Once at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, California

Aloha!

I am fortunate to have the opportunity to see many musicals each year, and not all of them are winners, but many are very good and some are winners. We saw the touring production of Once at the Pantages Theatre on opening weekend, and it was one of the winners.

The Pantages is a real throwback and is one of the oldest theatres in the Los Angeles area. It opened in 1930, and survived the transition to a movie house and back to a regular theatre, and it got a full restoration about 10 years ago. This is a huge theatre, which plays a bit into how this show is received.

Once is a pretty new show that is based on a 2007 film of the same name. It is a story of unrequited love between two young musicians who have a lot of other stuff going on in their lives. Their relationship cannot go anywhere, but the true beauty of the story is in the caring they show for each other. Set in Dublin, there is an undercurrent of conflict due to diversity of the population, and this plays in to the story as well.

John Carney’s film was very good, but it did not have a big budget and did not get a lot of traction in its original release, but it did come away with an Academy Award for best song with “Falling Slowly.”. It Broadway incarnation got the full treatment under the direction of Diane Paulus, with a book by Edna Walsh and music by Glen Hansard and Marketa Iglova, and it went on to win 8 Tony Awards in 2012. Supposedly the story is based on the relationship between Hansard and Iglova (the stars if the film) – believe it or not.

I was warned ahead of time to show up early for the show and was a little gobsmacked to see a lot of the audience on the stage. The set is a bar, and the audience was invited up to buy drinks and be entertained by the musicians onstage. After the audience was shooed away the musicians remained, and it turned out that they were the actors and musicians for the show. By the way, the audience was invited up again at the intermission.

The bar set took up the entire stage and remained up for the who show. It has mirrors everywhere so the audience did not miss any of the action on the stage. Small scenic elements were brought on and off the stage to transform it into a home, a recording studio, and a bank. The actors were the musicians, and when they were not in the scene they would sit off to the sides and play the melodies as needed.

The cast was incredible, and they were all first rate singers and musicians, and they all had great stage presence. The leads were played by Stuart Ward (Guy) and Dani de Waal (girl), and they were convincing actors with tremendous voices (plus they played a mean guitar and piano, respectively). The other 11 members of the cast portrayed the girl’s family and the town’s people and they fleshed out the rest of the story nicely. John Tiffany directed this production with Martin Lowe as musical director and Steven Hoggett as choreographer.

The rest of the pieces all fell into place for this one. The costumes were simple, but worked, and the lighting from Natasha Katz was remarkable. The songs are all very solid and heartfelt, and for a change the sound in the house was very good. The Pantages is a huge hall that is tough to fill properly with sound, and this is the closest they have gotten in recent history. Once has a quiet and intimate feel, and it would really be better suited to a smaller venue.

Once is a charming show, and there is a good reason why it won all of those Tony awards -- it could be the best new musical of the decade. From the cast to the music to the staging they got everything right on this one, and you should make the time to see it if you get the opportunity.

Your chance to see Once at the Pantages in Hollywood is almost over, as it closes on August 10, but this is a touring company that has a lot of stops left (including San Diego and Costa Mesa for you locals) so you still have the chance to track it down and see it for yourself.

Mahalo!

Review of Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, CA

Buenos dias, amigos!

When I got the Pantages Theatre season ticket order form for this season, I was happy to see that Peter Pan with Cathy Rigby was on the list. My son had never seen the stage show, and I’ not had the opportunity to see Cathy Rigby perform it before, so it seemed like a good way to kill two birds with one stone. Plus there would surely be a trip to Juicy Burger in it for me too!

As always, the Pantages is always a great place to see a musical show. Parking is easy (easy for Hollywood, anyway), and it is a beautifully restored Art Deco theatre. The theatre is laid out well, and there are really not any bad seats. Not surprisingly, this show drew a full house and oodles of children, but they were amazingly well-behaved and the auditorium was peaceful throughout the performance. Maybe there is hope for the future…

This version Peter Pan is based on Jerome Robbins’ 1954 adaptation, which was the first time that the play was effectively brought into a musical theatre format. Sir James Barrie’s original story is a classic, and watching this production was like seeing an old friend again.

The stage was set up with large wings so that the opening was a bit smaller than usual. Unfortunately that meant that the audience that was seated off to the sides could not see quite a bit of the stage. The sets were well-designed, but looked really old and a bit threadbare. It is time that this touring company put a bit of their money back into their production.

This Peter Pan tour travels with four full-time musicians, and it looks like they hired another ten or so to fill out the orchestra. The score had a nice arrangement of brass, woodwinds and strings, complemented by tasteful keyboards and percussion. The band and the singers were well-miked and mixed, which is a refreshing change from the last two shows I saw at the Pantages.

Cathy Rigby headlines the show, and as always there is the need to suspend disbelief that the eternal boy character is being played by a woman, and in this case a 60-year old woman. But she delivered the goods like she always has since she started playing this role in 1990. Her voice is strong, and she is still able to do the dance and acrobatic moves as well as ever. While we are overlooking gender, I might as well point out that John, Michael and some of the Indians and pirates were also played by women.

The rest of the cast did a fine job, too. The children were adorable, and the boys, pirates and indians played their roles well. The main characters were led by the strong performance of Brent Barrett as Captain Hook and Mr. Darling, and the smoking-hot Jenna Wright as Tiger Lily and Jenna. My god that girl can dance! Also, Clark Roberts did a neat job as Nana the dog and as the crocodile, both of which were real crowd pleasers.

The dancing from everybody on the cast was very good, but I did not always understand the choreography. It seemed a lot more like gymnastics to me, but maybe I just did not understand what they were trying to accomplish. The folks in charge of the flying sequences really made them fast and thrilling and I watched in terror as Cathy soared about the stage narrowly missing set pieces. Of course they have done this countless times before, but it still looked awfully scary.

Anyway, as a whole this musical is very good, and you do not have to be a child to enjoy this timeless story. Seeing it live is a completely different experience than watching the Disney movie, by the way. As Peter Pan is a touring production it will continue its way around the country with stops in Chicago, Tulsa, Cincinnati, Fort Worth, Scranton, Detroit and Providence. It is a fun show and you owe it to yourself and your kids to see Cathy Rigby in this role!

Mahalo!