Sam Harris Visits Jaxx Theatricals' THE LIFE

Thursday, December 18, 2008; Posted: 08:12 PM - by BWW News Desk

Sam Harris took some time off his busy holiday schedule and revisited THE LIFE. This was the first time Mr. Harris had the chance to see the show in which he had a Tony nomination for the role of Jojo. On the Stella Adler stage Jojo is played by LA musical theatre dynamo Ethan Le Phong. Le Phong was a featured performer in the critical hit production of Les Miserables In Concert at the Hollywood Bowl. He can also be seen in the film version of Naked Boys Singing.

He was joined on stage with the full cast and crew of Jaxx Theatricals' THE LIFE for some photos to share with BWW!

Sam Harris first shot into the public eye as the "Star Search" icon and has found success as a Tony-nominated Broadway star for THE LIFE and also as an acclaimed replacement in THE PRODUCERS, a multi-million selling recording artist, a concert touring sell-out in venues all over the country including Carnegie Hall and on television in last years CBS series, "The Class," where he was touted by Liz Smith as "the comedy breakout character of the television season." SAM continues to explore new territory in this, his 8th studio CD.

The show has been receiving great reviews with 'must see' picks in most newspapers. The show must close This Sunday, December 21st.

Performances Run Dec 3rd - 21st
Stella Adler Theatre in Hollywood
6773 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90028
$2.00 Validated Parking at the Hollywood/Highland Structure

Photos Courtesy of Jaxx Theatricals and Steven Stanley

Ethan Le Phong and Sam Harris

Jeremy Lucas, Sam Harris, Justine Baldwin, Todd Schroeder and Mark Espinosa

Paul Romero, Jr. (Choreographer), Jeremy Lucas (Artistic Director), Sam Harris (Tony Award nominee), Justine Baldwin (Producing Director), Todd Schroeder (Music Producer), Mark Espinosa (Managing Director) and Bruce Newberg (Casting Director)

Sam Harris with the Los Angeles premiere of THE LIFE cast and crew!

LA WEEKLY - GO!

SEX TRADE: THREE VIEWS OF EROTICA

BY STEVEN LEIGH MORRIS

Published on December 16, 2008 at 10:56pm

Courtesy of HayworthTheatre

Swan as Traynor, Lenk as Lovelace
Courtesy of JaxxTheatricals

The Life

Lovelace: A Rock Opera is one of three productions on local stages by which you can track the sexual revolution’s murky path. Another musical that just opened at the Stella Adler in Hollywood for a short run is a revival of The Life, a 1997 Broadway show featuring the familiar musical stylings of Cy Coleman. Meanwhile, the Two Roads Theater in Toluca Lake is premiering a new, contemporary wife-swapping comedy by Jeff Gould, called It’s Just Sex.

Ken Sawyer stages a tableaux-laced spectacle that’s entirely sung to recorded accompaniment. The absence of any live musicians in a rock opera is the one cheesy aspect to this otherwise elegant portrayal of slavery and redemption. The production hangs on Katrina Lenk’s riveting portrayal of Lovelace, which goes beyond the rich timbre of her singing. In the flicker of an eye, and the comportment of her limbs, she exhibits an eagerness to please and a hunger to live out a picket-fence fantasy of “home” that cuts to the very marrow of her bones, and ours. It’s a performance so good, it makes you understand why Little Red Riding Hood has endured the centuries. Once her consciousness is awakened, as the feminists used to say, she’s a woman on the run psychologically, and sometimes physically, from the wolves.

You can hear the jazzy, gospel-laced echoes of Chicago and Cabaret in Cy Coleman’s score for The Life, being given its L.A. premiere by Jaxx Theatricals. Amid an array of pimps and hookers working the streets of 1980s Times Square, David Newman, Ira Gasman and Coleman’s book focuses on two hookers, one on the way up, Mary (Stephanie Girard), and one on the way down, Queen (Dionne Gipson). The arrival of Mary, fleeing domestic abuse in Minnesota by Greyhound, crosses the saga of Lovelace with A Star Is Born. She’s a perky blonde, a girl-next-door type who, lured by affection and attention, hooks up with lowly pimp Fleetwood (Robert Gee) before leaving him in the dust by entering the comparatively upscale stable of pimp Memphis (David St. Louis). And she seems quite happy to do so.

Meanwhile, Queen has remained loyal to Fleetwood — with similar, Lovelacean visions of “home,” while he stuffs her profits up his nose. It’s her loyalty and her domesticity that are holding her back, for a while, until her exasperation leads her, too, into bed with the wolf Memphis. The dynamic between Memphis and Queen looks a whole lot like that between Traynor and Lovelace — slaps in the face, kicks in the ribs. She too wants out, fast, and is held at gunpoint against her will.

Queen’s tale turns tragic, in an operatically romantic way, which is where The Life parts ways with the urbane cynicism of Chicago (and the sneer that sharpened its point of view), while Mary’s story, of a woman using her exploitation for her own brand of freedom, makes things ideologically sticky and interesting. Joe Greene directs a buffed production that features a great onstage band and some great voices. When Gipson goes into softer intonations, her tone echoes that of Bette Midler; St. Louis’ Memphis carries a profundo basso, and Cheryl Murphy-Johnson as a fellow sex worker sends some gospel stylings all the way down Hollywood Boulevard. Paul Romero’s flashy, Fosse-like choreography has the 18-member ensemble swaying and twitching like an organism.

BACKSTAGE WEST - CRITICS PICK

The Life by Les Spindle

Dec 11, 2008

In its L.A. premiere, there's indeed plenty of life in this 1997 gem, the last Broadway musical by composer Cy Coleman. Jaxx Theatricals' auspicious maiden offering bursts with energy and pizzazz, thanks to Joe Greene's vibrant direction and music direction and Paul Romero Jr.'s galvanic choreography. Gutsy, heartfelt performances seal the deal.

The pulsating score is almost on a par with Coleman's finest work (City of Angels, Sweet Charity). Though the libretto by David Newman, Ira Gasman, and Coleman suggests TV-movie melodrama at times, its story of lowlife denizens surrounding Manhattan's 42nd Street in the 1980s ultimately evokes a dramatic potency reminiscent of gritty urban dramas such as Stephen Adly Guirgis' In Arabia, We'd All Be Kings.

The title refers to the world's oldest profession, as practiced by Queen (Dionne Gipson) and her close friend Sonja (Cheryl Murphy-Johnson). The naive Queen prefers to think of her pimp Fleetwood (Robert Gee) as a lover rather than a user, but when she discovers he's disloyal, she falls for the sweet talk of the conniving Memphis (David St. Louis), who's determined to have Queen work for him. But the grass proves less than greener when Memphis shows his true colors, and Sonja attempts to help Queen flee the city to escape the ruthless scumbag's clutches.

As the abused yet courageous Queen, Gipson eloquently illuminates the never-ending hope of this beaten-down woman, earning our empathy in her sublime rendition of the ballad "We Had a Dream." Murphy-Johnson is a stellar presence, especially when she expresses sass and strength when singing about the emotional and physical exhaustion of her lot in life. St. Louis is terrifying as the brutal Memphis, and his booming baritone is glorious. Gee's pimp-with-a-touch-of-conscience is credible and compelling. Other excellent work comes from Stephanie Girard as a Midwest transplant who quickly falls into the sordid scene, Ethan Le Phong as a back-stabbing hustler, and Chris Cobb Olsen as a slick porn producer. Dan Selon's amazing costumes and John Ryman's atmospheric lighting deserve salutes. In its finest moments, this electrifying production captures the operatic grace and emotional punch of West Side Story.

The pimps and hookers of pre-Disneyfied Times Square are alive and well and still doing business in the much anticipated Los Angeles premiere of Cy Coleman’s last Broadway musical, 1997’s The Life, now in a limited run on the couldn’t-be-more-fitting Hollywood Boulevard, and directed with power and pizzazz by Joe Greene.

For those who’ve been wondering if Jaxx Theatrical’s much-touted small-stage adaptation would live up to the hype, the answer is a resounding yes. Besides featuring one of Coleman’s finest and most distinctive scores, Ira Gasman’s appropriately uncensored lyrics, and a gritty book by David Newman, Gasman, and Coleman, Hollywood Blvd.’s The Life stars an array of terrifically talented triple-threats backed by Alexander Georgakis’s joints-a-jumpin’ six-piece band and dancing to Paul Romero, Jr.’s sensational Fosse-inspired choreography.

Dionne Gipson stars as Queen, the beautiful hooker with a heart of gold, fresh from yet another night in jail, who dreams of escaping “the life” with “he ain’t my pimp, he’s my man” Fleetwood (Robert Gee)—who is in fact very much Queen’s pimp. Unfortunately, Fleet has just spent half the money Queen’s been saving up for their escape in order to pay off his drug debt—leaving Queen without an escape plan, that is until blue-eyed blonde Mary (Stephanie Girard) arrives semi-fresh from Minnesota with stars in her eyes. Though Queen tries to convince Mary to return home, Fleet sees in this girl next door with a body to die for the perfect moneymaker. Meanwhile, rougher, tougher rival pimp Memphis (David St. Louis) wants to add Queen to his stable of money-makers and Hollywood porn producer Lou (Chris Cobb Olsen) has his eye on luring Mary to the West Coast. Those in search of a fairy-tale happy ending had best look elsewhere.

Introducing us to The Life in the production’s show-stopping opening number is opportunistic hustler Jojo (Ethan Le Phong), a snazzily-dressed, angel-faced, double-crossing lowlife, while Queen’s best friend and fellow hooker Sonja (Cheryl Murphy-Johnson) adds some tell-it-like-it-is sass to the dangerous mix.

There’s not a dud in Coleman’s two-dozen-song score which includes:
•“Oldest Profession,” Sonja’s lament about “getting too old for the oldest profession”
•“You Can’t Get To Heaven,” a soulful gospel hymn sung by Queen, Sonja, and a couple of proselytizing “Jesus people”
•“Easy Money,” Mary’s joyous salute to selling one’s body in quest of cash
•“My Way Or The Highway,” in which Memphis orders Queen in no uncertain terms to shape up or get beat up
•“My Friend,” The Life’s answer to Wicked’s “For Good,” with Queen and Sonja vowing eternal best-friendship.

Sultry Gipson belts out a pair of The Life’s biggest and best ballads—“He’s No Good” and “We Had A Dream”—to powerful effect, and “People Magazine” provides a fine showcase for Olsen’s talents as he outlines Lou’s plan for Mary’s Hollywood success.

Romero’s stellar choreography and Greene’s musical direction provide razzle-dazzle in production number after production number including:
•“Check It Out,” the sizzling show opener which sets the evening’s electric tone
•“My Body,” the street girls’ anthem to self-determination
•“Why Don’t They Leave Us Alone,” with both pimps and prostitutes railing against cops who can’t stop meddling in their lives
•“Hooker’s Ball,” an anthem about the yearly streetwalkers’ dress-up party, performed by an engaging Red Savage as bar owner Lacy
•“Mr. Greed,” with Jojo and the hustlers revealing their raison d'être, i.e. good old American dollars
•“Someday Is For Suckers,” in which Sonja and the other ladies of the evening sing longingly about their dreams for the future.

Gee does excellent work as Fleetwood, a man torn between his love for Queen and his desire for money, and St. Louis makes a strong impression as a truly scary Memphis, with “My Way Or The Highway” showcasing his powerful bass pipes. However, the award for the evening’s most dazzling male performance goes to Le Phong, the breakout star of last season’s Pippin. In better voice than ever and dancing like the Broadway pro he is, the (up till this show) boy next door reveals a sexy, darker side as Jojo, a role which should open many doors for Le Phong, who’d make a great Leading Player in Pippin or Engineer in Miss Saigon.

Among the women, in addition to the gorgeous Gipson, Girard (a young Susan Anton) reveals killer pipes and curves as sexy Minnesotan Mary, and Robin Ray Eller, Mara Hall, Taryn Reneau, and Cindy Sciacca couldn’t be better or more believable as the Times Square working girls. Best of all is Murphy-Johnson, who does richly layered work as Sonja and belts out her numbers with the best of the R&B superstars.

As for the pimps (Joshua Campbell, Rusty Hamrick, DT Matias, and Tony Melson), they are uniformly hot in talent, dance, and physique, and the uniquely talented Willam Belli crosses genders in a memorable turn as tranny hooker April, who is sure to fool some unsuspecting audience members.

Recent USC grad Georgakis proves himself a musician/conductor to be reckoned with, doing impeccable work on piano and backed by a couldn’t-be-better (and equally youthful) onstage band—Takashi Iio on bass, Ryan Stern on trumpet, Nicholas Sobko on reeds, Kristina Raymond on drums, and Brett Fisher on trombone and keyboards.

Brett Snodgrass’s scenic design is simple, but a good fit for a 99-seat space. Dan Selon deserves highest marks for his just-right-for-Times Square costumes. John Ryman’s lighting design ups the emotional impact, while Eric Snodgrass’s sound design provides for a successful blend of voices and accompaniment. Erin Spencer does triple duty assisting director Greene, choreographer Romero, and covering the role of Mary.

The Life has a virtually unprecedented (for an intimate theater) Tuesday through Sunday performance schedule, but the run is short. Following the just concluded week of previews and opening performances, only two weeks remain before the show closes on Sunday December 21st. Don’t miss this see-it-now-or-regret-it chance to experience the musical which proved that Cy Coleman kept getting better with age. It’s a shame he’s not still with us to witness the loving care and professionalism which Jaxx Theatricals has put into this splendid revival.

Stella Adler Theatre, 6773 Hollywood Blvd, Hollywood. Through December 21. Tuesdays through Sundays at 8:00. Reservations: www.jaxxtheatricals.com

--Steven Stanley
December 6, 2008

SUNDAY, JANUARY 13, 2008

And All That Jazz: Open Chicago Again!

Bringing Back the Years: New York, Los Angeles & Chicago

By Jesse Schmitt

Coming to Los Angeles from New York City, the transition has been rough. Everything is different out here and I'm naturally suspicious of people's motives. It is my experience on Broadway; working there for seven years; which has made me wary of bigger theatrical musical transfers. So before going to see the LA production of “Chicago,” I had to find out a little more about the who, what, and why of this staging.

“Chicago” is still playing strong on the Rialto; my good friend Josh Rhodes was with the Broadway company until recently defecting to “The Drowsy Chaperone”, there was the movie adaptation with Renee and Catherine which got a great deal of positive play, and there have been tours which have littered the US and the UK. So why then, I wondered, was this version of the Kander and Ebb musical here (Hudson Backstage Theatre 6539 Santa Monica Blvd) now?

This production of “Chicago” is directed by Jeremy Lucas a former player to the role of Aaron and understudy of Amos in the 2001Broadway Tour of "Chicago." (I wonder if he knows either my friend Josh or Tim McGarrigal, another friend from one of the “Chicago” tours?) Before setting foot in the theatre I’d decided that something like a small theatre production of a heavily saturated, meticulously crafted, and very popular musical like “Chicago” is more a labor of love than a piece looking for critical analysis or audience engagement.

Allow me to be the first to stand corrected. But first-

“Chicago” the musical takes place in the city of Chicago of the 1920’s, in a women’s correctional institution, and in the mythical netherworld which can only exist on a musical theatre’s stage. It tells the story of Velma Kelly (who, in this production was played by Katrina Lenk) and Roxie Hart (Bonnie McMahan), two conniving murderesses, Roxie’s guilty by association, pushover of a husband Amos Hart (Jon Paul Burkhart), the women’s defense lawyer who is a seasoned pro at capitalizing from people’s sympathies, Billy Flynn (David Pevsner), the scratch my back warden of this facility, Mama (Cheryl Murphy-Johnson) and all of the rest of the cast of characters who pass in and out of these two women’s lives.

“Chicago” owes a great deal to the musical accompaniment of the live band. Anyone who saw the movie will know this; the way it’s done on the Great White Way is the band is not in the pit but on the stage; up on platforms, to the rear. I’d never been inside The Hudson Backstage Theatre but was almost sure it had to be some manner of black box, which immediately presents challenges for a dance and live music extravaganza like “Chicago.”

Many people, when they go to see a Broadway musical, are quickly fooled by perspective. They are either on the floor, in seats which may lean slightly back, and are below the stage so they’re looking up, or in the mezzanine or balcony, high above the stage, often sloped in the other direction leaning forward, looking down. With all the carefully constructed lights and sound and smoke and mirrors that has become the Broadway experience many people are surprised to know exactly how small a Broadway stage really is. Still, I’d gauge that the theatre area at Hudson Backstage was maybe half in width and 1/3 depth.

But none of this stopped Mr. Lucas and his troupe.

This show took use of all that Mr. Lucas had taken away from his time performing as well as his understanding of the legendary dance maneuvers of the incomparable Bob Fosse; director and choreographer of the first musical staging of this show in 1975.

One of my big fears was that this show was going to stay true to the Hollywood glamification they did in the cinema. The movie was nice and all that jazz, but really? You can take your Rob Marshall and give me a live show with competent performers any day. I was very pleased to see that many of the players in the show were of the Actors Equity Association; the stage actors union; this showed itself in their dexterous manipulation of that tiny space to make their magic happen.

On the day I visited there were definite issues, but that’s the risk you run when you’re doing a big show in a small space. For instance the microphones kept cutting out mid-song and once I heard noticeable feedback. But that's what you can expect with all the movement and interaction in a show like “Chicago.” Also someone should really have a look at the light choices or make sure people know their blocking because even though people seemed to be hitting their spot, there's a difference between a character being "in shadow" and a character being in the dark. There are also floor to ceiling pillars which can obstruct sometimes; however it all could just go back to having big ambitions and a less than ideal space for these ambitions.

All the technical issues aside, this production was a true joy. This show has already won it’s first extension but honestly, I see no reason why it should ever close! The audience on the day that I was there was packed in tight and they loved every minute of it. If there is another show coming in, taking that space, I say good! This cast could use a bigger space anyway, to much greater effect.

Ms. Lenk as Velma was spot on; her dancing and singing were in the pole position while made look like an afterthought. Ms. McMahn as Roxie, I thought, at first, I didn’t like. I felt like she was playing "Hollywood;" however her smooth singing and sultry moves won me over in the end; her voice growing stronger as the character developed. Mr. Paul Burkhart was very comical in a way unlike any I’d ever seen for Mr. Hart; entering with a Carrottop hairstyle, a vest and bowtie, he was refreshingly younger than other’s I’d seen and had me in stitches at his punchy joke lines. Mr. Pevsner as Mr. Flynn shone with his strong vocals and his straight talk. Ms. Murphy-Johnson as Mama was also quite funny and commanding whenever she started to belt. I was also pleased that this Hollywood production of the show kept the Broadway joke that Hollywood dumped when they hired Christine Baranski for the role of Mary Sunshine. Willam Belli doubled the role of the emcee and Ms. Sunshine with a rough conviction; he even gave me a sticker with his image and name on it with the press packet which was very nice!

In the programs directors notes Mr. Lucas says of his decision not to too greatly alter his staging “Part of me feels that if something isn’t broken, why fix it?” “Chicago” at the Hudson Backstage Theatre got it just right and hopefully you were able to be a part of their celebration before their floodlights went dark.

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Sam Harris Visits Jaxx Theatricals' THE LIFE

SEX TRADE: THREE VIEWS OF EROTICA

BY STEVEN LEIGH MORRIS

Published on December 16, 2008 at 10:56pm

Courtesy of HayworthTheatre

Swan as Traynor, Lenk as Lovelace

Courtesy of JaxxTheatricals

The Life

BACKSTAGE WEST - CRITICS PICK

The Life by Les Spindle

TWO DOORS THEATRE REVIEW:

SUNDAY, JANUARY 13, 2008

And All That Jazz: Open Chicago Again!