PACIFIC OVERTURES – East West Players – Los Angeles, CA – Now – December 8th

This remarkable production of Stephen Sondheim’s challenging musical is not-to-be-missed. IF you can get a ticket. I have heard that the run is entirely sold out. THIS JUST IN: East West Players has added one more week! Get your tickets immediately and/or check the website to get tickets that may suddenly become available.

Set in 1853, Pacific Overtures looks at the arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and how his being there leads to the opening of very isolationist Japan.

Jon Jon Briones, Gedde Watanabe (who was in the original production in 1976), Scott Keiji Takeda, Brian Kim McCormick, Adam Kaokept lead an outstanding cast. Tim Dang directs,

Having seen the Roundabout revival in 2004, I can tell you this intimate production is vastly superior.

For tickets (fingers crossed) and more information, please go here. 

CELEBRATING 30 YEARS WITH MATIN CHALIFOUR – Los Angeles Philharmonic – Los Angeles, CA – November 19^th

Violinist and Principal Concertmaster of the orchestra will be featured and celebrated in a chamber music concert at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

On the program are works by Astor Piazzolla, Amanda Harberg and Beethoven. There is also the world premiere of Duo by Celka Ojakangas.

Joining Chalifour for this concert are Kaelan Decman (bass) Mak Grgić (guitar); Taylor Eiffert (clarinet); Dahae Kim (cello); Evan Kuhlmann (bassoon); Joanne Pearce Martin (piano); Amy Jo Rhine (horn); Jenni Seo (viola) and Ben Ullery (viola.)

Chalifour is retiring at the end of the 2024/2025 season. This should be a great send-off for a very talented musician.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

LIFE & TIMES OF MICHAEL K – The Wallis – Bevelry Hills, CA – November 21^st – November 24^th

If you fell in love with the puppet horses in War Horse or were enraptured with Little Amal, you’ll want to check out Life & Times of Michael K. It is based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by JM Coetzee and features the incredible work from the artists at Handspring Puppet Company and Cape Town’s Baxter Theater.

Lara Foot adapted the novel and directed the show which is centered on one man’s efforts to bring his mother back to her hometown in South African before she dies. Critics have stumbled over themselves trying to find new superlatives to describe the magic of this production.

I haven’t seen it yet, but have seen numerous excerpts from it and it is truly incredible. Please go HERE to read my interview with Foot.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

SCAT!…THE COMPLEX LIVES OF AL & DOT, DOT & ALZOLLAR – Mark Taper Forum – Los Angeles, CA – November 22^nd – November 24^th

Dance company Urban Bush Women celebrates its 40^th anniversary with this show inspired by director/creator/co-choreographer Jawole Willa Jo Zollar’s experiences growing up in Kansas City’s Black neighborhoods. Vincent Thomas is co-choreographer.

Urban Bush Women’s main focus is on the stories of Black women. The work goes backwards and forwards in time. The story has its roots in the Great Migration and is not fully autobiographical. Scat! had its world premiere in June at Bard SummerScape.

This 90-minute work is having its West Coast premiere and features live music composed by Craig Harris. The website describes it as a “dance-driven jazz club experience,” so music will be key here. Zollar told the New York Times this would be her final work for Urban Bush Women.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

Scat! will be performed at the Perelman Performing Arts Center in New York February 5th – February 8th.

Urban Bush Women will also be at the 92^nd Street Y in New York City for two performances showcasing the company’s 40-year history. For tickets and more information for those two events on December 6^th and 7^th, please go here.

BROADWAY OPENINGS: SWEPT AWAY – Longacre Theatre – New York, NY- November 19^th AND DEATH BECOMES HER  – Lunt-Fontanne Theatre – November 21^st

Two new musicals open this week starting with Swept Away, a musical written by The Avett Brothers and starring John Gallagher, Jr. (Spring Awakening), Stark Sands (Kinky Boots) and more. The show is directed by Michael Mayer and has a book by John Logan (Red).

This is a rarity for Broadway: a musical that is not based on a pre-existing work, but is wholly original.

The show is currently booked to run through May 25, 2025.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

The 1992 movie Death Becomes Her is the inspiration for this musical with Megan Hilty (9 To 5), Jennifer Simard (Company) and Christopher Sieber (Company) in the roles played on screen by Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis.

Julia Mattison and Noel Carey wrote the  music and lyrics. The book is by Marco Pennette and the show is directed and choreographed by Christopher Gatteli. 

The show is also currently booked to run through May 25, 2025.

For tickets and more information, please go here.

That’s my list of the Best Bets: November 18th – November 24th. Have a great week!

Main Photo: Megan Hilty and Jennifer Simard in Death Becomes Her (Photo by Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)

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Briones is starring in the East West Players new production of Pacific Overtures. The show also features Gedde Watanabe, Scott Keiji Takeda, Brian Kim McCormick, Adam Kaokept and Kerry K. Carnahan. Tim Dang directs.

Stephen Sondheim said his musical was, “The most bizarre and unusual musical ever to be seen in a commercial setting.” His certainly untraditional show, which opened on Broadway in early 1976, tells the story of Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s arrival in Japan in the mid-19th century and how his efforts to open up the isolationist country are experienced – through the eyes of the Japanese.

Charles McNulty, writing in the Los Angeles Times, raved about East West Players’ revival saying, “The new revival of Pacific Overtures may be the most impressive production I’ve seen anywhere all year.”

The path to get there was one filled with questions for Briones that didn’t always possess easy answers. This was amongst the many things I learned in my interview with Briones. What follows are excerpts from our conversation that have been edited for length and clarity. To see the full interview, please go to our YouTube channel.

Q: We know that many of Sondheim’s musicals were not always well-received when they were originally produced, but that time and audiences have caught up to those shows. Do you think time has caught up with Pacific Overtures? Are audiences maybe more open now to what this show is than they have been at any other point?

I think so. When they mounted this show in 2004 it didn’t last very long on Broadway. I think it’s still hard for the general audience members to to appreciate something that they think they won’t get or won’t relate to because…This might be controversial, but it’s all Asian. The King and I has that really main character that is Caucasian. Pacific Overtures, Sondheim and Weidman, they wrote something that they wanted. I think they thought they were trying to be true to the culture. The music is beautiful, but it’s really something different. Even to me, I go, what is the meaning of this? I understand it better now, but I have questions.

I read in an interview you and Gedde did with Pasadena Weekly that your first reaction was one that a lot of people have; that you didn’t fully understand it and that there were a lot of questions. Having worked on it now for as long as you have prior to opening, have you been able to sort out a lot of those questions? Do you understand more about what this show is doing, what it’s saying and how your character, The Reciter, plays a role in that?

I’ve reached that. In my career if I don’t really understand something, I try to understand it the way I would and believe it and stick to that so that I can I can grab on to my reality. I think that’s what I did right now. My understanding of it is maybe different from the original idea of Sondheim and Weidman. But I’m sticking to that because I think my understanding of it is something beautiful, kind of universal.

I would assume that, like many actors, you’re intrigued by the things that scare you. How much did being part of Pacific Overtures scare you?

Petrified! Especially the way Tim wants to do this. He wanted to be true to the original vision of Sondheim and Hal Prince, which is Kabuki. And I’m not Japanese. And Kabuki, they’ve been studying this since they were children. So it’s something set and there’s truth in how they do it. I told Tim this. I don’t want to do something generic because I might offend people. But he said, you know, just find yourself. Find whatever is true with a hint of that. I think we found a happy medium there. 

You were born in the Philippines. There is a lot of dialog going on about whether people have to have lived-in experiences to play a character. I understand that intellectually, but practically, aren’t we negating what actors do? 

That was one of the things that I been struggling with, especially when opportunities opened up for Asian actors. We kind of limited ourselves after that because they’ve been saying Japanese stories should be told by Japanese people and Chinese stories and Korean stories should be… And I get that because the opportunities are so few and that they wanted it to be done properly. I get that. But if it is in English, I think that should not be the case. We’re not speaking Japanese. We’re not speaking Cantonese or Korean. It’s in English. And we can bring in our own experiences because all experiences are relatable. They happen to everyone in China and in Japan and in Timbuktu. They’re all the same. It’s human experience and we all have that and it should be valued.

What discoveries did you make about this story and your journey to get to opening night and about the character of The Reciter? 

That’s a good question. I’ve discovered about how to tell a story of an experience that happened a long time ago. And making it entertaining. But at the same time valuing the journeys of each character. And telling stories of so many characters. I asked Tim, why am I telling this story? What is the purpose of this? And then he said, Yeah, that’s a good question. Who do you think is telling this story? Are you Japan? Are you the emperor? Because the emperor back then was a one-year-old baby. He goes on to add that this story is about change and how the changes got to certain people. It got violent. It was funny. It was scary. And all of those things are helpful information to get to the finale of the storytelling.

That makes me think of Someone in a Tree, which is different perspectives on the same story being told simultaneously. Sondheim said that was his favorite song he ever composed. What about that song resonates most with you?

I saw an interview or something that Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote that one of the inspirations for In the Room Where it Happens [from Hamilton] was Someone in a Tree. There is always a a bystander looking and observing and they have an opinion of what happening. Which is so interesting because that’s why there are so many versions in history. Who is a witness to your history? Even if they don’t have a firsthand account, it’s going to be out there. It’s going to be told. That’s why I love the power of storytelling.

If we if we look back on the history of East West Players, Stephen Sondheim and Pacific Overtures are inextricably linked throughout its history because East West Players was founded by Mako, who originated the role you’re playing in the original production of Pacific Overtures. I know that Sondheim invested in East West Players and multiple productions of Sondheim’s have been done there. What do you think it means to the company, and what does it mean to you, to be bringing a new production of this musical that is so intricately tied to the history of East West Players? 

That even though Sondheim is not here, he still has a very loud voice. That he is still making things happen from where he is. He wants this because I read that he was not really satisfied with everything. It’s an unfinished symphony. I think maybe he wants us to discover it and make it better. This is what I found out about him. He is not precious with this work. Gedde [who appeared in the original production of Pacific Overtures] had stories he was telling us. He is open to two things. If you want to cut that scene short, cut that scene if you want to. You want more of that? Sure, I’ll write some more of that. He will never be satisfied with his work because nothing is perfect. Art is never perfect and he embodied that.

In the last song in Pacific Overtures, “Next,” the outsider says “There was a time when foreigners were not welcome here, but that was long ago.” In light of the elections this week in America, where anti-immigrant sentiment was a huge part in motivating people to vote for one candidate over another, what power does Next have in the show that may be different than it would have had if the election gone differently?

To me, it’s very hopeful. It came from the people who historically went, No, don’t! We’re fine here. Don’t. Don’t bring that. But because of the forceful and kind of violent interaction from the West, you can’t really stop progress. You can’t stop betterment. You can harness it, you can manipulate it. You can, you know, make it better. But it’s going to come. That is why I think even though a lot of people are heartbroken, it will get better. In Pacific Overtures, they made it Japan. It was given to them. Violently. But they brushed themselves up and started all over again. And they made it better. We can make this better. We can learn something from this. We can overcome this because we are resourceful and we know ourselves. We know what we can do. If only we think a a community, as a country, together as one, we can accomplish anything and we can be better than before.

Pacific Overtures runs at East West Players through December 1st. For tickets and more information, please go here.

To watch the full conversation with Jon Jon Briones, please go here.

Main Photo: Jon Jon Briones on Pacific Overtures (Photo by Teolindo/Courtesy East West Players)

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Miss Saigon sets the story of a young girl who falls in love with a soldier in Vietnam. Kim (Emily Bautista at most performances; Myra Molloy at others) works for an insidious man at a club named The Engineer (Red Concepcíon). He puts on a “contest” called Miss Saigon with the winner to be the prize for a Marine. One of those Marines, Chris (Anthony Festa) becomes smitten with Kim and after a night of sex (her first time), he offers to bring her to America. When he leaves Vietnam, due to the imminent fall of Saigon, he goes without taking her. She holds out hope that he will one day return for her and honor his promise.

Three years go by and lot has changed for both Chris and Kim. When they are reunited those changes lead to a tragic ending that won’t be revealed here. (Not everyone knows Madama Butterfly – no reason to give it all away.)

The original production opened in London in 1989. It was soon followed by a Broadway production in 1991. In both productions, Lea Salonga played Kim and Jonathan Pryce played The Engineer. They both were awarded the Olivier Award and the Tony Award for their performances. In the 2017 revival, Eva Nobelzada (who is currently in Hadestown) played Kim and Jon Jon Briones played The Engineer.

Musical staging and choreography for this production is by Bob Avian, who collaborated with Michael Bennett on A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls and more. He was the original choreographer of Miss Saigon.

Laurence Connor is the director of this production, as he was of the revival. He was also the director for new productions of Les Misérables and The Phantom of the Opera.

It should be noted that Michael Mahler is also credited with additional lyrics.

For tickets at the Pantages go here.

Tickets at Segerstrom Hall had not gone at sale at press time.

Main Photo: Anthony Festa & Emily Bautista in “Miss Saigon” (Photo by Matthew Murphy)

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