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Bebe Brodie (Understudy) is elated to be working at The Theatre in Old Town and as equally thrilled to be working with such a talented cast and crew. Favorite roles include, Aldonza in Man of La Mancha, Amalia in She Loves Me, Kate in Kiss Me Kate, Lily in The Secret Garden, Prudie in Pump Boys and Dinettes and Catherine in Pippin. Bebe has also worked at Moonlight, Starlight, Lyric Opera of San Diego and The Welk Resort Theatre. She resides in Temecula with her husband Mark. She also works as a freelance makeup artist and has a taste for dark chocolate, red wine and anything with feathers and glitter. Thanks to Paula and Shelly for this oppurtunity and Jen, this one is for you. Rolly Fanton (Understudy) is a hometown gal who got her professional wings at Starlight opera and the Old Globe. Off to New York she performed in Summer Straw Hat productions; She Loves Me, Oliver, Stop The World I Want To Get Off and Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris. She toured with some of your favorite musicals including New York Critcs Circle award winner Company . In Los Angeles she was featured on some of your favorite shows: Barnaby Jones, Quincy and General Hospital. She is thrilled to be back in the San Diego theatre community where the creativity shines as brightly as the California sun. Joe Savant (Understudy) Born in Southern California, Joe has been a performer most of his life; on stages across North America, Europe and Asia; on television and in films. On Broadway he appeared in Beauty and the Beast (where he eventually played the roles of Gaston and the Beast), Joseph and theDreamcoat and Peter Pan. National tours include Peter Pan, with Cathy Rigby; The Unsinkable Molly Brown, with Debbie Reynolds; and Elton John's Aida. Films include Jeffrey, Grease 2 and Dr. Detroit. On television Joe has appeared on The Guiding Light, The Rosie O'Donnell Show, The Jeffersons, The Facts of Life, Capital and a few Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parades (dancing around while freezing). Now living in San Diego, Joe is co-owner of the Culture Shock Dance Center located nearby Old Town. The Dance Center is San Diego's premier contemporary dance training facility specializing in hip hop, jazz, modern and ballroom. The twinkle in Joe's eye is his beautiful five year old daughter, Dominica Angel. www.cultureshockdancecenter.com MIRACLE THEATRE PRODUCTIONS (MTP) (Producer) is an innovative and award-winning production company dedicated to bringing San Diego audiences hit Broadway and off-Broadway musicals and comedies. MTP established the long-running hit show concept in San Diego with its unprecedented four and half year run of Forever Plaid. Other long running hits include Shear Madness, Beehive and most recently, I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change. Formed in 1994, MTP was honored to be a 1998 San Diego ConVis Finest Service Award nominee in the category of Individual Visitor Services and to have received the Carol Channing Diamond Award for its fund raising efforts on behalf of AIDS related charities. The principals of MTP, Paula Kalustian and Jill K. Mesaros, were chosen by San Diego Magazine as two of the Top 50 San Diegans To Watch in 1996. Together, Kalustian and Mesaros have directed and choreographed three West Coast premieres: The Song of Singapore, Weird Romance and Sherwood Schwartz's Gilligan's Island:The Musical. MTP operates The Theatre in Old Town under concession contract with the California Department of State Parks. |
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"Too Old for the
Chorus But Not Too Old to Be a Star" at the Theatre in Old
Town Getting old is a bitch. At least, that's what it seems like in our youth-obsessed culture. And at the beginning of "Too Old for the Chorus But Not Too Old to Be a Star," it seems like the five aging characters are wallowing in their own little bitch fest. Faith (Susan Jordan) is 43 and a newly made cliché her husband of two decades has just run out on her for a younger woman. Glenn (David Holmes) is a former star athlete, and James (Brian Byers) is a Rhodes scholar executive type who's getting passed up for promotions by young MBA techie hot shots. Bobby (Steve Anthony) is a 50-year-old Broadway dancer who's just not getting the callbacks anymore, and Shirley (Teri Ralston) is an aging singer who's apparently too old to cut an album. But the new musical revue written by Mark Winkler, Marie Cain and Shelly Markham, now playing at the Theatre in Old Town, isn't a pity party or an over-the-hill celebration. It's a smart, funny and sometimes touching exploration of the challenges and joys of aging. The musical numbers are loosely connected through interludes of brief exposition and hit and miss jokes. There isn't much of a story to speak of (hey, it's a musical revue), but the emotional arc goes from bemoaning the various states of decline and fighting the aging process, to not only accepting it, but also celebrating life experiences and achievements. Some songs tackle the usual issues surrounding the later stages in life fading memories, menopause, hints of erectile dysfunction, former glory and the roads untraveled but these are done with wit and style. Jordan is especially funny as the desiccated menopausal woman, crawling about as if in search of an oasis in the desert. But there is also some lesser tread territory, such as a hilarious song about radical self-improvement (i.e., plastic surgery) and a wistful love song to former pets in "Dog Passages." Holmes' character marks the passing of time through his dogs, and when he sings the lovely refrain, "And I loved her, more than you'll ever know" the dog lovers in the audience are bound to get a little verklempt. One of the most satisfying pieces is the father-son duet "The Child Is Father to the Man." Byers and Holmes are son and elderly father who have grown "awkwardly polite and cool." The actors play off each other well, with an air of humor, regret, sincere love and affection, along with anger seething just beneath the surface. Byers and Holmes are the strongest singers among the talented cast and present some beautiful harmonies in this number. The mostly cabaret-style music, provided on opening night by Lisa Lemay (sitting in for Mark Danisoszky) on keyboards, Danny King on percussion and Kevin Cooper on bass, is spare and intimate appropriate for the less than 250-seat theater. Yet all the actors wore microphones. Though they were amplified to various degrees at different times, it seemed unnecessary with their uniformly powerful voices. Each performer gets particular moments to shine one of Ralston's comes near the end of the first act in "The Road Not Taken," in which her character questions the path she might have taken in life, not regretfully, but with curiosity. In this number her voice soars, and she makes it apparent that she needs no amplification. Yet in later songs her voice is a bit uneven playful, serene and bluesy at times, but not always hitting the mark on the higher notes. Byers gets to show off his comedic talent and white guy dancing skillz in "I'm Mad as Hell," a crackup hip hop spoof where an apparently rhythm-less, middle-class white guy who's really got nothing to be angry about rides that mad scrilla train all the way to the crib. Or something. Anthony and Jordan are the obvious dancers in the group, and at one point do the samba. But it's Anthony, who also choreographed the show, that gets to wow the audience with some incredible tap dancing. Paula Kalustian directs the production with high energy and resourcefulness, using a very simple set consisting of five revolving panels with cutouts in each panel. Still, songs come at almost breakneck speed and there are a few transitions that feel clumsy or forced. And it wouldn't hurt to lose one or two songs that feel out of place anyway, like "Crush." Still, these are minor issues in an enjoyable evening for people of all ages. Paying homage to "A Chorus Line," alluded to in the title, these "geezers" kick up their heels in the final number and prove they're young enough at heart for just about anything. The production has a relatively limited engagement it's scheduled to close Jan. 1 in a theater known for lengthy runs (their "Forever Plaid" ran nearly forever). But it certainly looks like this "Chorus" has got legs.
' Too Old ' finds its vitality in the cast's fine performances By Anne Marie Welsh - THEATER CRITIC - September 26, 2005
In his bittersweet "Follies" and "Company," composer Stephen Sondheim could create a mood of rueful recollection with a tune. The new "Too Old for the Chorus, But Not too Old to Be a Star" at the Theatre in Old Town trades in a simpler, jokier kind of middle-age angst. But in its best moments, the show approaches Sondheim's sophisticated mixed emotions in a form, like his, that's more than a revue but less than a traditional musical. Whenever Teri Ralston as knowing, forgetful Shirley takes the stage, she deepens a show that more often proves predictable in its eagerness to entertain. A Broadway veteran from the original 1970 cast of "Company," Ralston owns a big vocal range from tremulous soprano to a deep, jazzy growl. But it's her command of emotional nuance through phrasing and dynamics that lifts her solo numbers to a kind of showbiz bliss. And she possesses that innate star quality that modern dancer Martha Graham nailed when she immodestly proclaimed "The center of the stage is where I am." A gracious beauty with great legs, Ralston is no ham though, and she's not alone in a strong and varied cast. David Holmes brings nebbishy charm and potbellied warmth to Glenn, a loyal hubby and canine-lover whose "Dog Passages" proves one of the more ingenious numbers in this latest venture by director Paula Kalustian and her producing partner Jill K. Mesaros. Their Miracle Theatre Productions teamed with the original Los Angeles writers Marie Cain, Mark Winkler and Shelly Markham, to birth this still uneven hybrid. Song-and-dance man Steve Anthony, whose life story was one of many immortalized in "A Chorus Line," draws from a deep well in his portrayal of Bobby, a stage gypsy who no longer gets call-backs. In his choreography, Anthony borrows from Michael Bennett's "Chorus Line" imagery, creating a clever visual shorthand for the show's core metaphor five past-50 characters growing too old for the chorus line of life. Anthony solos elegantly, too, in a tux-and-mirrors number that calls to mind both Fred Astaire and the great black rhythm tappers who preceded him. Though her role as Faith is too narrowly conceived around menopause jokes, ebullient Susan Jordan is good company as a dumped wife who reinvents herself. And despite his few chances to shine, Brian Byers leaves a poignant afterglow as starchy James, a Harvard man denied promotion when technology leaves him behind. "I need a tutor/to use a computer," he laments in "I'm Mad as Hell," a Bill Gates-bashing rap that anyone with techno-savvy kids (aren't they all?) will find uproarious. Advertisement The writing in "Too Old for the Chorus" gets off to a slow and shaky start with so many AARP and Barcalounger jokes the company at first seems a bunch of Yuppies whose self-involvement has turned sour. But once the warm-up's past and individuals begin to emerge especially Ralston's Shirley and Holmes' Glenn several songs become true character studies that nuzzle their way toward the heart. From the lyrics of "The Road Not Taken," Ralston spins a poignant tale of a contented woman who now and again wonders about the boy she left behind. And in her bluesy "Age is Just a Number," Ralston brings the show to a climax that makes the finale feel like an afterthought. A farcical plastic surgery romp, shrewdly staged by Kalustian, serves as the show's comedic high point, while a couple of generic tunes "Latebloomers Samba" and the men's anthem "Invisible/Invincible" deserve the cutting room floor. The arc of "Too Old For the Chorus, But Not Too Old To Be A Star" is predictably optimistic; the show ends with an upbeat, glass-is-half-full tune titled "Potential. Given the show's enthusiastic reception during Friday night's opening, it's already found its audience; with rewrites to make each character as individual as Shirley and Glenn, "Too Old For the Chorus" could find its artistic "Potential" too. Writers:
Mark Winkler, Marie Cain and Shelly
Markham. Development: Paula Kalustian and Jill
K. Mesaros. Director: Paula Kalustian. Choreography:
Steve Anthony. Musical supervision: Shelly
Markham. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 
' Too Old ' celebrates, parodies midlife ups and downs By: PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer - September 28, 2005
In the musical theater world, actors are "old" long before they reach middle age. So it's a treat to see such a talented group of midlife actors getting a chance to shine in Theatre in Old Town's "Too Old for the Chorus, But Not Too Old to Be a Star." Led by Broadway veterans Teri Ralston and Steve Anthony, the pleasant two-act musical revue celebrates and satirizes the ups and downs of those challenging years that culminate in AARP membership. There are songs about menopause, divorce, long-term relationships, caring for elderly parents, spreading waistlines, plastic surgery, late-life regrets and career obsolescence. While all of the songs in the show by Mark Winkler, Marie Cain and Shelly Markham are a bit too tonally similar, the lyrics are fresh, frank and inventive. "Lunch Hour Lift," for example, includes the lines "He'll stick a needle in my butt and suck out the fat" and "He'll carve a couple pounds of bacon off my hooters." Not exactly Hammerstein or Hart, but funny and contemporary. Three songs itemize the unpleasant symptoms of menopause (hot flashes, dry mouth and night sweats), and a fourth lets the men in the cast sing about their own menopausal symptoms (midlife crises, more hair in the ears than on the head, and reduced ---- er ---- function). A more subtle number celebrates a decades-long marriage that has stood the test of time. And the rowdy rap song "I'm Mad as Hell," finds three older men upset about their displacement from the workplace by less-experienced college grads. It's the kind of poignance and tongue-in-cheek humor that many audience members will easily relate to, and it's delivered exceptionally well by the five-member cast. Ralston leads the cast as Shirley, a 50-something retiree who gave up her nightclub singing career to focus on her husband and grandkids. Ralston's Broadway credentials are impressive. She starred in the original Broadway productions of "Company," "A Little Night Music, "The Baker's Wife" and "Home Again, Home Again," and the years have been oh-so-kind to her. She's lovely, fit, and her voice is in excellent shape. Her bittersweet ballads ---- "The Road Not Taken" and "Quiet Fire" ---- are the best-sung numbers in the show. Leucadia resident Anthony (who also spent many years on Broadway) weaves some of his own life experiences into the role of Bobby, an ex-Broadway dancer whose age and aching knees have made it hard to land jobs. One of the original 22 dancers whose life stories became "A Chorus Line," Anthony shows he can still hoof it with style in a terrific tap number "When 50 Wore a Tux." A few numbers in the show even parody the closing scenes of "A Chorus Line," but this time the godlike, unseen casting director in the director's booth doesn't want any of the older, gray-haired and balding actors lined up on the Old Town stage. Susan Jordan gets the funniest role in the show as Faith, a menopausal, 43-year-old ex-beauty queen whose husband has left her for a younger woman. Her big numbers are "Menopause Cycle, Parts 1-3," where she sings, dances, crawls around on all fours and collapses while describing the unpleasant side effects of the "change of life." Brian Byers gives a low-key, natural performance as James, a bitter, divorced executive whose best years are clearly behind him. Despite a Harvard MBA, James is slowly being squeezed out of the workforce by younger, technology-savvy workers. Although "Too Old for the Chorus" aims to be uplifting and celebratory, it also occasionally touches deeper, as it does with James. There is no resolution or happy ending for James. His eventual layoff seems a foregone conclusion, and that's a reality that many middle-aged workers now face. In marked contrast to James is Glenn, a long-ago "big man on campus" who has contentedly settled into middle age with a paunch, a bald pate and a happy marriage. Glenn is pleasingly portrayed by David Holmes, and his sweet songs are most enjoyable. Paula Kalustian's breezy direction keeps the show moving, and Anthony's choreography is tight. Jill K. Mesaros designed the age-appropriate costumes, and Lisa LeMay is the show's musical director (accompaniment is a simple piano, bass and drum ensemble). The production runs two hours, 10 minutes, with intermission and is suitable for all ages.   |
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San Diego
- San Diego
Steve
Anthony (Bobby) has been singing
and dancing professionally since he was eight-years-old. He's
had the opportunity to work with such great director/choreographers
as Gower Champion, Hal Prince, Tommy Tune, Peter Gennaro, Martin
Scorcese and Graciella Daniel. Steve's most memorable moment
was being chosen by Michael Bennet as one of the original 22
dancers to participate in a series of workshops which led to
the production of "A Chorus Line". As a result, part
of Steve's life story is portrayed in that hit show. Steve's
other Broadway credits include SeeSaw, Spotlight,
Rockabye Hamlet and The Act starring Liza Minelli.
Theater in Old Town audiences will remember Steve as Tony Whitcomb
in Shear Madness, Mr. Howell in Gilligan's Island,
The Musical, Spike Spaldeen in the West Coast premiere of
Song of Singapore and Sylvia St. Croix in Ruthless!
Regionally, Steve has been awarded two Dramalogue Awards for
Gangster #1 in Kiss Me Kate and Moonface Martin in Anything
Goes at The Lawrence Welk Theatre. Other favorite regional
theatre roles include: Cocky in The Roar of The Greasepaint,
The Smell of The Crowd, The Emcee in Cabaret,
the dentist in Little Shop of Horrors and Dr. Frank N.
Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Steve
is the Associate Artistic Director at The Theatre in Old Town,
a faculty member at Saddleback College and also teaches for the
MFA Musical Theatre program at San Diego State University.
Brian
Byers was born in one-mile-square
McDonald, Ohio. Brian began acting in 6th grade at the Youngstown
Playhouse Children's Theatre, playing "archbishops and dads"
owing to his "husky" build. His first professional
experience was a summer-stock tour with Gene Kelly, in Take
Me Along. Brian moved to California to continue his musical
theatre pursuits and "break into" television. His first
role on The Bob Newhart Show, led to numerous guest-starring
roles in: M*A*S*H, Happy Days, Family and Movies of the
Week: Kill Me If You Can (The Caryl Chessman Story-with
Alan Alda), and Who Will Love My Children (with Ann Margaret).
Feature film roles include You Light Up My Life, with
Didi Conn, and one Horror film, He Knows You're Along (1982That's
the scary part.) Just released on DVD, Brian has performed
his cabaret act (a musical talk show); the next of which
is currently 'marinating' with musical director Shelly Markham.
David
Holmes is an accomplished actor,
singer, writer and director who performed in dozens of musical
and dramatic stage roles. Beginning his theatrical career on
the East Coast, David worked his way across the nation appearing
onstage in featured and leading roles in 1776, Guys and Dolls,
Sweet Charity, Li'l Abner, Best Little Whorehouse, A Little Night
Music, Beauty and the Beast and numerous other productions
working with such stars as Milton Berle, Joe Namath, Placido
Domingo, Robert Morse, Dick Shawn, Bebe Neuwirth, Donna McKechnie,
Mary Martin and Glynis Johns. Most recently, David expanded his
resume performing with the San Francisco Opera in The Merry
Widow and the Arizona Theatre Company in their award-winning
production of Much Ado About Nothing. Currently, Mr. Holmes
is busy working with playwrights and songwriters creating original
roles in new musical shows and stage adaptations including Masada,
Mermaids, Now, Voyager, Robin Hood, The Greenbrier Ghost and
Something's Got To Give amongst other exciting works.
David is proud to be a member of the award-winning Colony Theatre
acting company in Burbank, California and a founding member of
the newly formed Academy Repertory Company of the Academy for
New Musical Theatre.
Susan
Jordan De Leon (Faith) is excited
to be working on this new project and back on stage with one
of her favorite co-stars Steve Anthony and under the incredible
direction of Paula Kalustian. Susan's recent credits include:
the year-long hit I Love You, You're Perfect, Now Change at
The Theatre in Old Town, Disney's Beauty and the Beast
at the Shubert Theatre in Los Angeles and The Theatre League
mid-west tours of My Fair Lady, Godspell and Fiddler
on the Roof. Other local and regional productions include
leading roles in: Nunsense, Me and My Girl, Hello
Dolly, Singin' in the Rain, Merrily We Roll Along,
A New Brain, Annie Get Your Gun and Guys
and Dolls. She is currently directing and choreographing
Seussical the Musical for Christian Youth Theatre and
will direct and choreograph Beauty & the Beast for
Christian Community Theatre in August. Married for 11 years to
husband Steve, they have 3 amazing kids Kris, Jordan and Lexi.
Love & Light.
Teri Ralston (Shirley)
has performed and directed in theatres
around the country, and extensively in New York and Los Angeles.
Her first show in New York was Jacques Brel is Alive and Well
This was followed by roles in the original Broadway productions
of Company, A Little Night Music, Home Again,
Home Again, and the original production of Bakers Wife.
She just finished doing an extended run of Side-By-Side-By-Sondheim
at the Rubicon in Ventura and the Pasadena Playhouse. In Los
Angeles she stood by for Carol Burnett in Putting it Together
at the Mark Taper Forum, where she performed in Quilters
and History of the American Film. Teri has appeared
in numerous productions at South Coast Rep. and starred as Mame
at South Bay Civic Light Opera. Her extensive regional directing
credits include: Quilters (also produced), Man of La
Mancha, My One and Only, Me and My Girl, No
No Nanette, The King and I, A Little Night Music,
and Into the Woods, Candide, and Los Angeles premiers
of Octette Bridgeclub and Gloria Duplex. Her television
credits include, "Frasier", "Dharma and Greg",
"Geppetto", "George Carlin", "Life With
Roger", "Wings", "Murder She Wrote",
"The Slap Maxwell Story", "One Day at a Time",
"Married With Children", and "The Bold and the
Beautiful".
- San Diego
