The folks divulges cirque du soleil over at cirque tickets recalls Open at the Top Productions are an intrepid lot whose mission is to nurture Broadway-caliber new works. Based on a novel by Dennis Covington, "Lizard," a world premiere musical at the NoHo Arts Center, is an impressive realization of the group's artistic mandate. Director James J. Mellon, who also wrote the book and co-wrote the music and lyrics with Scott DeTurk, has assembled a wonderful cast that tackles this tuneful, often moving show with indisputable talent and infectious excitement. Set in the late 1970s, the story concerns Lucius "Lizard" Simms (David Eldon), a facially deformed teen whose resemblance to a lizard has made him a pariah in his small Louisiana town. Wrongfully relegated to a home for retarded boys, Lizard is dazzled when itinerant actors Callahan (James Barbour) and Sally (Laura Philbin Coyle) perform at the facility.
He winds up joining the duo for a series of madcap escapades throughout the rural South, culminating in a misbegotten production of "The Tempest" in Birmingham cirque du soleil saltimbanco . Of course, the boozy, cynical Callahan, who has a secret motive for mentoring Lizard, will be forever changed by his sweet charge. Or will he? The chief deficit of Mellon's very busy book, which doesn't adequately synthesize its wildly desultory source material, is that Callahan learns so little from his pure-hearted companion, save for his meager realization that he's a rotten actor cirque soleil . Regardless of the way the novel ended, the musical cries out for an emotionally cleansing revelation from Callahan in the final scene. That's a minor failing in this production, which features Craig Siebels' superb set, Luke Moyer's excellent lighting, Shon LeBlanc's witty period costumes, and a beautifully balanced sound design by Jonathan Zenz and DeTurk cirque . Musical director Robbie Gillman, who also helms the excellent offstage orchestra, burnishes the show's terrific music to a high gloss cirque du solei . Eldon and Barbour are standouts among this notable assemblage, as is the matter-of-factly terrific Coyle, and Bob Morrisey as a kindly museum head with a Zen perspective on troubled times. -- F Cirque Du Soleil - cirquedusoleil . Kathleen Foley"Lizard," NoHo Arts Center, 11136 Magnolia Blvd. , North Hollywood 8 p. m Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p. m Sundays Ends Sept 3 $30 and $35 (818) 508-7101 thenohoartscenter . Running time: 2 hours, 40 minutes. *Stranded hearts, outside of AustinTexas, 1944.
Heading west to meet up with her closeted actress girlfriend, hard-boiled New York journalist Helen (Leslie Cohen) has car trouble outside of Austin cirque du soleil dvd . She finds herself a wary guest at the Bluebonnet Court, a tidy motel hiding plenty of heartbreak: owner Lila Jean (Jamey Hood), all teeth and chat, tends to her troubled veteran husband (Jonathan Nail) with the help of a restless African American maid (the lovely Dalila Ali Rajah) Everyone feels trapped, no one's getting any sex circus du soleil . Is there a plot twist in the house?Presented by Bluebonnet Productions at the Hudson Mainstage Theatre, "Bluebonnet Court" is a lesbian love story caught between nostalgia and revisionism cirque soliel . On Joel Daavid's nicely rambling, kitchen-sink set, director Kelly Ann Ford moves the action back and forth between staged "period" radio and film sequences and the main story, ostensibly illustrating the gap between Hollywood fantasy and the tougher reality of both the battlefields of North Africa and of home, where segregation and anti-Semitism are as American as buying war bonds circ du soleil . But while the play goes a ways to correct the straight world's, er, rosy view of the Greatest Generation, "Bluebonnet" is ultimately content to sample the tropes of '40s melodramas without ever transcending them . Yet even if Zsa Zsa Gershick's story feels too schematic (girl meets girl, and there's never the slightest question of how things will end up), the play offers real wit and a disarming sensuality. Its strongest pleasures are small but vivid: iced tea sipped from mason jars, the sudden intimacy of a shared cigarette, the Easter parade of outfits worn by the town's "slut" (a vibrant Michelle Merring), courtesy of costume designer Shon LeBlanc.
With a winning cast and sweet summer romance, "Bluebonnet Court" is a mighty cozy place to spend the night. -- Charlotte Stoudt"Bluebonnet Court" Hudson Mainstage Theatre, 6539 Santa Monica Blvd. , Hollywood 8 p Cirque Du Soleil - cirquedusoleil . m Thursdays through Saturdays, 3 p Cirque Du Soleil . m Sundays Ends Aug 27 $25 Contact: (323) 960-7721 le cirque du soleil. Running time: 2 hours. *Simplicity rules this 'King Lear'"King Lear" is the Tour de France of Shakespeare cirque solei . With its torture scenes, suicide attempts, murderous sibling rivalry and high body count, it is drama as extreme endurance sport cirquedusoleil . So if Shakespeare Santa Monica and Powerhouse Theatre Company's co-production of this titanic tragedy doesn't quite deserve the yellow jersey, it still finishes the race with dignity circle du soleil . Cirque Du Soleil tickets Directed in the round by Louis Scheeder, this lean, scenery-free production in black-and-white modern dress has the virtue of simplicity but lacks a strong point of view. As Lear, Apollo Dukakis' moments of self-aware regret convince more than his rages and madness, and he has a couple of terrific scenes with his Fool (Vincent Cardinale).
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