Archive for the The Plays Category
Malcolm on 06 20, 2010 | No Comments
Well, well, well. It’s time to congratulate the cast, crew and creative team on the rave reviews Priscilla’s Perfect Day has been getting. We already feel proud just to have such a great, brand new piece of musical theater that the entire family can enjoy, that getting good reviews is very much the icing on the cake. Or the syrup on your pancakes, if you will. ;)
If you haven’t checked out what this wonderful family musical is about, check out this interview with the show’s director, Jeremy Aldridge, on Broadway World LA!
We also have an interview with husband and wife writing team Diana Martin (book) and Richard Levinson (music) that's also from Broadway World LA!
Here are some of what the reviewers are saying. If you’d like to read the entire review, click on the link.
• It’s a creative romp with plenty of imaginative flights of fancy.
• It’s a giddy little adventure that will encourage children to be nicer to their siblings and not be so afraid of things that sound scary (but really aren’t).
• The acting, however, is engaging and it never hurts to be surround
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Malcolm on 06 14, 2010 | 2 Comments
You all are aware that The Group Rep is the first theater that has been allowed to produce the musical BABY since it was re-worked at the famous and well-respected regional theater, The Papermill Playhouse. You are also all aware that our production of BABY had a fabulous opening! But did you know how many great reviews our BABY has gotten?! All RAVE REVIEWS!! Our BABY is a HIT! Check ‘em out – here are some quotes from the first batch of reviews, and you can click on links to read each review in its entirety!
Congratulations to Cate Caplin and our cast, crew and creative team of BABY, it’s their talent, hard work and commitment that’s earning these well deserved raves.
•"The Group Rep has a first-class production."
•"Ultra-skilled director Caplin has thankfully provided a fast-paced and exceedingly active staging..."
•“Emily Thompson is a treasure as Lizzie, the best singer onstage and a bundle of energy and joy.”
•"Chorus members Klair Bybee, Lareen Faye, Becklett Arnold, Michael Cassano, Tonilyn Hornung and Jeremy M. Sage do remarkably well with a myriad of small roles. •Faye is particularly funny as a midwestern cowgirl type…"
•"The cast is terrific." - - Broadway World.com
•"One of the most delightful elements of BAB is Cate Caplin’s
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Malcolm on 06 7, 2010 | No Comments
Here at The Group Rep we’ve got another show opening!!! On June 12, Catawba Club Productions in association with The Group Rep presents the Los Angeles Premiere of PRISCILLA'S PERFECT DAY - A Family Musical!!! This special production plays on Saturday mornings at 11AM from June 12-July 17. AND – after each performance, there is a Pancake Party and other activities!!!
Rain might ruin eleven-year-old budding artist Priscilla Penelope Periwinkle’s idyllic notion of a relaxing vacation in Maine, and her “bratty” little brother Billy and his pesky, pancake-lovin’ dog Roscoe are making their first day at the quaint old cottage anything but perfect; when she finds some very strange crayons that send them all to a magical sunny beach, things start looking up ... at least until they meet one very big, and very hungry, lobster. But thanks to Billy’s quick thinking, it could still end up being Priscilla’s Perfect Day!
What a wholesome show to take the entire family to!
The cast includes: Natascha Aldridge, Courtney DeCosky ,Stephen Simon, Matt Valle, Brian Wallis, Victor Isaac, Diana Martin, Kaylena Mann, Lily Donnelly, and Ben Freiberger.
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Malcolm on 05 23, 2010 | 1 Comment
What's next at The Group Rep? The West Coast premiere of the reworked version of the cult classic musical, BABY!
Our production is directed and choreographed by Cate Caplin, with musical direction by Jeffrey Rockwell! Opening Night is Friday, June 4th at 8PM. Performance are Friday & Saturday at 8PM, with Sunday matinees at 2PM. It runs: June 4 through July 11, 2010 at Lonny Chapman Theatre 10900 Burbank Blvd. North Hollywood 91601. For reservations: www.thegrouprep.com or 818.700-4878
BABY tells the story of three couples as they deal with the painful, rewarding and agonizingly funny consequences of the experience of expecting a baby: college students in their twenties, barely at the beginning of their adult lives; thirty ‘somethings’, having trouble conceiving but willing to try; and middle-aged parents, looking forward to seeing their last child graduate from college when a night of unexpected passion lands them right back where they started. BABY has a book by Sybille Pearson, music by David Shire, lyrics by Richard Maltby, Jr., based on a story developed with Susan Yankowitz.
The cast features Dana Abrams, Robert Allen, Beckett Arnold, Klair Bybee, Michael Cassano, Lareen Faye, Luise Heath, Tonilyn Hornung, Lloyd Pedersen, Steve Rizzo, Jeremy M. Sage, and Emily Thompson.
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Malcolm on 01 20, 2010 | 10 Comments
By Malcolm Devine, a member of The Group Rep.
Family, heritage, duty, scorn.
The pull between City and Country. Would you rather be a big fish in a small pond or small fish in a big pond? Why assume you’d be a small fish in the big pond?
Fathers, sons, mothers, daughters. Exceeding your parents, worrying about your children exceeding you…
Doors, secrets.
Society, money, position, ambition…
What will you give up to get what you want? You’re never prepared for how deep the feelers will go to suss out what’s wrong with your family, then turn those stories around to make them about you and your character. What will your ambition tell you to do? Should you follow it? Will you lose everything if you don’t?
Politics, murder, scandal, intrigue.
When the scandal couldn’t get any worse, it DOES.
These are just a few of the ideas that THE CITY (written by Clyde Fitch) tosses around and uses as a backdrop for its action. For a play that was originally written in 1909, it is surprisingly fresh. In fact, Clyde Fitch was indeed very modern when he was alive. People took notice of him; his voice, hi
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Malcolm on 12 14, 2009 | 6 Comments
After weeks of rehearsing it all comes down to one night: Opening Night. Often opening day is spent trying to stay calm and conserving energy. I often pretend to take a nap. I know I’ll never actually get to sleep, but I always lie down and close my eyes anyway. Luckily for this production of A Christmas Carol, we had performances leading up to the actual opening, called previews. At first it’s just a few company members sitting in the house, getting us used to having an audience. It really helps – you get used to the flow of the show, and learn how demanding it will actually be. You also learn where people may laugh. There are always surprises in that department, you recognize jokes and expect laughs in those places, but you never know what an audience will find humorous. By the time we got to the night before opening, the house was completely sold out! And there were reporters and other members of the press seeing the show to review it. It’s great to get some of them there before opening night if at all possible, as it helps take some of the pressure off the opening. A part of you wishes they would wait a
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Malcolm on 11 21, 2009 | 7 Comments
Bumping your head. Falling on your face. Tripping over chairs. Running into walls. Making entrances too early. Tripping over people. Making entrances too late. Stumbling around in the dark and somehow ending up outside the theater. This is what it’s learn your way around a set that’s just been built.
All the while, you’re trying to remember your lines and blocking.
Finally being able to use the set is an exciting time in rehearsal. For one, it means that you’ve moved out of the rehearsal hall and into the theater. That in and of itself has it’s own difficulties. The rehearsal hall is a closed space where we can hear each other easily, especially when we’re singing. The theater is designed so that the sound flows out into the audience. Onstage it can often feel like you’re out there all alone. In a great way. Feeling that exposed requires you to listen with your entire being and that makes everything you do onstage much more alive. As does the throbbing pain that results from running into a wall. But hey – anything that makes the show a more visceral experience for the audience is a good thing, right?
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Malcolm on 11 19, 2009 | 5 Comments
One of the best things about being an actor is you’ll get to work with people of all ages. And the ages of the actors in A Christmas Carol span seven decades! From the smallest tweens to veteran actors, our cast has quite the breadth of experience. The greatest aspect of working with actors of a certain age is not only their wisdom (which we all expect), but their personalities! These artists are not the fuddy-duds of our society – they’re actors! They’ve lived their lives as performers and all bring such a spectacular energy to our lives, onstage and off. Every stereotype is blown out of the door, with constant humor, brilliance and WIT! Just the other day, we heard one of the best jokes about The Simpsons from a completely unexpected source, and it brought the entire cast to our knees! Let me tell you, at a time when you’re getting used to the set and trying to remember your lines, some good humor goes a long way.
But the world of A Christmas Carol is not a world populated only by adults. We all know the adage of showbiz is “never work with kids!” And to be completely honest, whenever I’ve worked with children, that thought has crossed my mind. Mul
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Malcolm on 11 17, 2009 | 9 Comments
Hello all! This is the first entry from the A Christmas Carol Rehearsal Blog. The best part about this show is not only is it a brand new musical adaptation of the famous Dickens’ book, but it’s also the Los Angeles Premiere! All of us at The Group Rep are excited to put on the premiere and look forward to sharing this wonderful piece of theatre with the world.
I haven’t mentioned this before, but I joined rehearsals as an immediate replacement. When I accepted the role, I was performing in another show and scheduling made it so that I couldn’t join rehearsals until they had already been in progress for a couple of weeks. I’ve been an immediate replacement a few times before and it is very… real. Immediately. Everyone else had been working with and getting familiar with the material for weeks so there was quite a lot of catching up to do. I was also dealing with the nerves of being the “new guy” who is introduced to everyone all at once. The best thing to do in these situations is just dive in. Be fearless. Besides, I had a lot of work to do.
The first two days I was there were spent entirely on music – and the f
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