Who would have thought that a ‘white canvas painting’ three feet by four feet without a frame, could wreak such comedy havoc between three old friends? That in a nutshell is the gist of the story of the blisteringly funny comedy ‘ART’, written by Iranian-born, but French-raised, Tony Award winning-playwright Yasmina Reza.

English playwright Christopher Hampton (who works on all of Reza’s plays) provides ‘ART’, with not only a witty, and insightful translation, he delivers a script chock full of biting dialogue for the sensational trio of gifted actors: Chuck Yates (Marc), Larry Raben (Serge), and David Engle (Ivan) spin his words into theatrical gold under the deft direction of Don Amendolia.

‘ART’ is a story that crosses generational lines, international borders and multi-cultures, that resonates with people everywhere because we have all seen our friends and relatives in situations the three characters find themselves in, despite the fact that it’s set in Paris. The play is not just about a painting; it’s about how we react when our friends’ secret agendas bubble up from their subconscious when they’re innocently asked for an opinion. The meat of the play unfolds in the interaction of these three friends and is a favorite device in many of Reza’s plays like ‘God of Carnage’, another of her Tony-winning plays.

In ‘ART’, Serge, a divorced, successful dermatologist and a culture-driven art collector, has purchased a painting for $50,000 dollars and can’t wait to share his purchase with Marc his best friend of fifteen years. Marc has always fancied himself as Serge’s mentor in all things cultural. In the past, Serge usually consulted with Marc before making a purchase; this time, he didn’t. He made a spur-of-the-moment- decision and now is eager to get Marc’s approval.

Marc can best be described as an anal-retentive, irritating nitpicker who has a gift for always being right and enjoys the rough and tumble of these spirited exchanges with Serge and Ivan, or anyone else who will listen to him spout-off. When he and Serge discuss the painting, Marc is appalled, not only at the priced Serge paid for it, but he disses the painting as utter crap, forcing Serge to defend his purchase. The result is both men agree, after verbally fencing and insulting one another, to see what Ivan thinks of it.

Ivan is not the cultural or monetary equal of Serge or Marc. He is a middle-class working type who has just begun a job in a stationery store owned by his future father-in-law. The three despite their backgrounds, however, are compatible best friends.

The beauty of this stellar production lies in the performances of its three extremely talented actors and the deliciously incendiary dialogue of playwright Reza. Just when one thinks that all the one-upmanship lines each actor hurls to the other, that the final salvo has been fired, another round of sparkling, zinger-laden put-downs begins all over again. I’ve seen four professional productions of ‘ART’ over the years and I wouldn’t exchange this trio for any who have performed Reza’s lacerating comedy of male friendship and honesty.

Director Amendolia keeps the pace crackling and wisely allows his three stars to flesh out and mine every comedy nugget to the fullest. It’s a terrifically entertaining comedy production that also affords the audience time to absorb what is taking place on stage, and to reflect upon its deeper and more sobering meanings.

“ART’’s creative team led by director Amendolia delivers solid technical support from set designer Josh Clabaugh, and a tricky lighting design by Moira Wilkie (who just created the lighting design for CV REP’s ‘I Am My Own Wife’ which I saw last week), required to see the costumes designed by Bonnie Nipar. This splendid production should not be missed by Coachella Valley audiences.

The production performs at the Annenberg Theatre, Palm Springs, and runs through April 3, 2016. For reservations and ticket information call the box office at 760-318-0024.

Personal stories are always powerful, inspirational and complex, as are we the humans upon which they’re based. We are not perfect, but we all strive, or should, for reaching our full potential as humans and all that this implies.

Movies and television have the director as auteur along with an army of technicians. The live stage, however, is the medium and province of the actor. Grand and significant ideas come alive when performed by live actors. The connection between actor and audience is instantaneous. It can be both breathtaking and mesmerizing; it is often transformative on the part of the audience. Those are powerful components that make an evening spent in the theatre well worth the effort.

CV REP Artistic Director and founder Ron Celona once again brings a potent and compelling production to Rancho Mirage audiences. This time it’s a production of playwright Doug Wright’s Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning drama “I Am My Own Wife”, performed by gifted New York City-based actor Vince Gatton.

Gatton portrays a mind-blowing 35 characters in a brilliant tour de force performance, speaking and translating as he goes in English, German, and French. It’s an astonishing accomplishment by an actor.

Playwright Doug Wright, when asked why he chose to craft his play about Germany’s famous transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, along with her memories, diaries and comments from others during the German Weimar days, says that it is only fitting for a single actor to play all 35 roles. His ‘raison d’etre’ reply was “Charlotte had to adopt a variety of guises in order to survive after all, so why not let one actor adopt a variety of guises to tell her story?”  And what a story it is.

I had the opportunity last November to meet Doug Wright and briefly discuss his 2008 Pulitzer Prize-winning play at the American Theatre Critic Association meeting in New York City. It was an illuminating experience. He’s tall, incredibly intelligent, extremely articulate, and easily accessible to interviewers. As the current President of the Dramatist’s Guild of America, Wright is a the ‘go-to playwright’ for theatre critics to interview.

Celona’s seamless staging and direction of “I Am My Own Wife” is a mesmerizing theatrical experience which is underscored by the amazing performance of his star Vince Gatton. There are so many finely nuanced character moments in this powerful and haunting re-creation of long ago events now brought so vividly to life by Gatton as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf and others in her complicated and complex life. It’s an exceptional performance that should not be missed by audiences of the Coachella Valley.

In the technical department, Germany of the 1930s and 40s springs to life on a stunningly beautiful set created by Resident Production Design wizard Jimmy Cuomo that is creatively lit by Lighting Designer Moira Wilkie, who bathes the stage in mood-inducing shafts of light. Also spot-on is Gatton’s costume, designed by Aalsa Lee, which gives him a character as well as a functional costume required for various pieces of stage business.

“I Am My Own Wife” performs at CV REP Theatre, in Rancho Mirage, CA and runs through March 27, 2016. Call the Box Office at 760-296-2966 for tickets.

Acclaimed Palm Springs playwright/director Tony Padilla picked up his playwriting pen along with his creative thinking cap and added two new characters to one of his award-winning plays of some fifteen years ago.

The result is a rich exploration of how four individuals – one a husband and wife and two female ‘old maids’ – react to the discovery of finding an abandoned baby in a trash container in New York City’s Central Park.

“Endangered Species” written and directed by Padilla stars Bonnie Gilgallon as Tina, a suburban Chicago housewife married to David a successful businessman played by Alan Berry. The couple married over twenty years are in New York on a holiday where they plan to relax and recharge their romantic batteries.

When Tina discovers the baby in the trash container, she tells David to do something. Instead of doing ‘something’ he backs off saying “we don’t want to get involved with someone else’s problem, especially tonight. Remember, we have dinner reservations and the ritziest restaurant in New York, and tickets to the hottest show on Broadway. Let’s just leave”. Tina is horrified by David’s callousness. David exposes a side of himself that Tina has never seen before. It’s often been said that we really don’t know one another’s true nature until it’s been tested in stressful or emergency conditions.

There are no spoiler alerts coming from me at this point. However, I will say, that the audience must wait until the second couple: Yo Younger as Teresa, and her traveling companion Daria, played by Denise Strand, discover the baby as well.

The talented performances of the four actors is what makes this somewhat off-putting story work. Theatrical drama is meant to challenge the status quo (comedy plays do it as well). The playwright’s message or personal point of view it’s also meant to get the audience to think introspectively. The beauty of theatre is that it allows for ‘what if’ scenarios for audiences, playwrights, and actors alike. This production is a true ensemble effort mirroring the name of the acting company – Desert Ensemble Theatre.

“Endangered Species, directed Tony Padilla performs at the Pearl McManus Theatre, in the Palm Springs Woman’s Club located at 314 S. Cahuilla Road. There are just three more performances: March 18, 19, and 20. For reservations, ticket information and curtain times call the Box Office at 760-565 2476.

Calvin Harris has officially entered a league of his own.

Coachella dropped its 2016 lineup yesterday (Jan. 4), listing LCD Soundsystem, Guns N’ Roses and Calvin Harris as the top-billed acts.

A fresh and a creative wind has blown into the Great White Way in game-changing fashion, potentially altering the way some American musicals will be staged and produced in the future.

“Hamilton”, the captivating musical/opera with a book, music and lyrics by MacArthur Genius Award recipient Lin-Manuel Miranda, is a breathtaking historical ride back to our nation’s Revolutionary War roots. Miranda also stars in the title role of Alexander Hamilton.

This time, the story is fueled by the drive, energy, and beat of Hip-Hop and Rap music, performed by a superb multi-racial cast directed by the uncommonly talented and gifted director Thomas Kail. Miranda and Kail are the same creative team that garnered four 2008 Tony Award trophies for their ground-breaking musical juggernaut “In the Heights” which ran for over 1000 performances at the Richard Rodgers Theatre – the same theatre where “Hamilton” is performing. Can lightning strike twice at the same theatre venue for the same team? You bet it can and it is.

“Hamilton” had been percolating in Miranda’s creative brain for more than six years before finally debuting off-Broadway and selling out performances at The Public Theatre earlier this year. Theatrical ventures – musicals in particular – have a gestation period far longer than elephants (two years for them), which most normal people would consider a long time before giving birth to anything. Not, however, in the world of theatre and Broadway.

It’s the hottest ticket in New York City, boasting $ 27 million advance ticket sales in just the first few weeks since opening. Rumors have it that orchestra tickets are selling on the street in excess of $1300 a piece for a weekend performance. The average theatre-goer can’t even imagine tickets commanding prices like that. It’s a sea-change show that will run for several years on Broadway, to say nothing of a national tour and then onto the major Regional Theatre circuit.

What makes this musical so successful? For starters, I believe it’s a production where the critical mass of creativity meets an abundance of talent. The result of that marriage becomes a confluence; a coming together at just the right time in America where a savvy theatrical team produces a musical that appeals to the new emerging American theatre-going demographic. “Hamilton” is not your father’s remembrance of 20th century American musicals.

The thirty-two cast members that breathe life into this highly entertaining history lesson with a beat on the rise and fall of Alexander Hamilton, move as one, never out of step, never out of the moment. It’s a visual feast both for the eyes and the ears of the audience. It also introduces Hip-Hop with a blending of Rap as the platform of preference in entertaining its audience. We’re not talking ‘gangsta’ rap’ here. We’re witnessing the birth of a new communication/entertainment platform for future musical productions. Hip-hop style, with its rhyming and propulsive lyrics and dance movements, more and more reflects the society in which millions live.

Before the over-fifty set dismiss the phenomenon of “Hamilton” as not an entertaining style for a musical, one should see the new face of the American musical, and then make a decision as to its relevance in our changing society.

The story of Alexander Hamilton, one of the brightest and best of our founding fathers, resonates with young people. One, he was an immigrant and an orphan; two, he was a man of color – it’s rumored that he was an Octaroon; three, he was an ambitious self-made man who attended a prestigious university, becoming a successful lawyer, and an aide to George Washington during the Revolutionary War. He was also a handsome ladies man who married well into New York political and social circles. With a resume like that it’s no wonder that he’s a historical character who appeals to young people, who are apparently making up half of the show’s audiences.

The tale of two powerful and ambitious men of American history is the story that playwright Miranda wants us to explore; two men whose paths are destined to cross with deadly results. Alexander Hamilton is wonderfully played by Lin-Manuel Miranda. As Aaron Burr, Leslie Odom, Jr. delivers a finely judged and nuanced performance as Hamilton’s political rival that sets in motion their tragic political arc ending with the death of Hamilton in a duel by the hand of Burr. Their story is as compelling and dramatic as it gets.

As my colleague Charles Giuliano mentions in his review of “Hamilton”, the two roles written by Miranda are of equal heft and importance, much like Shakespeare’s Othello and Iago pairing, adding that he wouldn’t be surprised to see both actors nominated for Tony Awards come this April 26th when award nominations are announced. I couldn’t agree more.

Gifted as those two lead actors are, however, this splendid production boasts many talented performers in this opera-like musical who sing and dance the story of “Hamilton” as there is no narrative text employed as a way of moving the story forward.

All the major supporting actors are outstanding and they include: Daveed Diggs who plays both the flashy Marquis de Lafayette and our third President Thomas Jefferson; Sydney James Harcourt as George Washington is a commanding presence; Okieriete Onaodowan plays Hercules Mulligan and James Madison; a stunning Renee Elise Goldsberry with a wonderful singing voice plays Angelica Schuyler, Hamilton’s sister-in-law, whom some have said was his first choice for a wife. But Anjelica was already married making the younger Schuyler sister Eliza, played by lovely Phillipa Soo, eligible to become Eliza Hamilton. Jasmine Cephas Jones portrays both Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds; and Andrew Rannells (“The Book of Mormon”) renders a fresh, comical, turn as King George III.

This splendid production is blessed with a committed and dedicated ensemble cast that crisply executes the remarkable choreography created by the fabulous Andy Blankenbuehler, and the equally gifted Music Director/Orchestrations/Co-Arranger Alex Lacamoire, and Lighting designer Howell Binkley, all of whom are returning creative team artists from “In the Heights”. Why break up a winning team when everyone is on a roll? Why, indeed.

David Korins’ spacious two-level scenic design gives the entire company plenty of space to perform their magic in the colorful and elegant Revolutionary period costumes designed by Paul Tazewell.

If you find yourself in New York City next year with some discretionary income in your pocket, I strongly suggest you catch a performance of “Hamilton” at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway. The good news is, you won’t be disappointed. The bad news is, the box office is only taking reservations for performances after October 2016. That’s what happens when a phenomenon arrives on Broadway.