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PAUL BIRCHALL’S GOT IT COVERED
This Week’s Roundup: Bon Voyage, Bob Verini, Highways Anniversary Gala, The City of West Hollywood Buys the Coast Playhouse
By Paul Birchall
Bob Verini Opens in Boston.
Bob Verini poses with fellow critic Shirle Gottlieb at last month’s LA Drama Critic’s Circle Awards (photo courtesy of LADCC)
In a story that is likely to have huge repercussions in Los Angeles theater circles, veteran theater critic Bob Verini, longtime writer for Variety, Arts in L.A. and Stage Raw, announced last week at the meeting of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (and subsequently in a release to the press and then on Facebook) that he is moving to the Boston area in the near future and will thus no longer be reviewing Los Angeles shows.
Verini writes, “After 21 years of living in this beautiful part of the country, 10 of them engaged in theater reviewing, I have decided that the curtain on the next act of my life — and I hope it won’t be the last act — should go up on the East Coast, where my family and full-time employers and, if I am to be fully honest, heart all reside.”
He continues, with his typical, well-written equanimity, “But I wanted to say, publicly and without reservation, how grateful I am to have experienced so much outstanding acting, directing, writing, and design during my time here. Whatever I encounter in New England and around the rest of the U.S. generally, you can be sure that in me, Southern California will have a passionate booster, and if need be, advocate, because not enough of the country understands what tremendous theatrical resources are to be found here.”
Although we are thankful that Verini’s departure is a quest for new adventures rather than anything tragic or grim, the loss of this tireless advocate for the theater community is almost impossible to overestimate. Verini has been one of the truly world class writers covering theater here in Los Angeles; you can count the “Great Critics” out here on one hand, and he has always been one of them. We’ve been incredibly lucky to have had access to his massive repository of information, as well as his thrilling and enlightening turn of phrase.
But even more importantly, Verini has been a tireless worker in the trenches: He repeatedly served as president of the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle and has produced its awards show on numerous occasions. His generosity to performers, producers, and journalists alike is as well known, as his witty, insightful and impactful writing.
Margaret Gray, the current president of the L.A. Drama Critics Circle and a writer for the L.A. Times, offered this appraisal of Verini’s work.
“When I first started reviewing plays here in L.A., I found Bob kind of intimidating. I used to see him at every opening I attended, looming above the crowd, audibly airing opinions with no apparent fear of reprisal or even dissent. Off the top of his head, he could list a show’s full cast and crew, then analyze their performances in the context of not only their individual careers but also the Los Angeles theater scene and the history of Western drama.
“Maybe he was just a good talker, I consoled myself. But then I read him in Variety and couldn’t help noticing that he seemed to have a flair for writing too, a rare gift for getting his keen, arresting insights across unfussily, persuasively and entertainingly on the page. It seemed he had somehow translated the murky, half-formed mutterings of my own inarticulate soul into punchy English sentences. Reading his work made me feel more perceptive and intelligent than I actually was.
“But what impressed me most about Bob was something I discovered only after joining the LADCC: how much he did for theater in Los Angeles. His skillful criticism would be a significant contribution if it were all he had given. But on top of that, he has also been a tireless advocate of L.A.’s theater companies, productions and artists. He has a vast and detailed knowledge of our theatrical landscape and history, and nothing makes him happier than discovering, promoting and rewarding great theater.
“Although I am thrilled for Bob as he sets off on a new adventure, I honestly can’t imagine theater in this town without him. Our loss will be Massachusetts’ gain. The bereft remaining members of the LADCC now have big shoes to fill, both literally and figuratively.”
Good luck and bon voyage to Bob Verini as he embarks on another adventure!
Partying at Highways
Party-goer admiring the human-being-covered-with-corn display at the Highways Anniversary Party (photo by Paul Birchall)
Most of you will tell me that the place to be on Monday, April 18th, was the Skylight Bookstore, where Stage Raw founder and L.A. Stage Executive Director Steven Leigh Morris was holding a book reading and signing his first novel, “Fowl Play.”
But I must you that, as delightful as Mr. Morris’s book signing no doubtless was, it is not likely to have had a nude man, painted head to shlong and then to toe with wet kernels of canned corn, lying on a long table as if waiting to be devoured. Nor would you find the spectacle of a semi-naked lady, sprawled in an easy chair, while a gentleman in a dapper suit bowed down to worship at her feet.
At least, I don’t think that’s what happened at the Morris signing. But it most certainly is what went down at the 27th anniversary celebration and fundraiser for the Highways Performance Space. Ah, for a Tardis or a Tesseract so we could be in both places at the same time! But in my case, I opted with no regrets for the Highways anniversary party, and I must confess it was a blast.
The party was just the kind of lobster quadrille-esque event you’d expect from a theater organization that, over the past quarter century, has been at the creative crux of performance art in the Los Angeles area. The event was held in Highways’ cozy, decidedly scruffy environs at the 18th Street Arts Complex. There are not too many places with the sincerity and the ferocious creativity of Highways.
Mingling amongst the cultural hoi polloi such as myself were one of Highways’ founding artistic directors, Tim Miller, along with Luis Alfaro and enough residents of the demimonde to make a gallery opening swing. There was much schmoozing in the lobby — and if you don’t have an appetite for aesthetic jargon, you were certainly in the wrong place.
The featured performance was given by MacArthur Fellow and legendary figure Guillermo Gomez-Pena, a familiar Highways hand over the decades. A resident of the neighborhood studio space from 1992 to 1995, Gomez-Pena is, in many ways, the paradigmatic performance artist for such an evening. With his Native American headdress, sunglasses, kilt, pot belly, and dark, gravelly voice, he is the quintessential embodiment of pure, uncompromising and, bless him, “difficult theater.”
In one moment, you could see Gomez-Pena, his greasy greying hair all but blowing in the wind, fellating his microphone. In another, he barked, spoke in tongues, and sprayed the air with Brut cologne. But in between the outlandish carryings-on were sophisticated and trenchant observations about the cultural gulf between the U.S. and Mexico. “The difference between a madman and a performance artist is that the latter has an audience,” he joked.
After the performance (but before everyone had gathered together to lick the corn off the nude man and indulge in the delicious assortment of cake pops and gourmet Ding Dongs), I asked Leo Garcia who, along with Patrick Keneally, is a current artistic director of Highways, why they chose this one performer. “Well, (Gomez-Pena) was one of the founding artists,” Garcia noted. “He represents the full spectrum of artist. We want to cross borders and challenge perceptions — and he’s just the perfect choice. We love him!”
Garcia, of course, is the recipient this year of Stage Raw’s Career Achievement Award. Highways is a unique treasure in Los Angeles, and worthy of far more attention than it often receives, even from our own theater community. There’s really no place like it.
WeHo Buys the Coast Playhouse
Photo courtesy of The Coast Playhouse
I’m pleased to report that the City of West Hollywood has finalized its purchase of the Coast Playhouse on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood for $2.5 million, setting into action plans to anchor an arts district in the WeHo area. I reported plans for the purchase in this column a couple of months ago. — and now that it’s taken place, I could not be happier.
An article on the WEHOville news site reports that the 99-seat theatre will need some work. According to the site, “Andrew Campbell, the City’s cultural affairs administrator, and Steve Campbell, manager of the facilities and field services division, said the City will make major improvements to ensure that the building complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act and its various systems are operating properly.”
In my previous piece, I quoted a Facebook post from West Hollywood Councilman John Duran, who opined that he hoped the Celebration Theater — a nationally lauded LGBT theater company and for years West Hollywood’s pride and joy — would have the space as their home. Lately the Celebration has been operating out of The Lex in Hollywood, which is a perfectly lovely space, practically next door to the Gay and Lesbian Center — but it really should be back in West Hollywood. The company has kept its strong ties to WeHo with a monthly play reading series held in the West Hollywood City Council Chambers. It would only be reasonable to assume that the company is the likeliest candidate to be the “home company” in the new space.
At last month’s LADCC Awards, I ran into Celebration co-artistic director Michael Shepperd. We were having a lovely conversation about this and that, right up until I flat out asked him if the Celebration was going to move into the Coast.
“Oh, I can’t talk to you any more!” Shepperd blurted, making a run for the canape table. I am taking that as a “likely.” I won’t lie; I am going to make another attempt to nail this story at the Stage Raw Awards coming up. Can you blame me?
