BACK STAGE WEST

 

March 29, 2001

 

THE WICKED STAGE

     

by Rob Kendt

           

A final word on the Knightsbridge controversy, in which the scrappy Pasadena-and-L.A. theatre company purportedly banned critic Anne Louise Bannon for her negative views of the company. The Knightsbridge denies there was a ban, but pointed out that Bannon has shown a bias against the theatre. It's true, Bannon wrote a piece on "The Turkeys of Pasadena" for the Pasadena Weekly, and included among them Knightsbridge artistic director Joseph Stachura. And many though not all of her reviews of Knightsbridge work for Back Stage West have been negative. But I quote Anne on the issue: "I do not, have not, and will not go into a showÑat the Knightsbridge or anywhere else, for that matterÑassuming it will be awful. I don't like sitting through bad plays and truly want to see actors do well. I'm just not going to mince words when they don't." I don't think anything more need be said. We will continue to try to cover Knightsbridge shows thoroughly and fairly, and we trust that the theatre and its members will accept our criticism in the spirit in which it is intended, which can be summed up more or less as: We want you to do well, but we won't pull punches when you don't.

 

¥ Don Shirley called last week to ask us to correct Theatre LA president Lee Wochner's correction. I reported a few weeks ago that Lee wanted to set straight a report by Don in The Los Angeles Times that the presidency of the theatre membership organization was a "part-time" job. In fact, Don reported last year that the position was "not full time," and this was not untrue; Wochner hadn't yet begun his duties and didn't know how many hours it would take, and he was still running the small theatre company Moving Arts. When he spoke to me at the David Dukes tribute, Lee was merely updating me, explaining that the Theatre LA post is taking him 60 hours a week, which isn't full time, eitherÑit's overtime. Don and Lee: You both work too hard.

 

¥ Caught up with Daniel Henning, artistic director and producer for the Blank Theatre Company, who recently added short-film director to his resume with the film Critic's Choice, in which Veronica Cartwright plays a jaded theatre critic more or less held hostage for a "command performance" by an out-of-work actor, played by Raphael Sbarge (who was strong as Tom in Andrew Robinson's wobbly Glass Menagerie last year at the Pasadena Playhouse). The film will screen at the New York International Independent Film and Video Festival this weekend.

 

Not to worryÑwe're not losing Henning to filmmaking just yet. He also recently renewed his association with musical theatre composer Michael John LaChiusa, whose sexy Hello Again had its L.A. premiere under Henning's direction at the 2nd Stage; in the same venue last month Henning produced a reading of LaChiusa's pet project The First Lady Suite, which premiered at New York's Public Theater in 1993. As the title implies, it's a sort of revue of 20th-century presidential wives, from Jackie O to Mamie Eisenhower to Bess Truman to Eleanor Roosevelt. The reading was music-directed by Brad Ellis and featured such performers as Greg Jbara (award winner for his role in the Blank's 2000 production of George Furth's Precious Sons), Paula Newsome, Edie Alyson, and Susan Egan (who performed memorably and movingly in Henning's Hello Again; the sight of Disney's Belle going down on a young beau in a movie theatre back row is not easily forgotten). Will this lead to another Blank/LaChiusa West Coast premiere?

 

Incidentally, the Blank's Hello Again has already entered that show's official legacy: The Blank is credited in the program of the just-opened London premiere of the work, a contemporary adaptation of La Ronde. At least one reason is that the Blank nailed down Scene 8, an exchange between an actress and a playwright for which LaChiusa had written "13 different versions," according to Henning, among whichÑdespite the show's successful New York run under director Graciela DanieleÑthe writer/composer had still not decided definitively. Henning said that LaChiusa made all the versions available for the Blank's 1998 production; Henning chose the one he liked, and that version of Scene 8 is now the "official" Scene 8. The subject of Scene 8's exchange between actress and playwright? Rewrites, of course.