"The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga" NOT RATED

Min Kahng's "The Four Immigrants" tells the story of four Japanese nationals who come to America in the beginning years of the Twentieth Century. It is based on a manga, or cartoon series, drawn by Henry Yoshitaka Kiyama in the 1920s. The artist is one of the four characters depicted in our story.

We can assume that Act One would have been better had we been able to take the music in context with the cartoon story; as it is, the computer foul-up on Opening Night left the songs to stand perilously on their own. Act Two was better, when we could see the cartoons, the actors settled into their roles and their songs felt less derivative. We very much liked "Furusato," a more traditional song sung by the ensemble without attempts at the pseudo-ragtime that haunts the rest of this score.

We enjoyed the ensemble, but particularly Phil Wong as Frank (The Footware King), who stands out as the most accessible and understandable of the four.

RATINGS: NOT RATED

The San Francisco Theater Blog has decided to not rate "The Four Immigrants," as technology sadly rendered this performance unrepresentative of the final product. The show was a hit at last year's New Works Festival so we are certain it will find its footing.

"The Four Immigrants: An American Musical Manga"

Lucie Stern Theater

1305 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto

Through August 6, 2017

$40-$100

"La Cage Aux Folles" ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ !

In all entertainment, first come the stars, then the imitators. Most often we are stuck with watching people attempt to reproduce the original, a song here, a setting there. Then, if we are lucky, we get to see the real deal, the show all the imitators have been imitating. Now we understand what the fuss was all about.

Thus it is with the San Francisco Playhouse version of "La Cage Aux Folles," directed by Bill English. It has everything -- acting, dancing, intelligence and heart.

Jean-Michel (Nikita Burshteyn) has been raised by his two dads, natural father Georges (Ryan Drummond) and George's partner Albin (John Treacy Egan). Now, Jean-Michel wants to marry...a woman! Samantha Rose plays Anne, Jean-Michel's hopeful bride.

However, in order to win Anne's parents' approval, the couple must first introduce them to Georges and Albin. A homophobic, conservative French politician, Anne's father's consent will be next to impossible to attain.

 And Albin will have to be mollified. And the world as it is will have to become the world it never was. Which is possible in the theater.

 When all fails, resort to blackmail.

There are no false steps here. The show stands the test of time and this ensemble of actors brings pleasure and fun into a trying situation. Egan's Albin brings Nathan Lane to mind, while Drummond makes us smile, even when singing the melancholy showstoppers "With You on My Arm" and "Look Over There." We love Jacquelyn Scott's roundabout set, and Kimberly Richards's choreography adapts well to the small space a company of fourteen manages to inhabit. Everyone in the cast can sing, but special kudos to Nikita Burshteyn, who has a clear, soaring voice.

RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ !

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants FOUR STARS with an EXCLAMATION POINT! to "La Cage Aux Folles." We might make it FIVE STARS, but usually we get a handsome payoff for one of those, like first in line at the post-show buffet or an extra cream puff. Didn't happen. So we will settle for FOUR STARS with an EXCLAMATION POINT OF THANKS. Anyone who loves musical theater, or great art, or just enjoys hearing songs written by a master, ought to hurry down to San Francisco Playhouse while tickets are available.

"La Cage Aux Folles"

San Francisco Playhouse 

450 Post St., San Francisco

(Second floor of Kensington Park Hotel)

Through Sept. 16

$30-$65

San Francisco Mime Troupe 2017: "Walls" ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

We sat on the Press Blanket next to Dick Cheney! Sadly, Ed Holmes has retired after 28 years with the Mime Troupe, but we asked him to show us how he performed Cheney, surely the most beloved and reviled character of recent Mime Troupe history. The secret: he can sneer out of both sides of his mouth at the same time.

Only the Mime Troupe has a Press Blanket.

The current show,  Michael Gene Sullivan's "Walls," has fine acting, good songs and a lot of big laughs. In light of last November's election it is great to once again see farce only on a Berkeley stage, not the national stage.

This year's subject is immigration. As Breitbart News duly noted, "Walls" is about a lesbian relationship between an illegal alien and an immigration cop. Marilet Martinez is Zaniyah Nahuatl, who has come across the border looking for work. She is alternately perky and traumatized. Velina Brown plays Agent L. Mary Jones, Zaniyah's lover and protector, while Rotimi Agbabiaka plays numerous roles, including the refugee store-owner Bahdoon. Martinez, Brown and Agbabiaka are all excellent but the show gives its best laughs to Lizzie Calogero as the unpronounceable Irish immigration official Cliodhna Abhabullogue. Calogero is a wonderful physical comic and leads us to a conclusion obvious to everyone except Breitbart news.

Perhaps because The Mime Troupe has been around the Bay Area for so many years, there are always those who expect a company of actors to come up with answers to complex societal problems. We think part of the solution is to have a great time on a sunny afternoon in a local park, listening to live music and watching fine actors maneuver across a tiny stage.

"Walls" has done it again. It wouldn't be summertime without the San Francisco Mime Troupe.

RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

The San Francisco Theater Blog awards "Walls" Three Stars with a Bangle of Praise for all four actors. By Labor Day the show will be even tighter but can't be any more fun. By the way, Bretibart, you are right. There is a red star in the SFMT logo.

San Francisco Mime Troupe 2017: "Walls"

Various parks around the Bay Area

Weekends through Sunday, Sept. 3

See SFMT.ORG for complete schedule

FREE

"The Legend of Georgia McBride" ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

"The King is Dead. Long Live the Queen." If ever a slogan fit a show, this is it. We loved everything about Matthew Lopez's "The Legend of Georgia McBride," a celebration of not only the world of drag but the dreams and ambitions of us all.

Adam Magill is brilliant as Casey, an Elvis impersonator in a small beach town in the Florida panhandle. Casey's luck has run out -- not only are he and his wife broke, but she has discovered she is pregnant. He then loses his Elvis job at a funky bar on the beach, having been replaced by the cousin of the bar owner. The new act is made up of two drag queens, Miss Tracy Mills (Kraig Swartz) and Anna Rexia Nervosa (Jason Kapoor).

Kraig Swartz and Jason Kapoor could not be better. But Adam Magill is off the charts. Casey must fill in for Anna Rexia Nervosa when she becomes too drunk to perform. The scenes where Miss Tracy instructs the straight Casey on how to dress and act like a woman are absolutely priceless. "Tits up and testicles tucked," she says and Casey gamely straps on his high heels and teeters out to the mike.

Many surprises follow. Casey is good at it -- really good! Audiences start filling up the bar. Bar owner Eddie (John R. Lewis) is ecstatic and keeps adding more shows. The only one who has been kept out of the loop is Casey's wife, Jo (Tatiana Wechsler), because Casey is embarrassed to admit he has been wowing the crowds as a drag queen. This leads to touching moments where Miss Tracy and Anna Rexia speak frankly to Casey about the outcast lives they have been forced to live. Casey realizes he must face his own fears of failure. The lesson here is: we are who we are.

With such grand  humor and slapstick buffoonery, "Miss Georgia McBride" closes gaps between us and teaches us to open our eyes as wide as we can.

The inclusion of Lady Gaga's "I Was Born This Way" as the grand finale number is genius. Perfection. Just like the rest of this lovely show.

RATINGS ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division is proud to give FOUR STARS and a BANGLE OF PRAISE to "The Legend of Georgia McBride." The Four Stars are for Story, Acting, Directing (Kent Gash) and Set/Lights (Jason Sherwood and Kurt Landisman). The music is perfect. The show is funny and important -- a rare combination. And we can promise that Tammy Wynette never knew "Stand By Your Man" could sound this good.

"The Legend of Georgia McBride"

Marin Theatre Company

397 Miller Avenue, Mill Valley

Through July 2, 2017

$22 - $72

"Hershey Felder, Beethoven" ☼ ☼ BANG

We have seen Hershey Felder in his memorable "Irving Berlin," one of our favorite evenings of theater in recent memory. I wish I could say we enjoyed "Beethoven" nearly as much. Sadly, this Felder performance is funereal. (The set is a grand piano in a graveyard.) The costumes are dark, the set is dark and, above all, the story line Felder has invented, that of the son of a best friend of Beethoven's narrating an outline of the composer's life, is without energy or excitement. There is little connection with the audience. And, amazingly, for a show about one of the greatest composers in the history of western culture, there is far too little music. When Felder plays piano, we enjoy the timeless melodies so many of us grew up with. But there is far too much talk and too many forgettable characters.

Beethoven himself is portrayed as bombastic. Perhaps this was so. But between Beethoven's bombast and the narrator's strained sadness, there is little. Yes, it is a tragedy that Beethoven went deaf so early in his life, but surely there must be something else in the maestro's life we could learn about? Something else must explain his massive outpouring of creativity? Yes, his father beat him. So...that's it?

Hershey Felder is worth seeing at any time. But we wish this show were more about the composer 's music and less about the actor's craft.

RATINGS: ☼ ☼ BANG

 The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division grants TWO STARS with a BANGLE OF PRAISE to "Hershey Felder: Beethoven." But be forewarned: if the music of Ludwig von Beethoven could not squeeze another star out of those of us who grew up playing and venerating his music, it may not do so for you either.

A BANGLE OF PRAISE, certainly, for "Ode to Joy."

"HERSHEY FELDER: BEETHOVEN"

Mountain View Center for Performing Arts

500 Castro Street, Mountain View

EXTENDED through July 9

$45-$105

"Grandeur" ☼ ☼ ☼

It is rewarding for an audience to absorb pieces of a story and have them come together at the end to reveal the heart of the show. Perhaps we have war and revolution and the vastness of a snowbound continent, but ultimately we care more about Zhivago and Lara. Our brains love the details, but our hearts are involved with more intimate matters.

Sadly, the opposite seems true in the World Premiere of Han Ong's "Grandeur." There is no big story, only details. If you are an ardent fan of the words and music of the late Gil Scott-Heron, you may relish the story of the older Scott-Heron (Carl Lumbly), towards the end of his life, being interviewed by the young and fawning journalist Steve Barron (Rafael Jordan). Scott-Heron reveals little, he speaks in riddles that the younger man takes to be signs that his hero has not lost his touch. Scott-Heron's sort-of-niece, Miss Julie (Safiya Fredericks) has a role that feels undefined -- except that she certainly shares Scott-Heron's revolutionary ideal.

In real life, Gil Scott-Heron, even in his prime of the early 1970s, was an acquired taste. Brilliant at times but also a substance abuser, his reputation suffered as he continued to decline to show up at his concerts. For some fans, this was a plus -- the poet refusing to knuckle under to the demands of the commercial marketplace. But though he is played to KJAZ-deejay laconic perfection by Carl Lumbly, our story is not with Scott-Heron, who remains static, but with Steve Barron. Will this young man become a true hero, or is he simply another opportunistic writer attempting to further his own career by scoring cocaine for the old man and then writing about the experience?

The Supertitles at the beginning of Act 2 suggest the latter.

World Premieres are often raw and things always change as the show advances. We are aware that we are watching historical fiction, that no such encounter as is enacted here ever really occurred. So we wish we were left with something at least moderately uplifting. It is somewhat surprising that Scott-Heron's estate would allow such an unflattering, if fictional, portrait.

 RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division gives "Grandeur" Three Stars. Any show with Carl Lumbly is worth seeing and loose ends will become tied up as the run proceeds. We particularly enjoyed Ray Oppenheimer's subdued lighting, which becomes part of our understanding of this latter part of Scott-Heron's life. Also, Sara Huddleston has thrown in some terrific blues guitar at the show's beginning and during intermission.

The CD spoken of in the show, "I'm New Here," is real. It was the comeback album that never quite came back. The CD was released in 2010. Scott-Heron died in 2011.

"Grandeur"

The Magic Theatre

Building D, Fort Mason, San Francisco

Through June 25, 2017

$35-$75

"The Roommate" ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

"There's a great liberty in being bad."

That's the lasting quote from Jen Silverman's "The Roommate." It supposedly refers to one's first poem, but neither of the two women on stage is a poet. They just like being bad.

We love this show. "The Roommate" requires two major-league actresses to pull it off and they've got 'em. Susi Damilano plays Sharon, the Iowa housewife whose naivete surprises and intrigues Robyn (Julia Brothers), the Bronx hustler who has come to share Sharon's Iowa City apartment. We don't know why Robyn has come to the Midwest, but from the start it is clear she has way too many secrets.

We can't say enough for Damilano. She infuses Sharon with innocence and humor, as we watch her become more and more attracted to Robyn's dark side. Robyn, meanwhile, understands the price you pay when you give in to your baser instincts. She walks the line. On one hand, she truly loves being a thief. She glows when she ultimately begins to describe her scams to Robyn. On the other hand, she has come to care for Sharon and doesn't want to be the agent of her descent. Both Damilano and Brothers are perfect. They make us wish this were a pilot of a new cable show, so we could look forward to the next thirteen weeks.

Theodore J.H. Hulsker's sound is another plus. Not at all what you'd expect, we get both vocal and instrumental pastiches that blend well with Sharon's emotions. Nicely done.

RATINGS ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

Both ranking members of the San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division went ga-ga over this show. A FOUR STAR rating is the result. Damilano and Brothers earn one star each, plus one star for Becca Wolff's flawless direction and Silverman's story filled with growth and surprises. Special mention for the scene with the gun.

"The Roommate"

San Francisco Playhouse

450 Post Street, San Francisco

2d Floor of the Kensington Park Hotel

Through July 1

$20-$125