"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

Brian Copeland: "The Scion" ☼ ☼

Brain Copeland is stepping out in his new one-man show "The Scion," which is having its World Premiere at the Marsh San Francisco. Copeland is trying to balance on the knife-edge between comedy and tragedy. With the assistance of long-time director David Ford sometimes his blade is sharp, but sometimes it is just plain dull.

There are really two shows going on. When Copeland is in character as himself, ranting about the effect that privilege has upon the people who wield it as well as those who don't, including George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin, he is funny and insightful. But when he attempts to act out the characters in a real-world murder case that took place in San Leandro in the year 2000, the show slows  to a halt. Brian as Brian narrating the whole thing would have us on the edge of our chairs. But his voicings of the actual testimonies of witnesses in the trial are tedious and not very entertaining.

The problem is simple: we care about Brian Copeland. He's our pal, we know him and his entire family from his earlier shows. He shows us our follies and allows us to laugh about them. But we don't care much about the three USDA inspectors murdered by a privileged psychopath, we don't care how many children they had and we don't have any feelings one way or the other about the psychopath himself except that he's crazy. His guilt and conviction are a matter of record so there are no suprises. This leads Copeland into moralizing and moralizing is not all that funny.

He's correct about "Rules are for everyone, yeah, right."  He asks the right questions, such as who gets the benefit of the doubt and who is inherently suspicious? How are we to decide who is dangerous and who will protect us? These are issues with which society is not dealing very well.

Copeland is also right about the windshield and the bug. It's a great metaphor to end the show.

RATINGS: ☼ ☼
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards Brian Copeland's "The Scion" Two Stars at this point, which is below the Julie Andrews Line (see right sidebar for explanation of ratings). The show is new and feels it. Brian Copeland has raised his own bar very high. We have gotten used to seamless adventure with "The Jewelry Box," "The Waiting Period" and "Not a Genuine Black Man." But those shows have become aristocracy. "The Scion" is still just a kid.

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Brian Copeland: "The Scion"

The Marsh

1062 Valencia Street, San Francisco

Thu-Sat through March 1

$15-$60

Jerusalem: ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

You ride the Rooster, one way or the other. If you like him, as you will, despite your better judgement, you'll end up being enthralled with Jez Butterworth's Tony-winning three hour three-act opus "Jerusalem." But you won't be able to ignore the small part of your still-functioning brain that reminds you: "This guy is a creep. He deserves whatever he gets."

Johnny "Rooster" Byron is played to confounding perfection by Brian Dykstra. True, he is a dropout, living in a decrepit mobile home rapidly decaying like the rest of the forest in which he has located himself. True, his only friends are the teenagers to whom he provides booze and sells drugs. True, he is studiously avoiding his fate, numbing himself with any substance he can scrounge from his many stashes.

The Rooster is also delusional. But so was Don Quijote. One man's weirdo is another man's prophet. And within his madness there is a level of truth with which we can all identify. Despite his attempt to call in the giants with his drum, we all know that eventually his self-named Rooster's Forest will be leveled and turned into an expansion of the suburb just across the way. We understand his cocksure refusal to come to grips with this knowledge. But we also know there is power in resistance and we want The Rooster to fight it out.

Here is our only problem with this opus -- we love the two act setup. But in Act Three we wait for what we will not receive. We are ready to see Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid leap defiantly into their final fusilade. 

"Jerusalem" is a play about England, with a rural English collection of idioms and cultural terms. You won't understand a small percentage of the language, but it won't matter. Performances are so strong, particularly by Dykstra and Ian Scott McGregor who plays Ginger as Rooster's Sancho Panza, that you will be thrown happily downstream into the action along with the rest of us. Joe Estlak plays the menacing Troy, managing somehow to place his defiant skull a foot in front of the rest of his body, Paris Hunter Paul is Lee, who is smart enough to want to leave his dead-end home, while Christopher Reber is very good as poor sore-foot Wesley.

Bill English's set is masterful. The stage is trashed before the curtain even rises. Characters pop out of sofas, from under the mobile home, or from behind a clothes line. English also directs, which is probably one reason for the measured insanity that is the power of this production.

 So it all comes down to whether or not you believe you are rooting for the underdog if you throw in with the Rooster. Is he a hero? An anti-hero? A bum? One thing is for sure: Jez Butterworth has given us the rare epic, the story that does not pander to the supposed attention-gap lap in theater culture. Stay tuned in and you will find a great deal to cheer about.

RATINGS  ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼
The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Jerusalem" Four Stars. You cannot deny the brash energy of this show. The acting of the entire ensemble is superb. Performance, direction, writing and set all earn one Star each.

Someone please tell Troy to put down the ax. There's another show tomorrow.

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"Jerusalem"

San Francisco Playhouse

450 Post Street (upstairs at Kensington Park Hotel), San Francisco

Through Mar 8

$30-$100

Marga Gomez: "Lovebirds" ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

In a city of excellent solo performers, Marga Gomez stands apart. For one thing, she's been doing it a long time. Her characters and her stories always have a little more depth, her performance is more nuanced and she doesn't hold her audience's hand. In her new "Lovebirds," which we saw in its final Preview before Opening Night at the Marsh, she has sewed all her craft together into a touching tapestry which is also very, very funny.

The show revolves around Polaroid Philly, a lovable photographer who is still working with a Polaroid. She has been around the block a few times but her gift is the kindness she offers to all her customers. We see Philly at the opening, and at the end, and in between we meet Turkey, the manly lesbian who courts Barbara, the politically aware "brand new lesbian" who changes her name to "Dahlia." We meet Barbara/Dahlia's father Orestes, who runs a night club and has fallen in love with his dying-cat-voiced club singer Gladys, who only uses one name, just like Charro and Cher.  There are many other characters too, but our very favorite is Richard Richards, the professor who claims to only need 45 minutes of sleep a night. He is constantly yawning, and believe me, when he yawns, you will too. He is married to Gladys...well, the plot is convoluted and the characters many. 

There is even one character named Marga Gomez, who buys a lot of Cosmopolitans as she tries in vain to pick up Barbara/Dahlia. 

With all of it -- we come back to Polaroid Philly. She knows her polaroids are ancient technology, and that they will fade, as will all our memories. But, despite it all, you can always count on her to keep trying. 

RATINGS ☼ ☼ ☼ BANG

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "Lovebirds" Three Stars with a BANGLE OF PRAISE. Gomez gets a star for writing and performing, plus another for Richard Richards. The BANGLE of PRAISE is for Gladys's version of "Besame Mucho," though if she had played it a little louder we may have expired with laughter. If we could give an extra Bangle, it would be for the way Turkey does the Hustle.

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Marga Gomez "Lovebirds"

The Marsh

1062 Valencia Street, San Francisco

Thu-Sat through March 15

$15-$35 sliding scale.

"The Pornographer's Daughter" ☼ ☼ ☼

Liberty Bradford Mitchell has a pedigree, children. Actually, she has two. The first, from her mother's side of the family, takes her back to the Mayflower and Boston society. The second, from her father's  side, gave her a close-up and personal ride into the great pageant of San Francisco porn. With a story like this, and a fine sense of how to hold an audience, Bradford Mitchell's "The Pornographer's Daughter" will rivet you to your seat --- the good way.

It's pretty graphic, folks, at least on the video screen above the stage. Bradford Mitchell was born in 1969, the year the Mitchell Brothers opened their O'Farrell Theater as an outlet to screen their home-made pornographic shorts. Her stories of how brothers Jim and Artie catapulted themselves into mainline cinema and a screening at the Cannes Film Festival with "Behind the Green Door," the first feature-length pornographic movie ever made, starring the Ivory-Snow girl Marilyn Chambers, is absolutely priceless. Bradford Mitchell's personal revelations are terrific too -- like how she hated being "named Liberty in a world of Heathers and Jennifers."

The dark side is there, and we get the sense we've only heard the half of it. Her father, Art Mitchell, was arrested 187 times and her uncle Jim 188. Of course, the last time was when her uncle murdered her father. Liberty's last words to her dad must haunt her to this day.

But that's where the show stops being fun and starts being just weird. Nothing made sense in real life and it doesn't on stage either. Bradford Mitchell's behavior at her uncle's trial, and therefore her depiction of those days, make you ask a lot of questions. It's hard to know what to think.

Music is provided on-stage by The Fluffers. Their finest moment is when they play riffs from '60s songs as the show is opening. We could definitely use some more interplay between Bradford Mitchell and the band. Also, she needs to get some of her facts straight -- USC is not in Watts, for example. She needs to check her dates about Francis Ford Coppola.

None of this is to deny the power of this amazing tale. We come away with respect for a woman who has been through a lot and come out on the other end unapologetic for the way her father and uncle made their living. As she says about her family: "We put the fun in dysfunction." 

(And Marilyn Chambers was really beautiful. Just sayin.' )

RATINGS: ☼ ☼ ☼ 

The San Francisco Theater Blog Awards Division awards "The Pornographer's Daughter" Three Stars. It is well worth seeing, but suffers from a believability issue, capped off by her tears at the end. They ring false for the character on the stage we have seen laughing everything off with a wave and a F-bomb. Liberty Bradford Mitchell is a tremendous talent. Who could be surprised if "The Pornographer's Daughter" still has a few kinks?

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"The Pornographer's Daughter"

Z Space Below

470 Florida Street, San Francisco

Thu-Sun through February 16

$32