San Diego Magazine / November 2003 / Ever the Twain Shall Speak

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Ever the Twain Shall Speak

November is often a quiet month on local stages, as companies prepare their bounty of holiday offerings. But in another indication of local theater’s vigor, this month brings an unusually tasty menu.

Primarily, we have a rare chance to see one of our country’s greatest actors in his signature role. On November 15 at the Civic Theatre, Hal Halbrook comes in as Mark Twain Tonight! Holbrook attained fame 48 years ago with his re-creation of the novelist-humorist and has subsequently won practically every stage accolade extant. Even in those early days, Holbrook’s imitation was uncanny, and now that he needs less makeup to look an elder Twain’s age, the realism is riper.

Twain, of course, was a prolific writer and speaker, so Holbrook constantly adds and revises his monologue to mesh with current affairs. After some 2,000 performances, he has developed about 16 hours of material from which to draw, allowing him to spontaneously change his program and make each performance unique.

But Holbrook is no one-trick pony. In 1994, he attracted record crowds to the Old Globe with his acclaimed performance in the title role of Shakespeare’s King Lear, and he has won similar praise in such classic roles as Shylock, Vanya and Willy Loman. On television, in various guises, he’s been nominated for 12 Emmys, winning five, and he’s appeared in dozens of films, including All the President’s Men, The Firm and Men of Honor. Still, he’ll be most remembered for bringing Mark Twain to life for new generations.

Besides Holbrook’s appearance, two family-favorite musicals grace the Civic Theatre in November, both under the aegis of Broadway/San Diego. 42nd Street, which glommed the 2001 Tony for best revival, runs November 4-9, and Oliver!, Lionel Bart’s Tony-winning adaptation of the Dickens novel Oliver Twist, plays November 25-30.

Speaking of classic novels, you can savor them all at the San Diego Rep, which is presenting the West Coast debut of All the Great Books (abridged). It’s the latest offering—billed as “great lit’s greatest hits”—from the Reduced Shakespeare Company, famous for condensed versions of the Bard’s complete canon and The Bible: The Complete Word of God (abridged). In 100 minutes or so, the troupe hilariously depicts the writings they consider essential, from Beowulf to The Bridges of Madison County (okay, some of the lit’s not so great).

A mile or so north, Lyric Opera San Diego goes back to its roots with Gilbert and Sullivan’s beloved The Pirates of Penzance. The organization began in 1979 as the Gilbert & Sullivan Company, doing seasons of the famous duo’s operettas, then in 1990 broadened its repertoire and changed its name to San Diego Comic Opera. This year, the company adopted its current name and embarked on a $1.6 million drive to restore the historic North Park Theatre and become its managing tenant by 2005.

You can enjoy a classic, and help a good cause, by popping over to the Casa del Prado Theatre in Balboa Park November 15, 16 and 20-23. J. Sherwood Montgomery heads the cast as the very model of a modern major general, and Leon Natker directs.

Up in Vista, Moonlight Stage Productions kicks off its winter season at the Avo Playhouse November 6-23 with The Game of Love and Chance, directed by James Saba. It’s a Steven Wadsworth translation of Marivaux’s 1740s comedy of manners about a rich young woman and her maid switching places to smooth their path to love.

Moonlight’s season also comprises Neil Simon’s Brighton Beach Memoirs (January 29–February 22) and a not-often-seen musical, Lucky Stiff, by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty (March 4-21). Simon’s autobiographical comedy will be helmed by George Flint, artistic director of the Renaissance Theatre Company, and Lucky Stiff, a mystery farce, will be staged by Moonlight artistic director Kathy Brombacher.

You don’t have to be a star to feel like one at Bravo San Diego, the Performing Arts League’s fifth annual fund-raising extravaganza November 22. Guests walk into the Westgate through a new entrance on Broadway, featuring a red carpet, paparazzi and celebrity look-alikes to give every participant that VIP vicariousness. Inside, as before, is a cornucopia of delights as the city’s performing arts groups and restaurants provide samples of their usual offerings. It’s a satisfying feast for body and soul.

Also new this year is a larger rooftop stage area and themed stages—cabaret, choral music, modern dance and such—easing the multi-floor challenge of finding a favorite arts group. Sam Woodhouse, artistic director for San Diego Repertory Theatre, is this year’s emcee. Tickets are available from the San Diego Performing Arts League (619-238-0700, extension 12, or www.sandiegoperforms.com).

A couple of seasons back, La Jolla Playhouse staged a musical version of Dracula with a goal of flying to Broadway. Those dreams seem dead, but a previous Playhouse aspirant is getting another resurrection. Harmony, the Barry Manilow–Bruce Sussman tuner that premiered in La Jolla in 1997 to generally good reviews, opens November 25 in Philadelphia’s Forrest Theatre for what is being called a pre-Broadway engagement. David Warren directs, as he did in La Jolla. Then, theater gods willing, the production will make its Broadway bow in winter 2004.

The hoped-for 1999 opening got shelved, ostensibly for lack of a suitable theater but more likely for inadequate investment. Despite the musical’s friendly critical and consumer reception here, its timing was star-crossed. Harmony’s book concerned the Comedian Harmonists, six men in 1920s Germany who grew from street musicians to world-class entertainers and recording stars. Three of the men, however, were Jewish, so the group was broken up by the newly ascendant Nazis.

Unfortunately for Manilow and Sussman, another stage musical and a film based on the Harmonists sprang up at about the same time, and neither did well at the box office. So Harmony doubtless became a hard sell. Now, especially if it flourishes in Philadelphia, its time may finally come.