Successful 'Superstar,' Chorale top area theaters' bills
The three big-ticket performances of "Jesus Christ Superstar" netted $10,500, The Acting Company board member Bob Harlan announced at the final show Sunday.
Other good theater news: Additional donations trickling in from last week's one-day performance by Yuba-Sutter Master Chorale of Broadway songs eventually toted up to $2,500, director Joaquina Calvo Johnson reported.
Box office numbers like that offer a glimmer hope that this Mid-Valley metropolitan statistical area — once the first-stop choice for actors, vaudevillians and musicians traveling in the Far West — may be redeeming its lost reputation as a profitable place to put on a show.
TAC's trimmed-down production of "Jesus Christ Superstar" packed the house Friday and Sunday, with only a few empty seats at the Saturday performance of the Andrew Lloyd Webber-Tim Rice score.
Curt Schroeder directed the 16-member cast, among which were some well known talents, including Michael R.J. Campbell (Jesus), Neil Thorsen (Pilate), Eric Mackensen (Herod) and the up-and-coming Alex Cesena (Annas).
There were some interesting new faces (to me, anyway), including Sacramento-based Michael LePlante (Judas), notable opera mezzo-soprano Yen-Yu Shih (Mary), Master Chorale and Y-S Oratorio singer David Stockmal (Caiaphas) and Hollywood Bowl veteran Tristan Rumery (Simon).
There are two Marys in the New Testament: Mary, mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene, the woman who, let us say, erred in her ways. From her red dress and a few of her lyrics, I leap to the conclusion Shih was portraying Mary Magdalene.
Side note about Stockmal: I don't know if there's such a thing as a double-bass voice, but if there is one, Stockmal has it. He made for interesting listening and gave cause to wonder: How low can he go?
Two to watch for in the future are Jordan Wagner and Tyler Lamon. They were part of the quartet of rabbis who plotted the bribery of Judas and the crucifixion.
James Lohman conducted the 12-member orchestra. It was a welcome breakthrough for TAC. Live music is infinitely better than recorded music. Placing the orchestra on stage with the actors was a smart move. Only the conductor was set to one side. Thus, the singer-actors performed right beside the musicians.
Sure there was less space for the actors, but Schroeder handled that well with a single prop — a bench — and the actors emerging when needed from the classroom-type seating of the ensemble.
The orchestra deserves high praise. Some were familiar, specifically John Proctor, who was generally on trumpet and sometimes on what looked to be a flugelhorn.
Awaiting the start of the show, I noticed poised among the instruments was a bassoon. That produced my first inkling this show was going to be special. Richard Morrisey was the bassoonist.
Also among the eye- and ear-catching in the orchestra was first violin ShuMin Lin.
It so happened that Marysville native Brian Nakagawa was in the audience. Turned out he had spent two years in the mid-1990s as guitarist in the orchestra for a U.S. and Canada national tour of "Jesus Christ Superstar."
At the intermission, I buttonholed him to find out how he rated the actors and musicians in this show.
While they may not have been quite on par with the national company, they certainly gave respectable performances, Nakagawa said.
"Jesus Christ Superstar" is a latter-day opera based on the final days of the title character.
There were fine performances by Campbell and LePlante. They were a trifle overwrought in places, but I think that was probably what the script called for, than any fault of the actors. Both expended a great deal of energy meeting the demands of their starring roles. For that they deserve compliments.
Supporting roles often give the actors more latitude in interpreting their roles. Neil Thorsen stood out that way, both for the clarity of his voice and for the way he showed Pilate's character development.
Pilate was at first disdainful of the prophet the rabbis want him to crucify, but came to both understand him better yet still be mystified by the accused man's unwillingness to take the easy way out. Kudos to Thorsen for conveying such complex emotions.
My song pick for the show? That would be "Herod's Song," done by Eric Mackensen backed by a soldier, Pilate, Jesus and the mob. It was funny and upbeat, if you can imagine.
Next up for TAC is "Wit," which opens Oct. 3 and runs through Oct. 26.
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Meanwhile, in Nevada City, Ernest Thompson, author of the popular "On Golden Pond," will speak 7 p.m. Monday at Nevada City's Nevada Theatre at a fundraiser for the financially stressed Foothill Theatre Company.
FTC's production of Thompson's much acclaimed "On Golden Pond" is currently playing at the Nevada Theatre's Broad Street venue.
Thompson will tell stories about writing the play, spicing it up with anecdotes about his years in the theater and movie businesses. He'll be sharing some of his memories of working with such stage and screen stars as Shirley MacLaine, Liza Minelli, Robert Downey Jr., Winona Ryder and Karen Black. Katharine Hepburn, Henry Fonda and Jane Fonda starred in the 1981 movie of "On Golden Pond."
The original 1979-80 Broadway play ran for nearly 400 performances. Frances Sternhagen was nominated for a Tony award for her part in it. It has since played in 27 countries and been translated into several languages, including Finnish. The 1981 movie won three Academy Awards.
Tickets the FTC production run $35 for general reserved seating and $50 for premium reserved seating. With premium tickets, you also get to attend an after-show reception at the Nevada City Winery, where you can meet and talk to Thompson.
Tickets can be obtained at 530-265-8587, or through FTC's Web site at www.foothilltheatre.org.
Award-winning journalist and author Tom Nadeau has written for and acted on stage, screen, radio and television. Write to him at theaterland@gmail.com.
