Beyond holiday flings
NOW PLAYING
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Beauty and the Beast
Not in the Stars You can always bank on B Street Theatre’s Buck Busfield to buck the oversaturation of seasonal sentimentality with his annual holiday plays. Over the years, Busfield has incorporated by Patti Roberts elements of the holidays in his original plays, but lately he’s stuck with giving us nonthemed glimpses into family, friends and romance—both functional and dysfunctional. That’s what the holidays really end up being about to many of us: past, present and future relationships.
By putting two one-acts in repertory, Busfield allows the audience to savor the talented acting skills of this tried-and-true trio, who have acted in productions at B Street for the last two decades. And Not in the Stars also lets the audience appreciate Busfield’s subtle and poignant characters as they try and navigate through life’s big and small moments. Ω
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B3, 2727 B St.; (916) 443-5300; www.bstreettheatre.org. J.H.
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Crazy Horse and Custer
Surging teenage hormones, curiosity about sex and impulsive choices leading to tragic outcomes—that’s the thumbnail summary of Spring Awakening, the indie-rock musical (incongruously set in a stiff, authoritarian German prep school in the 1890s), that collected eight Tony Awards in 2006. Spring Awakening drew a chilly reaction from certain Broadway Sacramento subscribers when a touring production visited in 2009; some elders in the audience were put off by the electric score, winced at the F-bombs, disliked the front-and-center sex scene at the close of Act I and departed during intermission. But the current production by the UC Davis Theatre and Dance Department is packing in audiences; some performances have sold out the 470-seat venue. This is mostly because the show was always intended primarily for 20-somethings, so an audience top-heavy with undergrads (including a few still in their teens) is ideal. Visiting director Stafford Arima (who’s piloted Broadway shows in addition to Music Circus productions here in River City) offers a somewhat different take on the material. In the touring production, the show felt like a string of semi-linked scenes staged largely for jarring effect; Arima focuses on the arc of this dark story, which unfolds in a more visually comprehensible form (and with less bare flesh) than the tour. All in all, Arima’s is the superior version. The cast ranges from Master of Fine Arts candidates (who are basically professionals) to undergrads (some theater majors, others studying other disciplines). Musical director Erik Daniells, who’s handled several shows in Sacramento, gets a good sound from his band. Costumes (Maggie Morgan), lighting (Michael Palumbo) and scenic design (John Iacovelli) are professional, and take advantage of the Main Theatre’s overhead spaciousness.
Sacramento Theatre Company stages an original play by Sacramento writer Jon George, in which the ghosts of Lakota warrior Crazy Horse (Louie Leonardo) and Gen. George Armstrong Custer (Kirk Blackinton) revisit their own lives and the history of United States genocide. Featuring top-notch acting and one really bad wig, it’s also controversial— the descendants of Crazy Horse are angry about the representation of Lakota spirituality—and is guaranteed to stir up discussion of U.S. policy. It’s directed by Michael Laun. W 12:30 & 6:30pm,
Th 6:30pm, F 8pm, Sa 2 & 8pm, Su 2pm. Through 12/15. $12-$35.
Sacramento Theatre Company,
1419 H St.; (916) 443-6722; www.sactheatre.org. K.M.
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Outrage
Playwright Itamar Moses deserves an A for ambition in this academic satire that aspires to be nothing less than the history of knowledge. And Big Idea Theatre deserves equally high marks for presenting this messy essay with its trippy script so expertly. Narrated by Bertolt Brecht (Jouni Kirjola), the scene shifts seamlessly from academia to ancient Athens and then to the Inquistion and Nazi Germany. Benjamin T. Ismail deftly directs a cast of 15 actors portraying 25 characters. Th, F, Sa 8pm (except 11/28). Through 12/14. $10-$20. Big Idea Theatre, 1616 Del Paso Blvd.; (916) 960-3036; www.bigidea theatre.com. J.C.
FOUL
2 FAIR
3 GOOD
4 WELL-DONE
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Tommy J & Sally
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Celebration Arts’ production of this play by Mark Medoff is an intense, tightly paced journey through privilege and bias, as T.J. (Anthony Person) and Sally Hemmings (Nicole DeCroix) navigate contemporary American racial relations by way of re-examining their personal pasts—which may or may not have actually happened. Directed by James Wheatley.
SUBLIME–DON’T MISS
Th, F, Sa 8pm; Su 2pm. Through 12/22. $8-$15. Celebration Arts,
4469 D St.; (916) 455-2787; www.celebrationarts.net. K.M.
Short reviews by Jim Carnes, Jeff Hudson and Kel Munger.
PHOTO COURTESY OF MINDY GILES/SWELL PRODUCTIONS
Not in the Stars, 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, 2 and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday, 5 and 9 p.m. Saturday, 2 p.m. Sunday; $23-$35. B Street Theatre, 2711 B Street; (916) 443-5300; www.bstreet theatre.org. Through January 5.
special holiday shows 12/26 & 12/27 1 & 4pm, 12/24 11am & 1pm. Through 12/29. $15-$20. B Street Theatre
4Spring Awakening PHOTO BY B STREET THEATRE STAFF
In Busfield’s 16th original holiday offering, Not in the Stars, he gives us two separate one-acts in which he creatively casts three B Street regulars in repertoire: Elisabeth Nunziato, Kurt Johnson and David Pierini. The first selection is about the awkward dance of a possible romance, while the second is about the slow dissolution of a non-nurtured relationship. The first act is one Busfield revised from a 1994 production in which he features the same three actors that starred in the original, though he’s reworked and updated the story of two hesitant blind daters: Yvonne (Nunziato) and Clare (Johnson). And with the characters a little older than in the 1994 production, the concept of bitterness and regret rings more true when we witness Yvonne’s brittle responses to Clare’s dry and off-handed attempt at a romantic connection. Pierini makes an appearance as a waiter and a telephone repairman named Mac. The second act switches it up, placing Pierini’s character Mac center stage as his blustery character blindly ignores the wants and needs of his soft-spoken, timid girlfriend Maria (Nunziato). Mac isn’t a bad guy, just sadly clueless, and his wake-up call comes in such quiet resolve from his long-suffering girlfriend that the audience cheers them both on, though not necessarily as a couple.
Does this relationship look like it’s functional?
Playwright Dave Pierini has customized B Street Theatre’s Family Series version of Beauty and the Beast with a few Christmas and New Year’s references. It’s this year’s “holiday surprise.” It’s a charming show— geared to enchant kids, but sophisticated enough to keep adults happily onboard. This 90-minute production also has possibilities as a teen-date opportunity, as well as a show for grandparents and kids to see together. It’s a love fable, well told. Sa, Su 1 & 4pm, and
“The (folkloric ensemble) got us fallin’ in love again.”
Feliz navidades A trio of Latino arts groups has teamed up to put a new spin on the traditional shepherd’s play, as Calidanza Dance Company, La Raza Galeria Posada and El Teatro Espejo bring Navidades! Christmas on K Street to downtown on Sunday, December 15. First up is a modern take on the pastorela, in which good battles evil with slapstick comedy, little devils and St. Michael. In La Pastorela de Sacramento, an adaptation by Tomas Benitez, Manuel J. Pickett and Marie Acosta, a pregnant Mary and her man, JoJo, must be helped to Sacramento by the Dreamers, undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children. Following the pastorela, 22 dancers from Calidanza Dance Company will perform Navidades y Tradiciones, with musical accompaniment from Vinic-Kay, a folkloric ensemble. Free for La Pastorela de Sacramento at 1 p.m. on Sunday, December 15, at the Convention Center plaza (13th and K streets). $10-$22 for Navidades y Tradiciones at 2 p.m. at the Crest Theatre, 1013 K Street; (800) 225-2277; www.tickets.com.
—Jeff Hudson
Spring Awakening, 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday; $16-$22. Main Theatre at UC Davis’ Wright Hall, Hutchinson Drive in Davis; (530) 754-2787; http://theatredance.ucdavis.edu.
—Kel Munger
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12.05.13
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