2007-02 Vital Source Mag – February 2007
Allen Toussaint @ The Pabst Theater
By Blaine Schultz After an quick instrumental tune to warm up, Allen Toussaint ran through a medley of some of the hits he wrote and produced for other artists – just in case you didn’t know who he is. In 2006 Toussaint collaborated with Elvis Costello on a post-Katrina album and tour that refreshed the public’s memory that since the 1950s Toussaint has written and produced a swath of music that remains quintessentially New Orleans. “A Certain Girl,” “Mother In Law,” “Fortune Teller,” “Working in a Coalmine,” “Lipstick Traces,” “Brickyard Blues,” “What Do You Want the Girl to Do?,” “Yes We Can” and “Southern Nights.” While fire engines swarmed City Hall Saturday night at the Pabst Theater, Tousaint and his four-piece group moved seamlessly from regional hits to blink-and you-missed-it classical interludes to anecdotes introducing many of the tunes. In his double-breasted suit and Birkenstock shoes, Toussaint comes off as the personification of erudite and just plain cool. As a vocalist he’s laidback and funky. It’s easy to see him as living through vocalists like Lee Dorsey and Ernie K-Doe while settled into the studio life of a writer/producer/arranger. But this night’s rare performance proved he’s equally adept on stage. The audience could have used a dance floor. As a musician, Toussant’s piano playing is heir to the great Professor Longhair, and it is that rolling lefthand rhumba that anchors many of the tunes. But he also exhibits his genius in re-imagining Longhair’s rollicking “Tipitina” in a minor key as “Ascension Day” on the Costello collaboration, The River in Reverse. At the Pabst Toussaint alternated between the two. While he’s been covered by everyone from The Yardbirds to Devo to Warren Zevon (not to mention arranging horns for the Band), arguably Glen Campbell’s cover of “Southern Nights” is where most listener’s have come into contact with Toussaint’s music. He ended his set with long spoken introduction to the song, reminiscing of family trips out to the Louisiana countryside as a child to visit relatives, all the while playing variations on the tune’s melody. The band members listened with their heads bowed as if transported as well. It was one of the few moments all night the audience was still. Opener Pieta Brown played a short set of her folk and blues tunes accompanied by guitar guru Bo Ramsey. As the daughter of esteemed songwriter Greg Brown, Pieta is challenged to move away from the old man’s shadow – but she is well on her way. Her singing coupled with Ramsey’s filigrees created some hypnotic moments that took the listener into movies her lyrics created. Songs about escaping small-town life and characters with a “train in his head just looking for a track” suggest her career is moving in the right direction. VS
Feb 19th, 2007 by Vital Archives
Almost, Maine
By Russ Bickerstaff As temperatures climb after some of the coldest days of the year, the Boulevard Theatre opens a wintery romantic comedy set in frigid rural Maine. Almost, Maine is a series of short dialogues between eight pairs of people who all have different relationships with love. It’s a pleasant evening in the intimate space of the Boulevard that is well worth going out into the cold to enjoy. The stage is a deep blue decorated in white. A few evergreens inhabit the tiny space accompanying a huge snowman holding cards that state the title of each short. It’s an interesting effect coming in from the authentic cold of Bay View in February to arrive in the warmth of an artificial winter onstage in the fictional space known as Almost, Maine. It’s explained relatively early on that the name is used to identify a section of the state that never quite gained its own name. In the cold of rural America in the dark of winter, people struggle to make and keep romantic connections through the course of eight different stories. The opening bit also closes the show. Liz Mistele and Siddhartha Valicharlavenkata play stereotypical young lovers working out a geographical paradox of intimacy. It’s a somewhat clever bit that establishes Mistele as the woman who sets the stage in a variety of different costumes. It also establishes Valicharlavenkata as a pretty solid actor. He last showed up as a waiter in Boulevard’s production of Beyond Therapy this past August, but here he is given the center of the stage and takes to it pretty well. While it’s pretty safe to say that playwright John Cariani probably wasn’t imagining a deep Indian accent mixing in and amongst the locals in rural Maine, Valicharlavenkata has such an engaging presence that it seems natural. The introductory bit is followed by a short entitled, Her Heart. It’s a piece about a lost woman (Jan Nelson) and the stranger (Michael Weber) whose lawn on which she has pitched a tent. Weber puts in a solid performance here and later on in Where It Went – the programs most intense bit of drama. Cynthia L. Paplaczyk was originally cast as the woman in this piece, but had to drop out of the performance on Friday night of opening weekend. Jan Nelson was acting with a script, but she managed a compellingly heartfelt performance nonetheless. Nelson’s performance in The Story of Hope a little later on in the program is a bit more intense as she plays a woman attempting to confront a romance she turned away from years ago. Beth Monhollen also makes quite an impression in a couple of bits about friendship becoming something more intense, first with Valicharlavenkata in Seeing the Thing and then with Kirsten Mulvey in They Fell. Monhollen brings the same sweetness to the stage that she did in Boulevard’s production of Marion Bridge last month. Love that had been cast away is looked at from a completely different […]
Feb 19th, 2007 by Vital Archives
From the flood waters
By Jon M. Gilbertson Allen Toussaint is one of those legends whom not a lot of people know – by name, that is. They might, however, be familiar with songs he wrote: “Working In a Coalmine,” “Lipstick Traces (On a Cigarette).” They have probably heard songs he produced: the original version of “Lady Marmalade,” Lee Dorsey’s “Ya Ya.” They even might have noted his piano playing: as a session man for Joe Cocker and Albert King, among others. He doesn’t seem to mind being a relatively anonymous individual. “It merely is my life’s vocation to be a producer,” he says in the mildest of tones. “I’ve been happy to do what I’ve been doing, by being so satisfied and so much in the comfort zone that I never thought much more about that. I don’t really regret or feel anything that should’ve happened didn’t happen thus far.” Nevertheless, Toussaint has recently experienced greater visibility, in substantial part because in the summer of 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded his home in New Orleans (the city of his birth in 1938) and washed him out of a lifetime of memories. He moved to New York City and began playing there – in fact, he still does a club residency there. In New York he encountered an acquaintance, Elvis Costello. Toussaint had worked with him just a little bit before, and on Costello’s 1989 album Spike had played lovely, dexterous piano during the ballad “Deep Dark Truthful Mirror.” Costello had an idea. “He told me he always wanted to do an Allen Toussaint songbook,” Toussaint says. “And with the timing as it was, we decided to see about bringing that to fruition. It was his brainchild.” Ah, but children do often surprise us in delightful ways, and so it was with The River in Reverse, the album that Costello and Toussaint released last spring. As fans of either would expect, each brought incredible musicians to the collaboration: Costello the Imposters, Toussaint the Crescent City Horns and guitarist Anthony Brown. And Costello delved well into the Toussaint songbook, narrowing his broad enthusiasm down to seven classics. Then Costello and Toussaint wrote five songs together, and as a further surprise, the new and the old material coalesced beautifully, as did the musicians. Costello, famously a first-rate singer with a third-rate voice, didn’t so much rise to the occasion as bound up to and vault over it. For Toussaint, The River in Reverse modified an old adage: when one door is submerged, another crests the surface. “I must say with the displacement of Katrina, working with Elvis has sort of launched a different career for me that’s still going on,” Toussaint says. “Touring is very much a part of my life now, and it’s quite a lesson to be there right with the people, because you can feel the pulse of them all, as opposed to being in the studio waiting for the red light to come on.” He says this pleasurably, as though the pulse is […]
Feb 15th, 2007 by Vital Archives
Honor Song
By Milwaukee’s theatre season has been host to a higher than normal concentration of single-person shows, and some rather lofty figures have been conjured to the stage this season including Charles Dickens (James Ridge in Milwaukee Chamber Theatre’s Dickens In America) and Harry S. Truman (Don Devona in Boulevard Theatre’s Give ‘em Hell Harry). Single-person autobiographical monologues can be really tricky to pull off, requiring the right actor matched up with the right historical figure animated by the right script in the right space. It’s a tall order. If it works, there’s an alchemy between actors, stage an audience that is among the most primal theatre experiences imaginable. If it doesn’t, it’s an audience trapped in a room with a single actor for a period of time no watch could accurately quantify. Thankfully, In Tandem Theatre has found a satisfying combination of the right elements with its production of Honor Song: The Dr. Rosa Minoka-Hill Story. In the cozy basement of the historic Brumder Mansion, Laurie Birmingham stars as Wisconsin’s first female Native American doctor. Only the second Native American ever to receive a medical degree, Dr. Rosa Minoka-Hill spent much of her time with the Oneida in northern Wisconsin in the first half of the 20th century. Birmingham cleverly delivers the thoughts and feelings of Minoka-Hill as carefully written by local playwright Carol O. Smart, Minoka-Hills granddaughter, who used to spend summers with her. The life of one of the country’s first female doctors has got to hold many more fascinating stories than could fill a single monologue. Smart’s composition here is well thought-out and well paced. The script has been evolving since it was first produced in 1993 in collaboration with Carroll College, and when Minoka-Hill speaks through Birmingham, one gets a sense of that journey peering out between Smart’s words. There are only a few dry stretches in the story, which covers the events of Minoka-Hill’s life played out steadily with no intermission. The historic Brumder mansion’s basement is an excellent space for this production. One has a sense of walking into history when entering a place contemporary to the real Minoka-Hill. The modest set amidst much grander trappings from the same era is a bit disorienting at first, but once Birmingham takes the stage the illusion begins to settle in. The audience loses itself in the story of the many difficulties of being a doctor for the poor and the impoverished in the rural Midwest from the perspective of a very, very compassionate woman. It’s a thoroughly engrossing, compellingly concise single-person drama. Actor and character mesh, with Birmingham dedicating more than enough of herself to the role to capture the audience’s attention for the entire length of the monologue. VS In Tandem Theatre’s production of Honor Song: The Dr. Rosa Minoka-Hill Story runs now through February 11 at the Brumder Mansion. Tickets can be purchased by calling In Tandem at 414-444-2316. Form more information, visit In Tandem Theatre online at www.intandemtheatre.com.
Feb 5th, 2007 by Vital Archives
Tartuffe
By Russ Bickerstaff Based on the original play by Molière, Kirke Mechem’s Tartuffe is one of the most successful contemporary American operas ever written. A competent realization of Molière’s classic tale, the Skylight Opera Theatre’s production closes this coming weekend. Set in ancient France, the story tells the tale of a wealthy man named Orgon (David Barron) who has befriended a man named Tartuffe (John Muriello) whom he believes to be a thoroughly pious man of God. His family tries its best to convince Orgon of his foolishness as he heaps wealth praise on Tartuffe and generally makes a colossal fool out of himself. It’s a long and twisting plot that lends itself well to modern opera. The excessive dramatics and overarching themes of deceit, love and such all work exceedingly well in opera. While some of the finer, more subtle moments in Molière’s brilliant comedy are lost in the adaptation, the story gains a certain emotional depth in song that isn’t explicit in dialogue alone. The Skylight cast deliver on some of the stronger moments Mechem has adapted for the opera. David Barron makes for a likeable Orgon. Alice Berneche is quite brilliant as his daughter Mariane. The scene between the two of them when he asks her to marry Tartuffe is one of the most memorable in the entire production. A lot of its strength rests quite squarely in the anxiety pouring out of Berneche as she directly faces the audience in not so subtle reaction to what her father is asking of her. Berneche’s voice is beautiful, but it’s the rest of her performance that beautifully rounds out a role that isn’t nearly as impressive in previous non-musical productions. Danielle Hermon Wood also puts in a memorable performance as Dorine, Orgon’s maid and Mariane’s friend who schemes to stop the wedding arrangements with Tartuffe and decisively rid the household of him. Dorine is often quite clearly the sharpest character onstage. Wood makes this intelligence seem organic and effortless. The title role of Tartuffe can be played in a million different ways. John Muriello plays it with intriguing texture. His long, disheveled hair and ragged clothing don’t just look shabby . . . the way Muriello carries himself, they actually look unhealthy. He’s playing a comic villain in a way that’s almost sympathetic. It makes for a surprising depth at the center of the production when Muriello finally appears on stage in the flesh well into the story. Lee Ernst takes the stage with the role in a couple of weeks with the Milwaukee Rep. It’ll be interesting to see what he’s going to do with the character. Production elements of Tartuffe are everything one would expect out of a big budget Skylight production. Costuming is lush without being overpowering. Lighting by Cynthia Stilllings provides the comfortable illusion of physical depth that is not actually present on stage. Van Santvoord’s set design adds considerably to the illusion of depth as well as scenic elements rotate to change settings. […]
Feb 4th, 2007 by Vital Archives
They Came From Way Out There
By Russ Bickerstaff With all the many different themes and subjects floating around local stages these past few years, it’s surprising that the paranormal hasn’t received much attention. The Milwaukee Rep rectifies this with a production of Jahnna Beecham and Malcom Hillgartner’s cabaret musical They Came From Way Out There. Authors of last year’s acclaimed cabaret show Chaps!, Beecham and Hillgartner have put together another enjoyable evening of song and dance for the Rep’s Stackner Cabaret. The show is set at a meeting of a fictitious paranormal society. The performers each play a candidate for the Society’s next president. Every major different aspect of the paranormal is represented in the cast. Michael Herold plays the Society’s founder – a man who had a close encounter in the Nevada desert half a decade ago. Jill Marie Anderson plays his wife, who he met during an out of body experience. (Their meeting is illustrated in a clever country-western-inspired musical number entitled “You Stepped Out Of Your Body and Into My Life.” ) Anderson’s character is a prim, Christian New-Age type cleverly offset by the pseudo-neo-pagan New Ager played by Katherine Strohmaier. In a clever turn for the character’s archetype, she sings a sweet love song to a Bigfoot that manages a brilliant end rhyme with the word “Yetti.” Lenny Banovez plays the stereotypical young, paranoid conspiracy nut. Banovez cuts a pleasantly erratic figure onstage, performing the same song in both rock and hip-hop styles before performing a tender duet with Strohmaier near the end of the show. Chip DuFord rounds out the cast as a scientist who had worked for NASA, privy to strange government secrets about the paranormal. In one of the production’s best moments, DuFord discovers evidence of mysterious home furnishings appearing in the skies all over the country. He is confronted by a hyper-intelligent recliner who offers to answer any question he asks. Michael Herold plays the recliner in what has to be the single most brilliant costume to appear on a local stage in a very long time. It’s amazing. The show’s pacing is wild and irreverent, including some surprisingly offbeat experimental stuff for The Rep. There’s an entire skit involving a rampaging bunny shadow puppet that may not be particularly funny (or really have much entertainment value, to be perfectly honest) but it shows a staggeringly edgy spirit for a mainstream show. Much of the rest of the fringe elements inherent in They Came From Way Out There are relegated to minor asides and obscure references that don’t detract from the overall experience. For all of its strange asides, this really is a mainstream show that will appeal to a relatively wide audience. Its weaker moments keep it from being completely enjoyable, firmly grounding it in the commercial end of the spectrum. The many different skits and songs provide an opportunity for the actors to perform a wide range of different characters. DuFord’s straight-laced scientist is accompanied by multiple performances as burnt-out drunks. Strohmaier is sweet as […]
Feb 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
Paradise
By Russ Bickerstaff As complicated and as brutal as things have been in the West Bank over the years, it seems incredibly mundane to mention that people actually live there. This fact is important though, because without it, none of the bloodshed or brutality that’s gone on over the course of the past several decades makes the slightest bit of sense. Shedding light on the human element of the West Bank conflict, playwright Glyn O’Malley’s controversial Paradise is a very human drama about two girls living on the opposite sides of a river while dealing with the problems that go along with the distance that separates them. Next Act continues its season with a thoughtful production of O’Malley’s very human political drama. Leah Dutchin plays a 17-year-old Palestinian girl named Fatima living in a refugee camp with her family. She’s irrepressibly human in a place that threatens to tarnish that humanity with duty that is bound to history. Dutchin talks with friend and relative Omar (Joseph Fernandez), a boy who dreams of getting out of the West Bank and into a decent college on a soccer scholarship. Her human side comes out in the dialogues with Omar. There is something other than basic humanity in her interactions with a darker figure known as Bassam (Luke Leonhardt). Leaonhardt cuts a particularly memorable performance out of relatively little stage time. When a cell phone goes off in the audience at the opening of the play, it’s his. Placing a character like Bassam in the audience at the beginning of the play is an intriguing way of bringing the reality of the drama into the audience before the story starts. It’s a bit unnerving considering the last conversation he has with Fatima. Bassam instructs Fatima in something chillingly foreign to the minds of most Americans. It’s a simple moment, unclouded as it is by the complexity of human pretense, but Dutchin and Loenhardt fashion fascinating tension out of the simplicity. On the other side of the river, Sarah (Emily Trask) lives with her mother (Mary MacDonald Kerr) in a Jewish Israeli settlement. It’s an entirely different kind of life for Sarah than it is for Fatima, but they both share themes of trying to grow up human in a world shaped by a history that goes back to a time long before either were born. Sarah’s mother has a sense of belonging in the West Bank that Sarah lacks. It’s an interesting interaction between Trask and Kerr. Aside from staged internal monologues, we only ever see Sarah interacting with her mother, which makes for a particularly focused dramatic energy. Trask has a sophisticated stage presence that seems at odds with the youthful inexperience of the character she’s playing here, but measured against someone who has been performing for as long as Kerr, the illusion is complete. For her part, Kerr shows the kind of textured performance that has made her such a pleasant and entertaining addition to Milwaukee stages for the past 11 […]
Feb 1st, 2007 by Vital Archives
Everything for everybody
By Vital Staff Let’s face it; this is the time of year when most peoples’ energy ebbs low while commitments proceed at their regularly-scheduled breakneck speed. There was that mental break from the day-to-day world over the holidays (often taking the form of surreal flashes of family, food and lots of driving), immediately followed by a fiery re-entry to work and school life. Yuck. Just thinking about it makes you want to crawl under the covers and not come out until spring. Sadly, that’s not an option for most of us, and if we’re truthful few of us could stay buried for very long before we got real twitchy from lack of stimulus. So what’s a hard-working person to do? We at VITAL decided to hit the road for a weekend, with the following guidelines: must be within reasonable driving distance, yet far enough away so that you won’t run back home for a forgotten item; must be comfortable and, above all, must be a place where you can hear yourself think. Even breathe. Six of us went out and six came back with stories to tell about… mostly nothing, unless relaxation still counts for something in this crazy world. We recommend you try it soon. The Whistling Swan 4192 Main Stret, Door County 920-868-3442 www.whistlingswan.com September 2001 was the last time I took a vacation from work. I had almost forgotten how it feels not to work for a couple of days; to take a break from the daily drudgery. Having too long ignored a need for at least a break from it all, I ventured off to Fish Creek in Door County for a weekend. After a peaceful two and a half hour drive I arrived at The Whistling Swan Inn, Door Peninsula’s oldest operating inn, on a balmy Saturday afternoon. Interesting historic footnote: this beautiful late 19th century Victorian inn was moved across frozen Green Bay in 1907 to its current location. Fish Creek is small, its main stretch spanning roughly seven by three city blocks and housing small shops, galleries, bar and grills, inns and the very well-known Potters Wheel pottery workshop. If you are a people person and love summer activities, Door County, with its small resort towns and abundance of hiking, boating, shopping and dining, is the place to come in warm weather months. Rates won’t be as pocket-friendly but are worth every penny. October’s also a very busy month, with many fall festivals to suit every fancy. This winter, due to virtually no snow and the subsequent absence of winter activities, the area has experienced a decline in tourism. This, however, benefits those who prefer solitude and more reasonable lodging rates. I took off on foot to explore this little town’s offerings. I landed at a local pub to enjoy a nice glass of good scotch and engage in the great activity of people watching. I found a mix of locals and outside visitors, with conversations varying from local gossip to tourists planning […]
Feb 1st, 2007 by Lucky Tomaszek
Hat Trick – Third time’s a charm for Al and Susie Brkich
By Catherine McGarry Miller + Photos by Kevin C. Groen Cranky Al’s Bakery, Coffee & Pizza 6901 W. North Avenue 414-258-5282 Hey, Mikey, I got your pizza ready,” Cranky Al Brkich hails a customer. “I only dropped it twice!” Mikey shrugs his shoulders and smirks, “That’s better ‘n last time.” There’s a round of giggles from patrons steaming up the windows at Cranky Al’s this winter night with animated conversations over pizzas and garlic bread. I’m not one to go around outing people, but the truth is Cranky Al is a phony. He’s about as cranky as Rachel Ray accepting applause for yet another miracle recipe. A small warning sign on the door hints at Al’s true nature. It reads, “All unattended children will be given two shots of espresso and a free puppy.” Al is loath to admit it, but “cranky” actually references the hand-cranked donuts he turns out every morning for lines of neighborhood enthusiasts. For owners Susie and Al Brkich, this bakery and pizzeria is a hat trick. They’ve had two other successful eateries. The first was Crabby Al’s, a seafood shack that lit up the dark skies of the Menomonee Valley and then tumbled into a dissolved partnership. Second was Mrs. Java and Company, just four doors down from the new Cranky Al’s, which died last year when the building was sold to another restaurateur who wanted the space for a bistro. The news was sudden and devastating to the couple, who had hoped to buy the building themselves. “We didn’t know if our customers would come back,” Susie says with her chin crumbling and eyes moist with deep appreciation for the support of the community. It took the Brkichs the better part of a year – and every penny of their resources – to relocate, gut the property and install a kitchen in two storefronts that had formerly housed a used auto parts and a vacuum cleaner store. It was a stressful time for the Brkichs, not knowing if their new enterprise would fly. But just a few months into it, this place has all the signs of being yet another success for the hard-working restaurateurs. High windows fill the spacious room with light, the dark woodwork, molded ceilings and pews from Pius X Church – which serve as bench seating – all lend an air of comfortable charm, as do the smells of fresh-brewed coffee and handmade donuts and pastries. This, as everything in their lives, is a joint venture. After two decades of marriage, Al and Susie are still thick as thieves. Al insisted that Susie be there for our interview and every time Al got up during our chat to attend to the business, Susie gushed about him. For their opening in December, she bought him his first chef’s coat. “Same old Cranky with a new coat on,” he boasts. “That’s right, kid, I’m fancy now.” Al, who grew up near State Fair Park and attended Solomon Juneau High School, met Chicago […]
Feb 1st, 2007 by Cate Miller
The Early Years
Already in play to sell Nike shoes, the single “All Ones & Zeros” gets The Early Years’ debut out of the blocks at lightning speed; but it’s false advertising for the record as a whole. Although the intro song is a propelling dash, what follows lacks similar kinetic force. Intentionally. This three-piece, comprised of a drummer and pedal-happy guitar duo, adamantly refuse to chase after the skinny-tie, post-punk revivalist trend. Instead of worshipping Gang of Four, the self-proclaimed “experimental” band cite Neu!, Television and Mogwai as influences. If experimental means ambience, feedback and droning, and the preceding bands were reputably boring and uninventive, then these guys are spot on. The Early Years sound more confident when they aren’t trying so hard. The majority of songs, including the utterly beige “Brown Hearts,” are like a game of hot/cold (getting warmer…even warmer… ). The musicians find direction as the tracks count down, leaving questions as to how much improvisation they employed while recording. Likewise, the last two and a half minutes of “High Times And Low Lives” show potential and should have been the project’s starting line. Here, parts move – the darling avant-garde electronics live rightfully among the twangy guitar and incisive percussion. Regrettably, the disc’s closers, though pretty, deflate any remaining hope of resurrecting the buzz. The Early Years live up to their name; they play a diluted imitation of art rock’s early years, contributing little more than better technology. They’re on the heels of something good, but until their sophomore release, why buy a knock-off when you can just as easily listen to the real thing? VS
Feb 1st, 2007 by Amber Herzog
