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Paul Birchall’s Got It Covered:

HAPPY FESTIVUS FOR THE STAGE RAW-OF-US

By Paul Birchall

The band from ‘Miravel’ with Colin Kupka on sax. Photo credit: Steven Leigh Morris.

Fog and drizzle had settled over the Skylight Theatre, but though the weather outside was frightful, the mood at the Stage Raw party inside was delightful indeed.  A veritable who’s who of theater lovers had assembled on this murky Monday in late December to celebrate the holiday of Festivus, and to toast each other with hot apple cider and rum punch. 

Amongst the theatrical cognoscenti were luminaries from both sides of the theater aisle: theater critics such as our own Myron Meisel, Terry Morgan and Deborah Klugman, as well as a cornucopia of publicists that included Phillip Sokoloff, David Elzer and Judith Borne.  Steven Leigh Morris — the new executive director of the LA Stage Alliance and the publisher of Stage Raw — was the genteel host, while Peter Finlayson, Alan Mandel, and Stage Raw managing editor Bill Raden were among the attendees who sipped and chatted and opined about the future of Los Angeles theater. 

When it came time for the entertainment, there was a dandy performance of an excerpt from How Love Lasts, the fascinating documentary-musical by Brooke Bishop and Daniel Landberg. 

Paul Birchall, Peter Finlayson and Judith Borne at Stage Raw’s Festivus 2015. Photo credit Steven Leigh Morris.

Independent Shakespeare Company stalwart David Melville and the lovely Mary Guilliams Goodchild reprised the wonderful “Dr. Pinch and the Pinchtones,” a comic spin-off from their production of Comedy of Errors. 

Jessica Emmanuel performed a jazzy ballet that perfectly encapsulated ambivalence to the holidays, evincing in equal measure melancholy confusion and joyous celebration.  Anchored by sax player Colin Kupka, the band from Jake Broder’s recently closed play Miravel warbled away as folks hobnobbed and gossiped (for as you know gossip is the real reason why any theater person goes to a party during the Christmas season). 

The reason for the get-together was both to make merry and to raise money to support Stage Raw.  In the last few weeks of December, Stage Raw critic Myron Meisel generously stepped forward with an offer to match any tax-deductible donation up to $5,000.  The site’s bean counters (I think there’s at least one bean who does the counting), reports that we reached the desired total of $10,000. 

As a result of donor generosity — and that goes for everyone who contributes, either by tossing us nickels or by just reading our reviews and articles — Stage Raw will continue, at least into the next year.

And a special salute goes to Myron, a stalwart supporter of the arts who open-handedly puts his money where his mouth is.  If you need to point to someone whose dedication to the craft of arts journalism is above the call, just aim that digit at Mr. Meisel.

Thanks again, everyone — and onwards to the next party!