she keeps botching her scene.

After she exits, lovers Garry (Brandon Silberstein) and the dense Brooke (Adriana Hokk) arrive for a tryst

While they’re checking out a bedroom, the home’s owners, Frederick (William Rhea) and Belinda (Michelle Skinner) unexpectedly return from Spain.

Also involved in the action are the stage managers, Poppy (Sierra Bolar) and Tim (Braden Taylor), and another actor, Selsdon (David Boyll), who plays a burglar.

As directed by Linda Piccone, each cast member creates an idiosyncratic character.

Noteworthy among them is Skinner as Belinda, who develops into a peacemaker, and Boyll as Selsdon, who has a fondness for drinking.

However, the performers’ English accents and Gregorio Perez’s low-volume sound design obscure some lines and plot developments.

Otherwise, the show benefits from Camryn Lang’s set design with its seven doors to be slammed, so essential in a farce.

Also beneficial are Katie Strawn’s costumes, Rue Zadik’s lighting and Katie O’Bryon Champlin’s coordination of fights and stunts.

The show runs about two and a half hours with one 15-minute intermission followed by a 10-minute pause. It continues through Feb. 2 at the Lucie Stern Theater, 1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto.

For tickets and information, call (650) 329-0891 or visit www.paplayers.org.

 

Felder returns to TheatreWorks as Rachmaninoff

 

Jonathan Silvestri (left) plays the tsar. Hershey Felder is Rachmaninoff. (Stefano DeCarli photo)

Over the years, pianist-playwright Hershey Felder has delighted TheatreWorks Silicon Valley audiences with his one-man musical plays about composers like Gershwin, Berlin, Chopin, Beethoven and others.

He has returned with his latest creation, “Rachmaninoff and the Tsar,” in a new format: He’s joined by another performer, Jonathan Silvestri, who plays Russian Tsar Nicholas Romanov II.

This play begins in Beverly Hills in 1943, where Sergei Rachmaninoff, the Russian composer-pianist, has settled after fleeing Russia following the Bolshevik uprising in 1918. He’s now 70 years old and terminally ill. Because he’s in so much pain, he receives twice-daily morphine injections.

Under the drug’s influence, he harks back to his early life and education in Russia followed by travels with his wife.

He harbors deep ill will toward the tsar, blaming him for the problems and cruel oppression that led to the uprising.

A central theme involves the tsar’s daughter Anastasia, who might or might not have survived the firing squad that killed him and the rest of his family.

It’s all fascinating, but some of the story line is lost because of the Russian accents used by both performers.

Directed by Trevor Hay, the production is highlighted by Felder’s acting and his virtuosic performances of some of Rachmaninoff’s best known piano concertos.

On the other hand, Silvestri seems stiff, especially since he doesn’t always have much to do. I’m wondering if he was suffering from some disposition because he sounded hoarse during the Jan. 15 performance.

Production values are high with the garden set by Felder and costumes by Marysol M. Gabriel. Lighting by Erik S. Barry seemed to have some glitches as lights sometimes flickered against the house in the background.

This is reportedly Felder’s last show of its kind.

It will continue through Feb. 9 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.