Curtain Calls
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 25, 2003 9:00 p.m.
“Anyone Can Whistle” The Matrix Theatre
Through May 11 (818) 788-5659
“Anyone Can Whistle” ran for nine performances before
it closed on Broadway in 1964. In an off-off Broadway revival in
1980 it ran for 19 performances. With past productions garnering
all the success of Freddie Prinze Jr. movies, you might expect this
musical to be the new “Ishtar” of L.A. theater. But you
couldn’t be more wrong. The production is billed as the
“U.S. premiere of the first sanctioned revision of the
original 1964 Broadway musical,” and with the talent of the
cast and adept direction of Michael Michetti, it does what
it’s predecessors did not: leaves a lasting impression on the
stage. With a set and costumes resembling a 1960s Dr. Seuss
wonderland, this cleverly campy musical follows the malevolent
mayoress (Ruth Williamson) who creates a fake miracle to maintain
her power as her town verges on bankruptcy. On a field trip to test
the miracle’s healing powers, patients from the town
“Cookie Jar” (mental asylum) escape and cause unrest in
the town. A fake psychiatrist (John Bisom) is hired to help sort
out the cookies from the “normal” folk, along with the
help of a disguised Cookie Jar nurse (Misty Cotton) who comes to
authenticate the miracle. While the plot is undoubtedly convoluted
and bizarre, the social commentary it initiates (with opportunist
political figures and the “cookies” as allegorical
victims of McCarthyism) is incisive and appropriate for
today’s undercurrent of social unrest. Its sarcastic
empirical logic: “The opposite of left is right; the opposite
of right is wrong; so anything left is wrong” and other
razor-sharp satire is refreshing in this quirky musical medium. In
the romantic leads, Bisom and Cotton give powerful vocal
performances. As the seductive villainess, Williamson keeps the
production wrapped around her finger. The show’s company
numbers were polished and well-timed. And with its energetic humor
and pointed satire, it’s likely to last in your mind longer
than the past productions’ combined runs.
-Amber Noizumi
“Blood Brothers” Knightsbridge Theater
Through April 13 (626) 440-0821
Any musical about twins separated at birth is destined for downfall
in its triteness, and “Blood Brothers” proves no
exception. The story begins with a poor maid giving one of her
twins to her employer. Though the employer deceivingly tells the
maid that if separated twins find out about each other they die,
the mothers can’t keep their sons from becoming friends and
blood brothers. Throughout the play, the music gives a needed rest
from the play’s trite dialogue. The lyrics and vocal
performances, especially in the large ensemble numbers, are
well-performed and fun to watch. However, “Blood
Brothers” is so stuffed with hooks, conclusions and extras
that it struggles under their weight. Author Willy Russell
couldn’t seem to decide on a single reoccurring theme, so he
repeatedly jams things such as Marilyn Monroe, superstition,
reputation, class conflict and a delinquent brother into the mix.
The same actors play their characters as children and adults and
there is something bizarre about watching grown men and women
jumping around in children’s clothing while playing with a
water-filled condom. Ultimately, the play is too ambitious to be
redeemed by the actors’ good performances.
-Kelsey McConnell
