INFO: WHAT: Bianca Del Rio, Not Today Satan Tour WHEN: Fri. (Nov. 4), 8 p.m. WHERE: Mahalia Jackson Theater for the Performing Arts TICKETS: $37.50-$75 MORE INFO:Visit Ticketmaster
When Roy Haylock’s alter-ego Bianca Del Rio stormed through season six of “RuPaul’s Drag Race,” she did so leaving a trail of withering one-liners behind her — not the least of which was the cautionary missive, “Not today, Satan!” It worked on so many levels as Haylock captured the title and has gone on to increasing fame and recognition.
So it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that Haylock’s “Queen of Mean” persona blows into town on a career high with her Not Today Satan Tour that his the Mahalia Jackson Theater on Friday (Nov. 4). The tour has cut across Europe, Australia and the United States over the course of 2016, with a Nov. 9 finale set for San Antonio.
It’s one of the few times Texas might be better place than Haylock’s hometown of New Orleans to end the tour; his theatrical film debut, “Hurricane Bianca,” which blew onto Amazon Prime in September, is set in Texas. And, as outsized as its locale, it’s surprisingly hilarious and affecting, and shouldn’t live under the admittedly out-sized shadow of Haylock’s cutting live performances.
Written and directed by Matt Kugelman, “Hurricane Bianca” tells the story of Richard Martinez (Haylock), a likeable but harried New York City high school science teacher looking for a better teaching situation and thinks he’s found it thanks to a program that lands him in a small Texas town. His homosexuality quickly exposed, Richard is fired, only to come back with a vengeance in the form of (you guessed it), Bianca Del Rio, who takes the school by storm, improves her students’ classroom performance, inspires a bullied gay student, reunites the football coach with an alienated sibling, and wins the Teacher of the Year award in the process. (To say these are spoiler alerts would be an insult to Kugelman’s script, which telegraphs every possible happy ending in the sweetest possible way.)
It’s a fairly conventional inspirational education story that basically puts a drag-queen, lightly satirical spin on such familiar works as “To Sir, With Love,” “Stand and Deliver,” “Dangerous Minds,” “Summer School” and “Up the Down Staircase.” But it should come as no coincidence that Kugelman and Haylock have chosen the trope as the setting for Bianca’s first movie comedy vehicle. After all, the teachers in these movies are all outsiders, fish out of water who learn to earn the trust of their students — many of whom are alienated themselves. The students of this particular high school are generally popular and snarky, but they’re uninspired academic under-achievers, and Bianca fights fire with a fire that Richard couldn’t muster in the few days he had in the classroom.
Where Richard easily let them roll over him, Bianca fires away the kind of digs that only a drag queen could summon:
“I know what we’re going to call you: White trash that won’t burn!” “You’re the prettiest girl on the planet … of the apes!” “Shut up! Your parents are siblings!”
Got a problem with the way she’s running things? “I’m fucking this cat. You just hold the legs!”
There’s definitely a tradeoff in Haylock’s departure from the stage to the screen. Bianca’s rapid-fire, caustic, voluble delivery needs a live setting, if for no other reason the way her insults tear from the speakers and bounce off the wall, and an audience that practically begs to be a target. So there’s an energy gap in her “Hurricane Bianca” performance that Kugelman has difficulty in filling. But what’s lost in energy, Haylock fills in with intimacy and charm, and this comes in unlikely moments. It gets particularly, surprisingly sweet when Bianca initially tries to fend off the football coach, Chuck (Denton Blane Everett), but then befriends him when he learns that he has been estranged from his gay brother — now a transgendered radio host, Karma Johnstone (Bianca Leigh).
“Hurricane Bianca” also provides a steady stream of familiar and often iconic faces in cameos roles once you get past the hilarious casting of Rachel Dratch as the lip-gloss-addicted assistant principal, Deborah Ward. From there we have fun appearances by stars such as Alan Cumming as a school administrator, RuPaul (sans drag) as a meteorologist and Margaret Cho as a wig-shop owner, and supporting appearances by gay, transgender and drag queen performers: Markus Kelle and a bunch of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” alumni including William Belli, Alyssa Edwards, Joslyn Fox and Shangela Laquifa Wadley. (There is even an appearance by New Orleans theater veteran Brooklyn Shaffer!)
But the most affecting performance comes from Bianca Leigh, arguably the hardest-working transgender actor (“Transamerica”) before Laverne Cox burst onto the scene in “Orange Is the New Black.” As Coach Chuck’s long-lost brother who’d left the family to transition to female, Karma is a believable character at a time when transgender issues have jumped to the foreground of discussion in American culture.
Kugelman deftly dances in and out of and around such issues, starting with Richard’s being legally fired for simply being gay — one of the many charms of Texas’ homophobic laws. More than a fun gay-movie indie romp, “Hurricane Bianca” comes off more as a cheeky but endearing parable about acceptance and tolerance. And as New Orleans will learn yet again on Friday night, if you mess with Roy Haylock, well, you had it coming.
INFO: “1776” WHAT: Rivertown Theaters presents the Tony Award-winning musical about the backstory of the Declaration of Independence. A.J. Allegra directs Sherman Edwards music (book by Peter Stone); starring Gary Rucker, David Hoover, Louis Dudoussat and others. WHEN: Nov. 4-5, 8 p.m.; Nov. 6, 2 p.m.; through Nov. 20 WHERE: Rivertown Theaters for the Performing Arts, 325 Minor St. TICKETS: $44 adults, $41.90 seniors, $39.80 students MORE INFO:www.rivertowntheaters.com
When Rivertown Theaters’ Gary Rucker and Kelly Fouchi announced they would include “1776” as part of their 2016-17 season, they cleverly timed it to coincide with the Nov. 8 presidential election. Well played! But did they really know what they were getting into, given how crazy this election season has become? Some are lamenting the death of a republic in this toxic campaign, so now more than ever it’s crucial to witness the birth of a nation in this Tony Award-winning 1969 musical from Sherman Edwards (working from Peter Stone’s book). A.J. Allegra, artistic director of The NOLA Project, slides over to direct a cast that includes Rucker in the lead role of co-founding father John Adams, with David Hoover as Benjamin Franklin, Nori Pritchard as Abigail Adams and Louis Dudoussat as John Hancock.
In anticipation of the opening of “1776” and our impending election, here are my picks for my favorite political musicals. I use the term “political” a little loosely, but all of them are very political at heart. Also, it is important to note that these are simply my favorite and not an objective “best of” list in any way.
I think comparing most pieces of theater is comparing apples and oranges. But all of these shows have moved or affected me in some way. It should not be surprising that many are shows I’ve worked on. You tend to develop an affinity for those ones.
“ASSASSINS” — This show is one of the most uncomfortable pieces of art ever created for musical theater. At a very surface-level interpretation, it can be viewed as a glorification of the men and women who have attempted to take the lives of Abraham Lincoln, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, F.D.R., Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, Ronald Geagan, and John F. Kennedy. But in reality, this pastiche and bizarre Stephen Sondheim musical review set in a vague carnival purgatory setting is an acidic indictment of the American culture of “Me” that drives individuals with sociopathic tendencies towards seeking the greatest form of infamy. I love the darkness of the piece and the intentional discomfort that it aims squarely at the audience, forcing us all as viewers to come to terms with our own jaded views of the American Dreams that were promised to us but did not come true. This was the first professional musical I ever directed back in November of 2008 on the eve of our election of Barack Obama. While that was certainly a historic and (for me, wonderful) time, I honestly feel that the musical might be even more appropriate during this year’s absolutely toxic and vile election campaign, where one candidate’s large and vocal support base is made up in very large part of furious and (sometimes) violent Americans who feel that the American Dream promised to them has been deceitfully stolen from them by others. And yet, sometimes I think it is best to combat reality with art rather than reflect it. Perhaps a production of Assassins this year might just be too much to handle. I’m glad we are opening “1776,” in that case!
“CABARET” — Like “Assassins,” “Cabaret” is a dark concept musical (the first “concept musical,” in fact!) with many, many layers that really was revolutionary in its 1969 inception. If Rodgers and Hammerstein revolutionized the American musical with “Oklahoma!” in 1943 by creating the first fully integrated story using music, dialogue and dance, then Kander and Ebb and director Harold Prince re-revolutionized the form with “Cabaret” by blowing that straightforward storytelling concept to smithereens. “Cabaret” is a show within a show within the head of a central character who is far more passive bystander than objective-oriented story hero. The entire thing is controlled and run by a seedy and somewhat creepy, nameless emcee. And the central female hero of the story is a cabaret performer in 1930s Berlin whose final dilemma revolves around whether she receives an abortion. So I think you could say things have come a damn long way since Nellie Forbush sang about being corny in Kansas! Now, you might be curious as to what makes “Cabaret” a political musical, but that is because the piece is so multi-layered. The most interesting layer of “Cabaret,” for me, has always been about the political circumstances of 1930s Berlin (a highly liberal city) that allowed for the unprecedented rise of Naziism. The city is intentionally presented as a very familiar depiction of an urban liberal bastion where, despite the reigning “It could never happen here” mentality, Naziism eventually takes a sudden and unprecedented hold. The musical ends with the knowledge that those same carefree figures enjoying the good life in the first scene are very likely the first ones to be sent to die in the concentration camps of Hitler. It’s chilling. Perhaps another apropos musical to our 2016 election, but best left untouched for now… As a fun personal note, I have never worked on any production of “Cabaret,” though I have seen several. Every year, when The NOLA Project sends out our year-end audience surveys, we ask for suggestions on future shows people would like to see. Year after year, one patron sends back the request that we produce “Cabaret” with myself as the Emcee. The egotist in me always thinks “What a fine idea!” but the more prudent artistic director always wins out.
“BLOODY BLOODY ANDREW JACKSON” — Now here is a controversial musical. In fact, I would venture to guess that this musical may never be performed professionally again, despite premiering at the Public Theatre (home of “Hamilton” and “Fun Home,” recently) less than a decade ago. The difficulty and controversy, of course, revolves around the supremely controversial titular character, President Andrew Jackson. Jackson was America’s first populist president, rising to power on the supportive backs of several million Americans who were tired of the elite Washington class ruling everything in government. After losing his first presidential bid to John Quincy Adams (son of the central character in “1776”), Jackson claimed that the election was essentially rigged. (Dear God, the terrifying parallels!) He regrouped, re-energized his base, and defeated Adams four years later in a landslide. And then things got tricky, because, as Jackson tried to please all parties, he ended up directionless, clueless and totally lost. And so the musical represents him as such a man: a childish Emo rockstar. But what makes the musical controversial and essentially unperformable today is in its depiction of indigenous people. Jackson famously maligned several thousand Native Americans, forcing them off of their lands and onto the infamous Trail of Tears. And while the musical certainly depicts these acts and never puts Jackson in anything close to an admirable light for doing so, the Native Americans in the show were played by non-Native performers, both off and on Broadway. In my own local production of the show that I directed during the re-election of Obama in October/November 2012, I admit to practicing the same. But the American Theatre has progressed in many ways since just four years ago, and agency in storytelling has become a major and necessary sticking point for indigenous people. And they have deemed the portrayals in this musical as mostly offensive. So we owe it to them to follow suit. Look, by no means am I ashamed of my work on this show, nor does its present un-performability make me appreciate it any less. I still consider it to be a scathing and hilarious satire of a fascinatingly complicated American figure dealing with a lot of his own neurotic demons. It also features some of the best pop-rock music in the last decade on Broadway. By no means does it glorify Andrew Jackson or his actions. In fact it plainly mocks them and holds presidential incompetence sternly to the fire. But by denying those Americans who have already been denied so much the right to speak for themselves and tell their own version of the story, it oversteps its boundaries. So do yourself a favor and give the cast recording a listen. Because I doubt you’ll see it again.
“PACIFIC OVERTURES” — This is one of those musicals that theater fans mostly know of, but don’t actually know. And I was completely in this camp myself until Jefferson Turner, my good friend and former NOCCA colleague suggested that I direct it with the students at NOCCA in 2013. I was terrified. Wasn’t this Stephen Sondheim’s Kabuki-inspired musical about something in Japan that flopped in the 1970s? Well, the answer is yes! But that is far too ignorant and simplistic of a definition. So I dove in and discovered it to be a rich and complicated examination of the forceful opening of Japan to Western trade by American Commodore Matthew Perry in 1853 as told from the Japanese perspective. The music and book, by Sondheim and James Weidman (the same pair behind Assassins) are a detailed depiction of Japanese society as they slowly become Westernized following the visit by Perry and his ships. It has a “Rashomon”-like effect, telling the same story from multiple points of view, leaving the final say so with the audience. Would Japan have been better off left alone, or did America do a great thing by bringing the insular country into great commerce with the rest of the industrializing world? These are questions that we do not ask enough in America, because, to us, if we did it, then of course it was right and good. This musical does not beg to differ, but rather just begs the question. I would encourage everyone reading this to discover it for yourself, as I did three years ago. It is greatly rewarding and intellectually stimulation for those of you that do.
“1776” — Of course. “1776” is, to my mind, the finest book of a musical ever written. Now for those with less of a theater-nerd vocabulary, the “book” of a musical is another way to say the scripted dialogue of the show. In this masterfully crafted musical, there are a mere 11 songs. Today, most two-act musicals have more than 11 songs in each act alone. And yet, the musical is not short of music for any reason. The dialogue, written by Peter Stone, is so sharply crafted, that the show would quite honestly work as a taught and thrilling play on its own terms. The music only adds to the sheer American delight of it all. I discovered the power of this show in a high school U.S. history class in 2001 when my teacher popped the “1776” VHS in for a very skeptical class of jaded and eye-rolling teenagers. Certain that I would be the sole theater-loving student in the room enjoying myself, I remembered watching as every singly student grew uniformly transfixed to the happenings on screen. A singing and dancing Benjamin Franklin was suddenly not a subject for mockery, but a fully formed, randy and hysterical old man who the kids all uniformly loved. The truest mark of its success was the second day of class when we found ourselves half-way through the film and one boy raised his hand to ask “Are we gonna finish the “1776” musical today? I want to know how it ends.” There is the success of this show — you actually sit there in fearful anticipation of how it will end.
Lastly, I would be remiss to leave out mention of the phenomenon that is “Hamilton.” But in all honesty, I do not yet have the knowledge or expertise of any kind to write anything worthwhile about it. I very badly want to experience it in person for myself, and will do so this May in Chicago! Lord, those tickets were hard to get! If the mountains of recommendations I have heard are correct, if all of my good friends are to be trusted, and if the truckload of phenomenal press and awards heaped upon it thus far are to be deemed worthy, then it goes without saying that the political musical list has now been topped by this. And for that I am very excited. To be living in a time when a piece of new theater has such a profound affect on the American public is something to be cherished for an artist like me. So by the time election 2020 rolls around, I hope to have a lot more to say about “Hamilton.”
Approval has been given for a TV series version of Herbert Asbury’s book, “The French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld,” according to Deadline Hollywood.
Asbury’s well known for his “Gangs of New York” that inspired Martin Scorsese’s Academy Award-winning 2002 movie. That book was published in 1927; “French Quarter” came out in 1938 but has been re-released in recent years.
According to the Deadline Hollywood article, two different Louisiana-based production companies (Vermillion Entertainment and Rubicon Entertainment) will oversee the show, with cast and crew still to be determined:
Being from New Orleans, we were naturally drawn to the material that showcases an incredible time in history spanning pirates and riverboat gambling to voodoo and politics,” Vermilion president Todd Thompson was quoted as saying. “We are excited to further our great relationship with Rubicon.”
Vermilion got in the news recently for announcing a planned anthology series based on Alfred Hitchcock’s works, while Rubicon plans an adaptation of Stephen King’s “Drunken Fireworks.”
Should be fun. Stay tuned.
(Hopefully it will be better than “French Quarter Undercover”)
The premiere episode of “PopSmart NOLA” on Saturday (Oct. 29) on WHIV (102.3 FM) was a tremendous success as we shared our time with the workers performing excellent renovations on the kitchen!
We welcomed guests James Bartelle and Beau Bratcher — the star and director of The NOLA Project’s “4000 Miles” — and Quinn McCourt from The New Movement’s “Broadcast Delay” and “The Megaphone Show.” You also can listen online at whivfm.org.
My favorite part of the show: Bartelle and Batcher discussing the notions of color-blind and color-conscious casting in theatrical productions as well as the progress New Orleans theater has made in casting for performers of color.
This episode’s playlist:
“Hot Tamale Baby” — Buckwheat Zydeco (RIP)
“The Revolution Will Not Be Televised” — Gill Scott-Heron
“Custom Concern” — Modest Mouse
“Creature from the Black Lagoon” — Dave Edmunds
“Cranes in the Sky” — Solange Knowles
“Don’t Go” — Yaz
“Halloween” — Siouxsie & the Banshees
“Halloween” — Dead Kennedys
Please forgive the truncated recording of this show, due to technical difficulties, which lopped off the Dead Kennedys song and these closing thoughts.
That’s our show for this week. Tune in for our next show, next Saturday, Nov. 5, 3-4 p.m. for another edition of “PopSmart NOLA.” We’ll have in, among others, Gary Rucker and A.J. Allegra of Rivertown Theaters’ timely production of the musical, “1776.”
Also want to remind everyone if you like what you’re hearing you can “like” PopSmart NOLA on Facebook and follow me on Instagram at @popsmartnola and on Twitter at @dlsnola504. Keep the smart conversation going.
Please continue tuning into 102.3 WHIV LPFM, New Orleans. We are: community radio dedicated to human rights and social justice, end all wars. Stream us online (if you aren’t already) at whivfm.org.
About a year ago, I launched PopSmart NOLA as a website dedicated to intelligent coverage of New Orleans culture. It might have sounded like a pretentious line at the time but over the past year I at least hope the site has added to the conversation about the arts, culture and entertainment of the Crescent City. The first post was an impression of my first experience with the New Orleans Volunteer Orchestra, the second a review of Cecile Monteyne’s excellent “You Don’t Know the Half of It,” followed by a kooky preview of The NOLA Project’s “Clown Bar,” and then an open question about how to talk to my son about racism in movies.
The feedback has been great, and from time to time it even appears to have started a discussion.
Now, with WHIV’s help, I’d like to make that discussion more literal. On Saturday, I will premiere the radio version of “PopSmart NOLA” as way to bring in and engage the cultural figures of our city to talk about the work they do and help place it in a more focused context with the rest of what’s happening around us. Many of these people will be familiar to lots of listeners, and many will come from my years as an arts journalist at Gambit Weekly (back when it was called Gambit Weekly, my too-brief tenure at NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune, and subsequent work as a freelance journalist (the New Orleans Advocate, Biz New Orleans and New Orleans magazine, to name a few) – and of course, good old PopSmart NOLA.
To be fair, there’s a lot of good arts journalism being done around New Orleans; it’s just become a bit spread out and around. And it’s a constantly shifting landscape — I found that out the hard way last fall, but even more recently we’ve seen the hiatus of the NOLA Defender, or even the tragic loss of NOLA Vie’s Sharon Litwin. On the positive side, we’ve witnessed the emergence of WWNO’s “Inside the Arts” coverage with Diane Mack, who’s been kind enough to accept my pleas to discuss my work on her show, and both newspapers seem to have adjusted to life after the shakeup of last year. And then there’s NOLA Vie, Alex Rawls’ excellent music site “My Spilt Milk,” and the continued good work being done at OffBeat and Gambit, to name a few.
But yet, there’s still more to cover, and even more to talk about. We’ll start the discussion on Saturday (Oct. 29), from 3 p.m. to p.m. on WHIV-FM (102.3) — community radio dedicated to human rights, social justice, and the end of all wars. Our guests: James Bartelle and Beau Bratcher — the star and director of The NOLA Project’s “4000 Miles” — Jim Fitzmorris (with his latest show, “Things That Go Trump in the Night”) and comedy from The New Movement’s “The Megaphone Show.” You also can listen online at whivfm.org.
The inspiration for “PopSmart NOLA” the radio show are many, and not just the website. There’s also my favorite culture podcast, “The Dinner Party Download,” which structures amazing entertainment coverage around the concept of a party (complete with music, small talk, plenty of food, and a crafty cocktail). I’m also inspired by NPR’s “Pop Culture Happy Hour,” as well as Slate’s “Culture Gabfest” and (perhaps a bit tangentially, Slate’s excellent sports podcast “Hang Up and Listen.” If you see resemblances of these shows in “PopSmart NOLA,” I hope will be in the form of imitation being the sincerest form of flattery.
We’ll have lots of guests, occasional co-hosts, look back at the week in culture, and look ahead to what’s on the horizon. And we’ll have lots of music (live and recorded) — hopefully timed to the performances of the week — and plenty of active engagement with our listeners (especially on social media). On that note, you can like PopSmart NOLA on Facebook, and follow me on Instagram (@popsmartnola) and Twitter (@dlsnola). If you’d like to make a comment or ask questions while the show’s going on, I’ll do my best to answer in real time, but definitely ASAP. I want this to be much, much more than a one-sided conversation. As with all things New Orleans, we know that everyone’s got a story to tell.
I hope to apply some of the lessons learned from previous experiences in radio, which include serving as an arts contributor to WABE, the NPR affiliate in Atlanta, as well as appearances on New Orleans television shows including John McConnell’s “The Spudcast.”
If you’d like to suggest an idea for a show, or come on as a guest, or would like to serve as an underwriter for the show, please email me at dlsnola@gmail.com, and I’ll response in as timely a fashion as possible.
Until then, please listen in, and join us in the discussion.
The NOLA Project presents “4000 Miles” WHAT: Regional premiere of Amy Herzog’s comedy-drama about the relationship between a former ’60s radical and her visiting grandson. Directed by Beau Bratcher, starring James Bartelle and Carol Sutton WHEN: Wed.-Sat. (Oct. 26-29 and Nov. 2-5), 8 p.m.; Sun. (Oct. 30), 2 p.m. (Wed., Oct. 26 & Nov. 2: “Bike to Show Night” with discounted tickets for cyclists) WHERE: Ashé Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. TICKETS: $20-$35 (vary per night) MORE INFO:Visit event page
Amy Herzog’s “4000 Miles” might be one of the most counter-intuitive works to be found on New Orleans stages this fall. It’s nominally a two-person comedy-drama, which doesn’t necessarily play to The NOLA Project’s strength as a deep well of ensemble performers. As a family tale, it lacks the narrative crackle of such intimate works as, say, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” or the dreamlike quality of “The Glass Menagerie.” Even as a comedy-drama, you’re never really sure at which genre it particularly excels.
But in immediately recognizing what “4000 Miles” isn’t, there’s a danger of not recognizing what it is — a sublime meditation on honest and authentic human (and familial) emotions of honesty that features actors hitting all the right subtle notes in this pairing one of the city’s brightest young stars with one of its legends.
Even in its tight, 90-minute, one-act structure, and under the direction of Beau Bratcher, Herzog’s play creates a great deal of space for the two principal characters (and even two supporting characters) to present themselves as multi-dimensional and more than a little familiar. At its heart, literally and figuratively, are James Bartelle as Leo, showing up on the doorstep of his grandmother (Carol Sutton) showing more than the hard miles of his cross-county bicycle trek. Though familiar with each other’s work, Bartelle and Sutton are working together for the first time, and their chemistry together is immediate and astonishingly tender.
They’re both a little at odds with their future. Leo, having lost his best friend in an accident midway across the country, is directionless in life, much to the concern of his (unseen mother). Not that he was exactly driven before their trip, but the death has underscored an existential angst in Leo that should hit close to home for any millennials in the audience. By contrast, Vera is experiencing all of the losses of a nonagenarian, from teeth and words and hearing to her shrinking circle of friends, and she’s not taking it well. (Every tenth word, in her now-limited vocabulary, seems to be “whatchamacallit.” The worst part about growing old, she protests, is not being able to find the words.)
Their mutual concern for each other grows so naturally that, by the end of the play, you forget that they weren’t really that close at the beginning. There were signs, though; Vera’s a former ’60s radical, and it’s clear that Leo’s somewhere in that anti-establishment mix. He’s picked up her copy of “The Communist Manifesto,” and is digging it. While he initially is not prepared for her blunt candor, chafing when she calls his ex-girlfriend chubby, Leo grows to appreciate her honesty.
Likewise, Vera does not quite Leo or much of the information- and technology-obsessed generation, or its passion for newfound recreation. When he asks for money to go climb rocks in a gym, she gasps,“More than $50? To climb a wall?” But even Leo is not too crazy about technology. They both have computers, but Vera rarely uses hers. “I don’t like ’em,” says, who doesn’t even own a cellphone,“but I can use ’em.”
Their differences might be underscored by the fact that they’re not even blood relatives. Adoption, with its vague whispers of distance, runs throughout “4000 Miles,” which might not sit too well with us folks who are keyed into the concept. But perhaps Herzog, in her 2013 Pulitzer Prize-nominated script, uses the device as a way to encourage her characters — as often unseen as seen — to encourage people to forge their connections with one another a little freer of the pressure of biological kinship.
Connections in “4000 Miles” are always messy, sometimes funny but always real, and this is where the supporting characters show their greatest value. There’s Bec, who, as played by Annie Cleveland, who as Leo’s ex-girlfriend feels fretful and concerned about him — and still very much in love with him — and not quite sure how to relate to Vera’s brutally frank observations. And there’s also Amanda, who, as hilariously played by Anna Toujas, represents possibly the world’s easiest one-night-stand opportunity for Leo. Even the admittedly “slutty” and drunken Amada senses red flags. When he gets her name wrong, she jokes that he’s only set himself back about 20 minutes, but ultimately her antenna warns her off from even a casual hook-up with a guy who clearly needs to work his personal shit out.
Vera’s world is surprisingly complicated for a woman of a certain age we think we know. We only know she’s been married twice, but not the why and how of it until later. And her problematic relationship with her next-door neighbor (another older woman) — carried on strictly by phone — only complicates her lonely existence in her Greenwich Village apartment.
James Bartelle and Annie Cleveland. (Photo by John Barrois)
Like a slow-drip faucet, facts, truths and anecdotes plop into the story, and we learn more about Vera’s romantic life and Leo’s tragic loss (often with the help of a shared marijuana joint). We learn, awkwardly, of Leo’s problems connecting with the people in his life, including his relationship with his tone-deaf mother and one with this adopted sister — a relationship that borders on the incestuous.
As mentioned previously, Bratcher handles this understated story and his actors with equal subtlety; at no point do we get much in the form of fireworks, and this is a good thing. These are characters and themes Bratcher wants us to find and understand and sympathize with on steady emotional terms, and if at times “4000 Miles” errs on the side of narrative caution, it’s forgivable.
The same can be said for John Grimsley’s set design — a spare apartment with a flood of books but light on art hanging on the walls — and Joan Long’s lighting. (Only the changing shade of light streaming from an outside window and against the building’s wall tells us what time of day it is.)
“4000 Miles” might not be the grandiose relationship story that gets some theater audiences all worked up — but by the end of the journey, thanks especially to this gifted cast — you’ll realize by the drive home just how far you’ve come.
The Friends of City Park sponsored the annual two-night “Ghosts in the Oaks” for the Halloween season Saturday-Sunday (Oct. 22-24) inside the Carousel Gardens and Storyland.
This family-friendly event included unlimited rides in Carousel Gardens, trick-or-treating in Storyland, arts and crafts, a pumpkin patch, airbrush tattoos, balloon animals, music and of course rides on its train. All proceeds from Ghosts in the Oaks went toward capital improvements in Carousel Gardens and Storyland.
The NOLA Project presents “4000 Miles” WHAT: Regional premiere of Amy Herzog’s comedy-drama about the relationship between a former ’60s radical and her visiting grandson. Directed by Beau Bratcher, starring James Bartelle and Carol Sutton WHEN: Thurs.-Sat. (Oct. 20-22), 8 p.m. (Thursday is NOLA Project board and company members only performance); Sun. (Oct. 23), 2 p.m.; Wed.-Sat. (Oct. 26-29 and Nov. 2-5), 8 p.m.; Sun. (Oct. 30), 2 p.m. (Nov. 2: “Bike to Show Night”) WHERE: Ashé Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. TICKETS: $20-$35 (vary per night) MORE INFO:Visit event page
In some ways, it’s easy to miss James Bartelle at first. He kind of sneaks up on you, and even then, his countenance is so serene, it’s almost as if he’s not even there. Or not obtrusive. But you can’t take your eyes off him.
It’s hard to explain. Until, maybe, you hear his story.
The man who has been called the big brother of The NOLA Project ensemble acting troupe, the man who has played Robin Hood as if in an identity crisis — gah, the man who has played a talking sheep, of all characters — can indeed come across as an enigma, a cipher. You can, I suppose, say that about a lot of actors, because so often they’re vessels of the writer and director.
But James Bartelle is different. Over the course of his decade in New Orleans — inspired, like many, by Hurricane Katrina — Bartelle has slowly, methodically, created a body of work that has theater critics calling him one of the best actors in the city. He’s won a few Big Easy Awards, and a few Storer Boone Awards.
And yet again, it feels like he’s snuck up on all of us. I remember the first time I met him, while sitting outside a coffee shop chatting with a friend, and he kind of just stopped by to say hi, sporting his wire-rim glasses, modestly coiffed afro, a slender frame and a matching voice. He was sweet, polite, reticent but not rude, and then went on his way — and you kind of kept watching him as he left. He leaves a mark.
Just as his title-role performance in last year’s “Robin Hood: Thief, Brigand” felt more like an ensemble delivery than a star turn, his supporting role as the sheep in “Marie Antoinette” was magnetic and unforgettable. “I watched lots of videos of sheep (to prepare),” said the man who most acknowledge is the first NOLA Project actor to work off-script on any given production.
Now the actor with a preference for Shakespeare roles and the ability to play animals taps into a role that might hit a little closer to home with the upcoming production of the Amy Herzog comedy-drama, “4000 Miles” — opposite one of New Orleans’ theater legends, Carol Sutton. In the Pulitzer Prize-finalist play, the 31-year-old Bartelle plays Leo, an affable but aimless twentysomething who shows up at the door of his grandmother, an octogenarian and former ’60s radical living in near isolation in New York. Leo’s just finished a cross-country bicycle trip, one that included a terrible tragedy en route, and now Leo isn’t sure where to head next, on or off his bike.
Facing her own existential crisis, his grandmother takes him in and they forge a bond that feels as much a friendship as a kinship. As one character learns how to play out the last chapter of her life, the other figures out how to face, hopefully, a longer yet still uncertain future.
For a young man who seven years ago had lost his mother to a suicide, traveled to India on a lark, and wound up in a psychiatric ward after having experimented with too many psychedelic drugs, James Bartelle maybe knows Leo a little better than the average actor — which could be a blessing and a curse.
“The part that’s a blessing is how well the role is written,” he says over coffee at Rue de la Course in Riverbend. “Usually when I choose to do a show, I specifically look for the ability to do something I hadn’t done before, so at the end of my career I can look back and say no two roles were similar. I have been, I guess, conscious or unconsciously looking for roles not too close to me. I’ve always just chosen roles that required an accent or a crazy voice or something contorting my body.
“I had a lot of connection with this character,” said Bartelle, associate artistic director for the company. “It’s hard to be that honest onstage. It’s easy to hide behind a voice or makeup or a crazy costume. It’s harder for me to speak like a normal being. There is something different about this role.”
If it’s a challenge, Bartelle has a cheering section like no other — starting with his co-star, Sutton.
The idea came to Coach Billy as a way to become more inclusive with recreational soccer, which, in league form (believe me), can be a bit, well, structured.
But with the coach and his fellow staffers, along with some parent volunteers, soccer in front of NOMA can include zombies, dirty socks, and other crazy game-like concepts that make these elementary school-age players forget that they’re actually learning something and simply having a blast. Most of the kids are Latino or Hispanic, though all kids are welcome.
While parents are welcome to bring their own refreshments, plenty of water is available.
You can learn more about Mini FC by friending the group on Facebook. Check out the video above, in which Coach Billy explains the value of the soccer play. Both coaches, however, can only commit to coaching the group through March (there will be a slight break later this fall), as they are both medical students awaiting placement for their respective residencies. Fingers crossed that they can keep this thing going.
Had a nice time with friends and kids at the very kid-friendly 22nd annual Japan Fest at the New Orleans Museum of Art on Saturday (Oct. 8). The event included activities and food both inside and outside of NOMA, including a separate area of food and craft activities inside the The Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden.
The festival included regular performances by Houston’s Kaminari Taiko Drummers at the beginning, middle and end of the day. Elsewhere guests had access to traditional dance groups, tours of our Japanese art collection, martial arts demonstrations, a fashion show (featuring lots of anime/cosplay action), and Japanese food.
The event provided a big dress-up opportunity, and while I missed the fashion show, there were lots of folks traditional kimonos, Pokemon costumes, and other anime figures.
The festival was organized by NOMA in collaboration with the Consulate General of Japan in Nashville and the Japan Club in New Orleans, featuring 30 community groups and presenters.
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