"Wittenberg" ☼ ☼ ☼

History tells us that Martin Luther was a professor at the University of Wittenberg in 1517, the year of his famous posting of 95 theses on the door of the Catholic Church, thus beginning the Protestant Reformation. Shakespeare tells us that Hamlet was a college student at Wittenberg before he went home to Denmark to become King after the death of his father. And George Faustus, a character from Phillip Marlowe based on a man who sold his soul to the devil, is reputed to have been a doctor in Wittenberg.

So why not write a play on the assumption that Faustus, Hamlet and Luther were all at the University of Wittenberg at the same time? David Davalos has done just that, with a 2008 comedy that now has its Bay Area Premiere at Aurora Theatre in Berkeley. Luther is the professor, Hamlet is the college student and Faustus is the counter-culture guru and drug dealer for them both.

It's intriguing. Jeremy Kahn, in particular, does a magnificent turn as the young Hamlet, discovering that coffee and pot do wonders for his tennis game. Dan Hiatt is a fine Luther, constrained in his professor's role but longing to rebel against papal indulgences. 

The problem is that both Hamlet and Luther are drawn from the time period in which they lived, while  Dr. George Faustus is played by Michael Stevenson as a kind of horny new-age wisecracker from the 1960s. His shelves are stocked with medicines and exotic herbs from around the globe, ready to convince Hamlet and Luther to turn on, tune in and drop out -- that is, to follow their own good judgement rather than listen to the dictates of the church. 

It's a fascinating proposition. Faustus sounds like Ken Kesey, daring Luther and Hamlet to get on the bus. But they hadn't invented buses yet in 1517. And if you don't buy the Faustus interacting with his two sixteenth century counterparts, as we could not, you may have trouble with the entire show.

Example: should Dr. Faustus REALLY have a side-gig as a lute player in the Bunghole Tavern? Should Michael Stevenson really sing songs that sound like 1995 light rock? 

It's a shame because "Wittenberg" has many wonderful moments, notably whenever Hamlet is on stage. The simulated sex scene between Faustus and Helen, his true love (Elizabeth Carter) is very funny. There are many insider references to Hamlet, the play, that audiences in the know will enjoy. 

We love it when Helen turns out to be simultaneously sleeping with Faustus as well as the Pope. Who will she choose? "Once you've laid on Holy Sheets, it's hard to go back to sheets with holes."

Now, that's funny.

RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Wittenberg" Three Stars. Jeremy Kahn is so good you can happily enjoy this show looking only at him. The minimal staging is excellent. But we hope the good owners of the Bunghole replace Dr. Faustus and find someone who might have lived in 1517.

"Wittenberg"

The Aurora Theatre

2081 Addison Street, Berkeley

Through May 4

$32-$50

"The Hound of the Baskervilles" ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

Not counting anyone who founded a major religion, Sherlock Holmes has to be the most popular fictional character in literary history. If we are to judge by the amount of times the quintessentially British detective has been brought back to life, in literature, stage, film and television, Holmes and his faithful sidekick Watson have never really gone away. Interestingly enough, author Arthur Conan Doyle got so tired of them that he threw them off a waterfall to their deaths in 1893. But the outcry from his fans and editors was so insistent  that he brought them back in 1901 with his classic "The Hound of the Baskervilles."

We get the zany adaptation by Steven Canny and John Nicholson, in which three actors play at least half a dozen characters each, sometimes playing more than one at the same time.You want lighthearted clowning and brilliant staging? You've got it. In fact, as good as Ron Campbell as Holmes, Michael Gene Sullivan as Watson and Darren Bridgett as Baskerville, et al, are -- it is the production's madcap character switching and precision choreography that are the most memorable.

The story doesn't really hang together, but we don't care, do we? Campbell is such a good Holmes and an equally entertaining Lady Stapleton, Sullivan's Dr. Watson is wonderfully pathetic and, although we know we shouldn't laugh at the poor man running around without his pants, Bridgett does not allow us that option.

Look for nothing but fun. The world's greatest detective can still make us laugh.

RATINGS ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "The Hound of the Baskervilles' Three Stars with a BANGLE OF PRAISE.  The acting, staging and Robert Kelley's directing earn one star each, while the BANGLE is for the brilliant beginning to Act Two, where the three actors re-perform Act One in its entirety in about two minutes. The whole show is a delight, but Act Two's opening leaves us with our mouths wide open. Careful. Somebody might stick a meerschaum calabash in there.

"The Hound of the Baskervilles"

Mountain View Center for Performing Arts

500 Castro Street, Mountain View

Through April 4

$19-$73

"Every Five Minutes" **UNRATED **

Loretta Greco has been making good choice after good choice as Artistic Director of the Magic Theatre. Since it must have been her decision to mount the World Premiere of Linda McLean's "Every Five Minutes," and then signed herself on as Director, the only thing we can say is ... why?

McLean's last Magic Theatre production was the fabulous "Any Given Day," so we reviewers must admit up front that we had high expectations, especially with a stellar cast including Rod Gnapp, Mia Tagano, Sean San José, Carrie Paff, Patrick Alparone, Maggie Mason and Jomar Tagatac. all seasoned veterans of the San Francisco acting family. Shawna Michelle James makes her Magic debut as Molly and fits in beautifully.

But -- ya know -- a play needs a plot. Instead, "Every Five Minutes" has psychedelic tricks and explosions on a screen. We want to care about our characters, especially the leads, but we are given no reason, no backstory and very little emotion, except for Rod Gnapp's Mo, who has constant flashbacks. We're talking constant. Not every five minutes, every three seconds. The others sit around wondering what to do. So do we.

As for the story, Mo has apparently been kidnapped by...somebody...and held prisoner...somewhere... for seventeen years...for some reason...while his family and friends have worked for his release. He's home now, messed up of course, after torture by...clowns. Their names are Bozo and Harpo.

Seriously. And equally seriously, this drama has very little drama. Rod Gnapp has played the tortured soul in so many roles for so many years that it is becoming hard to watch. That Mo has some form of PTSD is clear. Also clear is McLean has written a nightmare role for any actor -- Gnapp is stripped naked on stage twice, undressed, soaked by hoses and dressed again, once by his clown torturers and once by -- Jesus imagery ALERT --  workers in what might be a mental institution, who do the equivalent of cutting him down from his cross and dressing him in clean linen.

Meanwhile, his wife Sara (Tagano) is doing her best to deal with both her husband and their clueless friends Ben (San José) and Rachel (Paff), whose relationship is so trivial it is another form of torture for Mo.

It's a World Premiere. Things will improve. 

RATINGS: UNRATED

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Department is flummoxed. While it is rather liberating to realize that even the most creative folks in the business can slip up from time time, it is our opinion that this show must have been rushed to the stage too soon. We in the audience must have someone we care about, some ray of hope and, hopefully, a second emotion besides Mo screaming. Molly's entrance is probably where the author intends to inject happiness. More of this, please.

"Every Five Minutes"

Magic Theatre

Fort Mason Center, Building D, San Francisco

Through April 20

$20-$60

"Bauer" ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

These are exciting times for San Francisco Playhouse. When co-founders Bill English and Susi Damilano jumped into a larger new home with more seats to fill, it took a leap of faith on everyone's part. The bar and lobby are bigger. The stage is bigger. The welcome result is that SFP productions now seem to carry more artistic weight, and artistic weight is a good thing when presenting "Bauer," a show written by Lauren Gunderson about the late German modernist painter Rudolph Bauer.

The production is superb. Gunderson is a Georgia girl but she now lives in San Francisco so we can finally call her a local treasure. The topic of "Bauer" is art -- but at its center we find a touching love story.

What a cast! Ronald Guttman plays Rudolph Bauer, the enigmatic modernist painter whose works once occupied the same lofty plane as Kandinsky, Mondrian and Paul Klee. Bauer's paintings were responsible for Solomon Guggenheim opening his new modernist museum, partly as a home for his large Bauer collection. What happened afterwards, if we are to believe Lauren Gunderson, is almost impossible to imagine.

Guttman's German-accented English is perfect, as well as his bearing as the proud painter now in decline. Stacy Ross plays Hilla Rebay, Bauer's long-time companion, confidant, lover and the person responsible for cementing his relationship with Solomon Guggenheim. Damilano plays Louise Bauer, the painter's one-time maid who is now his wife. Of the three roles, Damilano's is the most conflicted. Wanting the best for her seriously-ill husband, she must come to terms with the emotional connection that still crackles between her husband and his ex-lover.

Lauren Gunderson is only 32 years old. How in the world can she know what an elderly Louise Bauer would say to Hilla Rebay? And yet she does. Gunderson is having a banner year in San Francisco, with possibly everything she has ever written hitting area stages at once. One of the reasons is she manages to get inside the heads of historical figures in ways that make perfect sense to her audiences. 

Rebay feels superior to Ms. Bauer: "Here we are. Two modernists and a maid."

More down-to-earth Ms. Bauer is trying to reconcile with the mercurial Rebay:

Louise Bauer: "Let's not fight."

Hilla Rebay: "How?"

And Bauer himself, at the end, with his arms around Hilla Rebay, says:

"I miss being young."

She says: "I miss being in charge."

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RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Bauer" Four Stars with a BANGLE OF PRAISE. This is quite a rating for a show that has had, up to this writing, exactly one live performance. (Bill English reminds us there have been four workshops and no less than fifteen versions already since they began the process.)

Each of the three actors merits no less than one star -- it is hard to pick out a favorite, though it's true that Stacy Ross gets most of the great lines. The fourth star is for Lauren Gunderson's playwriting and the BANGLE is for the innovative lighting and projections which bring Bauer's art to life on stage. Lighting Design is by Jordan Puckett and Projection Design by Micah J. Steiglitz.

Warning: There are no car crashes. All you get is great actors delivering a terrific story.

"Bauer"

San Francisco Playhouse

450 Post Street, 2nd Floor of Kensington Park Hotel

San Francisco

Through April 19

$30-$100

"Once on This Island" ☼ ☼ ☼

They sing, they dance, they tell a story and they smile. What's not to like?

It's hard to fault the cast or the direction in Theatreworks' new setting of Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty's 1991 Tony-winning "Once on This Island." Scenic Designer Joe Ragey gives us several eye-popping scenes, including pulling out a huge blue sheet which members of the cast wave up and down to simulate the flood with which this folk tale begins. He throws in some very cool rain too, made from black umbrellas and silver tinsel.

Music: live orchestra. Can't beat that. Choreography (by Gerry McIntyre, who has spent years involved with this show): also commendable, if hampered by a smaller-than-Broadway stage.

Singers: first rate, especially Safiya Fredericks as Asaka, Dawn L. Troupe as Mama Euralie and Berwick Haynes as Tonton Julian.

So back to the original question: what's not to like? Nothing. The show is likeable and entertaining.

But what's to love? For this reviewer, the musical form of happy islanders laughing and dancing their lives away was co-opted by Walt Disney a generation ago. The stage, bedecked in prime colors and cutouts of palm trees, looks suspiciously like The Little Mermaid, though admittedly without Disney's egregious treacle. This would be fine if the music were more interesting.

"Once on This Island" was Ahrens and Flahrety's first musical. The pair went on to write many big shows, including "Ragtime" and "Dessa Rose." Here, they miss no musical cliches: steel drums, calypso chord changes, congas and island percussion -- but beyond this there is little to grab on to. The show's most significant song is the stunning closer: "Why We Tell the Story," which is performed with pure voices only.

We love that the issues of racism and wealth disparities, signified by the very first song: "Two different worlds, never meant to meet..." -- are dealt with. We particularly love how members of the black cast put on white face masks to simulate the lighter-skinned island bourgeoisie, then cast off the white faces when they want to dance and have a good time. This would give Walt Disney a sour stomach.

RATINGS: ☼  ☼  ☼
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Once on This Island" Three Stars. It is worth seeing, especially if you are a die-hard musical lover. The Opening Night audience seemed to love it. We would have loved to have heard those biting lyrics given some meatier, more memorable music. We particularly enjoyed the dance between Death (Max Kumangai) and Love (Adrienne Muller).  Strangely, every time Death came on stage (shown below with Salisha Thomas as Ti Moune) the show's energy ramped up a notch.

"Once on This Island"

Lucie Stern Theatre

1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto

Through March 30

$19-$73

Photo credit: M. Kitaoka and T. Martin

"Crystal Springs" (WORLD PREMIERE) ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

There are a lot of terrific things to say about Kathy Rucker's "Crystal Springs," but perhaps its best characteristic is simplicity. The story is told backwards, in that we see the tragedy as the curtain rises and then slowly move backwards in time so we can understand the events that contributed to it. This reverse chronology actually makes the story stronger as the ending hangs a terrible fate on what would have seemed an innocent beginning.

The six-woman cast is on stage at all times, each sitting on a box when a scene does not call for everyone. There are nice bass-heavy musical cues between scenes as director Anna Jordan moves things forward (actually, backward) with ease.

With understated dialogue, we see how the two moms (Sally Clawson as Linda and Amy Prosser as Rose) allow their dislike of each other to poison their daughters' social world.

Marissa Keltie plays Haley, the misfit, while Siobhan Fitzgerald plays Jenna, Haley's one-time best friend who allows herself to be sucked into the vicious world of teen-age girls. Keltie and Fitzgerald are both fine actresses (with Keltie recently giving one of last year's best performances in "Terminus" at the Magic), as are Susan Shay as Mia and Heather Robison as Claire.

The story will resonate with any parent who has lived inside the emotional tsunami of raising a 21st Century teenage daughter. Rucker gives us an end, middle and beginning, in that order. "Crystal Springs" will stay with you awhile.

RATINGS:  ☼  ☼  ☼  BANG
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Crystal Springs" Three Stars with a BANGLE OF PRAISE. Writing, acting and staging earn one star each and the BANGLE is for producing a play cast for six women, as well as for the playwright giving us dialogue that never feels out of place. This is a fine show.

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"Crystal Springs"

The Eureka Theatre

215 Jackson Street, San Francisco

Through March 23

$45-$65

"Feisty Old Jew" ☼ ☼

The problem with Charlie Varon's "Feisty Old Jew" is that Bernie Schein, his lead character, isn't very feisty, doesn't seem old, and his only connection with Jewishness is a vague existential angst plus the last names of his and his friends, all residents of a Jewish senior home. Unlike so many in the newer generation of solo performers, Varon these days seems less a solo performer than a novelist trying out a few new chapters at an Open Mike. For those of us who were captivated by many of his earlier shows, and at the risk of sounding equally FOJ-ish, "Feisty Old Jew" in its current state of development does not live up to its great title.

The basic premise, that while we may age in body we still feel young and brash in our hearts, is a timeless one. Bernie Schein has always had something to prove and still does. We all know characters like Bernie, old-school guys who live for the discussion, for the argument, who will take any side of any story and become proponent or opponent. Bernie may not know if he actually wins the bet which is the heart of "Feisty Old Jew," but he is disappointed anyway, because he never gets a chance to argue about it.

This is an issue filled with promise for a performer. The problem, as we see it, is not Varon's writing nor his characters, but Varon himself. He, the author, is in the middle of every scene, not his characters. Bernie could carry this show, but not as long as the author is there in the car with him, telling us exactly what we are supposed to see.

The show is short, only 45 minutes. Perhaps Varon will flesh out his characters as time goes on, adding more dialogue and less explanation. After seeing an excellent short section of "Fish Sisters," also based on a guest at the same senior home, our guess is that Bernie Schein's story will end up as one powerful section of a larger and more ambitious finished project, on which Varon is currently at work. Which is to say, the tsimmis will have more zetz when it acquires more than one ingredient.

RATINGS ☼ ☼
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Department awards "Feisty Old Jew" Two Stars. We liked Bernie's ranting. We did not like Varon introducing himself, performing the show, then launching immediately into a half-hearted fund-raiser for the Marsh. We understand about financial pressures, but surely the performer can get off stage and let somebody else do it?

"Feisty Old Jew"

The Marsh

1062 Valenica Street, San Francisco

Sat. and Sun., Through March 16

$25-$35