"Sunset Boulevard" by Minneapolis Musical Theater at New Century Theatre

I'm really not much of a movie buff, spending most of my time at live theater. I've never seen the 1950 classic movie Sunset Boulevard, about a delusional aging Hollywood star and the younger screenwriter whom she takes as her lover while he helps her edit her screenplay that she believes will be her comeback. The movie was turned into a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and opened in 1993 in London, with by a Los Angeles premiere later that year, and Broadway the following year. The three productions starred, at various times, such legendary actors as Patti LuPone, Betty Buckley, Glenn Close, Elaine Page, and Rita Moreno. Minneapolis Musical Theatre has taken this big lavish production and stripped it down to fit on the small stage at New Century. But the story still remains big, and Sarah Gibson as Norma Desmond does an incredible job filling the shoes of the women mentioned above. I'm not the biggest Andrew Lloyd Webber fan (as they say in Xanadu, "so grand and so earnest but ultimately so preposterous that one has to laugh"), and this show is very Andrew Lloyd Webber. But if there's one reason to see this show it's Sarah's delightfully exaggerated and completely committed performance as this complex, manipulative, crazy, and somehow sympathetic woman.

If you're one of the two other people on the planet who have never seen the movie, here's a brief plot summary. Circa 1950, struggling writer Joe Gillis ends up at the grand estate belonging to silent film star Norma Desmond when his car breaks down. She lives there alone with her butler (and ex-husband) Max. When she finds out that Joe is a screenwriter, she shows him the screenplay that she has written, and convinces him to help her get it into shape to submit to the great movie-maker Cecil DeMille. It's awful, but Joe does his best. He moves in with her and she showers him with gifts, and they eventually become lovers ("I get suits, and she gets hope"). Norma is a master manipulator; she has Max wrapped around her little finger, and all it takes is a little uncontrollable weeping or a suicide attempt to get what she wants out of Joe. She sends DeMille her screenplay and goes back to the studio where she was once a fixture, and prepares to make her comeback, unaware that everyone's laughing behind her back. Meanwhile, Joe has been working with a young screenwriter named Betty to adapt one of his stories. Although she's engaged to be married, the two fall in love, until Norma calls Betty to tell her where and how Joe has been living. Disillusioned, Joe tells Norma that her comeback is a joke, and plans to leave Hollywood for good. But Norma is not about to let that happen.

Like many Webber shows, the musical is mostly sung-through; there's little spoken dialogue. It reminds me a little of Evita, with similar musical sounds and plot structure, with Joe serving as a narrator as well as a character in the story. I didn't think I knew the score, but the song "With One Look" is familiar to me, and of course I know "As If We Never Said Good-Bye" from that episode of Glee in which Kurt sings it. Both songs are beautifully delivered by Sarah. I've seen her in several shows in the past (most recently in a supporting role in Theater Latte Da's Light in the Piazza) and have always been impressed by her, but this is a star-making performance. First of all, she looks like a movie star out of old Hollywood (maybe because I've only seen her in period roles). In this show, her every gesture, every word (I particularly like how she enunciates "picture"), every movement, every cell of her body down to her little finger, is imbued with Norma Desmond-ness. In heavy eye make-up and red lipstick, wearing feathers and fur, animal prints, flowy sleeves, headwraps, and jewels, she plays the role to the hilt. But if Norma is the star of the show, Joe is our tour guide through this weird world. Tim Kuehl (who looks like Vince Gill and sings almost as sweet) ably carries the show from Norma's creepy world to the world of young Hollywood, representing the audience as a bit of an outsider in both. His version of the title song, somewhat desperate and sarcastic, is another highlight. The lovely-voiced Aly Westberg is charming as the bright young writer Joe falls in love with, as they sing a sweet duet "Too Much in Love to Care." There are also several nice group numbers performed by the capable ensemble.

An interesting feature of this production is the use of video. Screens on either side of the wide and shallow stage show still shots of Norma's house or the studio lot, adding to the sparse set decoration to set the scene. Oftentimes an onstage camera tracks Norma's movements and displays them on the screen. The shaky close-ups, on which Sarah's wide-open eyes are even more apparent, ramp up the creepiness of the story. Nice period costumes on everyone, but Norma's get-ups are obviously the standout (costumes by Rian Berberich). Last but not least, a shout-out to the great slightly-off-stage band (directed by Lori Maxwell).

This is only my second MMT production (the other being Gilligan's Island: The Musical, which couldn't be more different from Sunset Boulevard), and so far I like what I've seen (and I'm super excited about their summer show next year - the brilliant political satire Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson!). Sunset Boulevard is a co-production with Hennepin Theatre Trust, and plays now through June 23.

"Johnny Baseball" at Park Square Theatre

New original musical theater is my favorite thing in the world (and something that's in short supply in these days of jukebox musicals and movie adaptations). Baseball is another one of my favorite things, so combining these two things makes me a happy baseball/theater fan. Johnny Baseball is a new musical by brothers Robert and Willie Reale (music and lyrics, respectively, who were in attendance opening night) and Richard Dresser (book). It premiered at American Repertory Theatre in Boston in 2010 and has gone through a few workshops before it's current incarnation at Park Square Theatre. While it's not the perfect musical (yet), it has some really great songs and scenes, and has the potential to be a great and successful musical. I'm not certain it could every play on Broadway; this love song to the Boston Red Sox might not be well received in Yankee territory. (On the other hand, we all know Broadway is for tourists, so it might be OK!) But the current version is highly enjoyable for baseball and musical theater fans alike, with a fantastic cast and clever and interesting staging, direction, and choreography.

Johnny Baseball mixes fact and fiction. The fact is that the Red Sox went 86 years without a World Series win. While the real reasons for that are complicated and varied (and in my opinion can mostly be attributed to the fact that baseball is a funny game, and sometimes things just don't go your way), one popular theory is that the Red Sox were cursed because they sold their star player, Babe Ruth, to the Yankees in 1920, beginning a streak of Yankee dominance in World Series (that I as a Twins fan find frustrating and unfair, but don't get me started about the Damn Yankees!). Johnny Baseball proposes an alternate theory to the so-called "Curse of the Bambino." While this theory is just as preposterous, it works well as the conceit of the show (except for the fact that this curse happened in 1948, which doesn't explain the first 30 years). We begin with modern-day Red Sox fans agonizing over a game (specifically, game 4 of the 2004 ALCS), when an old man in a Yankees hat begins to tell a story. We then flash back to the 1918 Red Sox season, when a fictional rookie pitcher named Johnny O'Brien joins real life star Babe Ruth. Johnny meets and falls in love with "colored girl" singer Daisy, and things don't go well for them, as to be expected in 1918. We continue on through history to Babe's death in 1948 and later, as Johnny and Daisy (and, presumably, the entire Red Sox nation) experience the consequences of their relationship. It's really a tragic story of love lost and talent wasted, but the tone of the show is mostly hopeful and happy.

Red Sox fans agonize over Game 4

The show is incredibly well-cast, down to every last member of the ensemble (way too many to mention here, but a few standouts include Sarah Gibson, who looks and sounds so perfect in these period roles, like the ones she's played with Skylark Opera, and Max Wojtanowicz, always charismatic and a joy to watch). In fact, I found the ensemble numbers to be the strongest moments in the show - really fun and clever songs celebrating the joy and heartache of being a baseball fan. The leads are up to the task as well. I've seen Timotha Lanae playing supporting characters in various things around town, so it's nice to see her in the spotlight here as the strong-willed blues singer Daisy, and she takes to it very well. Josh Campbell is sweet and sincere as the naive young rookie who becomes known as Johnny Baseball, and nicely transforms into a more jaded and lived-in version of the character in the second act, 30 years later. Timotha and Josh's voices blend beautifully on such numbers as the sweet "I Thought About You." Zach Curtis is a scene stealer as the confident and lascivious Babe, and again later as powerful and eccentric Red Sox owner Yawkey. Also of note is Rudolph Searles III, who has a lovely voice as Tim, a pivotal character in the "curse."

Johnny throws a pitch as the ladies watch

In addition to the cast, the staging, direction, and choreography are all also top-notch. The set (by the always excellent set designer Michael Hoover) consists of red wooden wheeled platforms of varying heights that are moved around to represent bleachers, a bed, or a pitcher's mound. Big screens adorn the stage that display historical photos or images that serve as set backdrops. The actors move around this world with ease, and the choreography is so ingrained into the story that I'm not sure where the direction (by Doug Scholz-Carlson) ends and the choreography (by Jim Lichtsheidl) begins. This is not the typical musical theater choreography, with bold and precise big dance numbers, but is something more loose and organic, whether it's drunken men swaying and singing (the hilariously entertaining "Brotherhood of Bastards") or fans suffering and celebrating through a ball game. I didn't know Jim was a choreographer, but he's long been one of my favorite actors because of the specific and thoughtful physicality he brings to every one of his performances, so it really shouldn't be surprising that he's transferred that physical way of inhabiting a character to this cast. Along with the choreography, the representation of baseball itself is interesting and innovative. The pitcher throws into the audience, while the catcher receives the pitch on the other side of the stage from the audience, just one of several delightful representations of the movement of the ball. And the period costumes (MaryBeth Gagner) are gorgeous.

Everything about the baseball part of this show is fantastic and spot-on, from the opening number "Eight-Six Years" (we're going on 22 years without a championship here in Minnesota so I feel the pain!), to the love/hate relationship with a handsome opposing player in "Not Rivera," to the desperate pleas of baseball fans in "One More Run" (both feelings to which I can relate), to the beautiful and poetic ode to the magic of baseball in Johnny's song "All I Have to Do." "See You in the Big Leagues" is a fun and catchy song, and Daisy's nightclub number "Color Me Blue" is wonderfully bluesy. However, the non-baseball parts of the show could perhaps benefit from a little more development. The lackluster love song "Mr. Moon" is a little too "Somewhere Out There" (Timotha and Josh deserve a better song), and while the staging of the love song "God Wouldn't Mind" is cute, the words are less cute than creepy. I also didn't love the penultimate number "Errors" (Sondheim did it better in "No One Is Alone"/"Children Will Listen"). But with a few more tweaks the creators could have a really successful show on their hands, wherever they take it next. I'm thrilled to have gotten the chance to experience this new work.

Most of all, this show speaks directly to my baseball-loving heart and makes me anxious for the end of the long off-season. Only 29 days until the first Twins Spring Training game! Until then, head to downtown St. Paul between now and Feb. 10 to experience the joy, frustration, and community that comes with the love of the game. (Or head over to the good old HHH Metrodome this weekend for TwinsFest 2013 to meet some of the players before they head down to Fort Myers, as well as great players from Twins baseball history, like Tony O, Rod Carew, and one of my personal faves from the glory days of the late 80s, Frankie V). Let's play ball!

"Wonderful Town" by Skylark Opera at the E.M. Pearson Theatre

This is my second year attending Skylark Opera's summer festival, and I quite enjoy it. It introduces me to classical musicals that I've never seen (or in this case, heard of), which is a great thing for my continued musical theater education. Skylark follows last year's On the Town with another classic Bernstein/ Comden&Green collaboration - Wonderful Town. In addition to the similar names, both are traditional musicals set in New York City, with slightly dated stories but great music (you really can't go wrong with a Leonard Bernstein musical). This year's show features many of the same actors as last year, which in this case is a good thing. It's another well done production of an American classic.

Wonderful Town follows two sisters from Ohio as they move to NYC to pursue their dreams, one as an actor, the other as a writer. They rent a run-down studio apartment on Christopher Street in the West Village, where they meet many interesting characters. They encounter several obstacles to fulfilling their dreams, but this being a 1950s musical (the action takes place in 1935, but the musical was first produced in 1953), they eventually overcome and are successful in life and love. (As Neil Patrick Harris sang at the Tonys, wouldn't it be nice if life were more like theater!)

A few of my favorite things:

• I'm afraid Sarah Gibson is being typecast as the 1940s tough broad after playing a similar role last year and this. But she's so great at it! Her Ruth is my kind of heroine - a tall, strong, independent, capable woman (who therefore knows "One Hundred Easy Ways" to lose a man).
• Sarah Lawrence also returns from last year's festival, playing the pretty, perky, popular blond Eileen, who, unlike her sister, easily attracts men wherever she goes...
• ... including the amusingly diverse trio of the newspaper man Bob (Gabriel Preisser, who sounds beautiful on "A Quiet Girl" and "It's Love"), the nerdy Frank (Paul R. Coate), and the slimy Chick (Riley McNutt).
• The huge ensemble portrays lots of different characters in this colorful city, with several great ensemble dance numbers. I particularly loved the sharp, rhythmic, almost Fosse-like "Swing." (choreography by Penelope Freeh)
• Fantastic period costumes! (designed by Lynn Farrington)
• Last but not least, the fabulous score: clever, catchy, beautiful, silly. I only knew one song, the gorgeous duet performed by the sisters - "Why oh why oh why oh, why did I ever leave Ohio?" (Thanks to Sue Sylvester and her mother, Carol Burnett.) Oh how I love a great big pit orchestra sound!

Ruth (Sarah Gibson) and Bob (Gabriel Preisser)

If you're interested in classic musical theater and opera, be sure to check out Skylark Opera's summer festival, playing for one more week at the E.M. Pearson Theatre on the Concordia University campus in St. Paul. The festival also includes the opera Mlle. Modiste, which I don't plan to see because opera's not as much my thing, and I have a hard enough time seeing all of the musicals and plays I want to! (But you know what Stephen Sondheim says about the difference between opera and musical theater...)

"On the Town" by Skylark Opera at the E.M. Pearson Theatre

As much as I love new, edgy, innovative musical theater, I also love a good classic musical.  On the Town, about three sailors on leave in New York City for 24 hours in 1944, is a classic.  I'd never seen it before on stage (the playbill notes that this is probably the first time it's been professionally produced in the Twin Cities) or screen (for a musical theater fan, I haven't seen many classic old movie musicals).  With my love for musical theater and NYC, it's about time I saw this one!

Skylark Opera is presenting On the Town in repertoire with The Vagabond King in their summer festival at the E.M. Pearson Theatre.  The two shows have overlapping, but not identical, casts and musicians, and different directors and choreographers.  Leonard Bernstein wrote the music for On the Town based on an idea of Jerome Robbins, who also choreographed the original Broadway production (the two most famously collaborated on West Side Story, coming to the Orpheum this summer).  Comden and Green wrote the book and lyrics (and now I understand one more reference in the musical about musicals, [title of show]).

The plot follows three sailors in NYC for one short day: the organized and determined sightseer Chip (Paul R. Coate, who appeared in one of my favorite shows of 2009, Theater Latte Da's The Full Monty), the playboy Ozzie (Jon Andrew Hegge, a constant in the Guthrie's annual production of A Christmas Carol), and the naive farm boy Gabey (Dieter Bierbrauer, a favorite from the Chan, Latte Da, and several other theaters).  While riding the subway, Gabey falls in love with a girl on a poster and is determined to find her.  The boys split up in their search for "Miss Turnstiles," and each meet a girl of their own.  Chip runs into taxi driver Hildy and the two sing a charming duet in which he asks her to drive him to see various sights in NYC, and she slams on the brakes of the cab and tells him it's no longer there, so "Come Up To My Place."  Sarah Gibson as Hildy really looks the part of a tough, tall, 1940s broad, and can really belt out a tune (including the fabulous "I Can Cook Too").  Ozzie meets Claire (Jennifer Eckes), an anthropologist who's studying men in an effort to get them out of her system and settle down with her fiance.  I like that Hildy and Claire aren't your typical movie/musical girlfriends; they're both career women who go after what they want.  Maybe this is a reflection of the times, when women filled the employment vacancies left by men off fighting in WWII.

Back to the main love story.  Despairing of ever finding his "Miss Turnstiles," Gabey laments how lonely the city can be, and the audience is treated to Dieter's beautiful voice in the sad and lovely "Lonely Town."  But since this is a musical, he does find Ivy (Sarah Lawrence), at her singing lessons with the hilarious and boozy Madam Dilly (Kinsey Diment).  They make a date for that evening, but what Gabey doesn't know is that Ivy has a job "dancing" at Coney Island, and she stands him up because she can't afford to miss work.  Gabey is reunited with his friends and their dates, and they take him out on the town and try to cheer him up with the fun friendship song "You Got Me."  It doesn't work, and when he finds out where Ivy is, he takes the train to Coney Island to see her.  The other two couples follow, and on the long train ride they realize how short-lived their romances must be in the poignant "Some Other Time."  Gabey and Ivy reunite and the three couples enjoy the rest of their short time together, in and out of jail.  The sailors say their goodbyes to the girls and the city, as a fresh batch of sailors arrives on shore.  And the story begins anew.

This production features a large and capable ensemble, including Laurel Armstrong and Jake Endres (who opens the show with the low and lovely "I Fell Like I'm Not Out Of Bed Yet"), both of whom recently appeared in Flying Foot Forum's beautiful and moving original musical Heaven.  The ensemble scenes celebrate NYC nightlife and the activities and people of Coney Island.  (They remind me a bit of Annie, which also features ensemble scenes celebrating NYC life.)  There are also a few beautifully choreographed and performed "dream ballet" sequences, one during "Lonely Town" and one when Gabey's riding the subway to Coney Island to confront Ivy.  The traditional orchestra in the traditional pit was great; I love entering a theater and hearing the cacophonous sounds of the orchestra warming up and tuning.  I also loved the 40s era costumes and hats!

This is a perfectly delightful show.  Leonard Bernstein's gorgeous score, Comden and Green's witty lyrics, great performances by all of the leads and a strong ensemble backing them up, and fun choreography.  You can't ask for more from a classic piece of musical theater.