Past Season Winners in Carlsbad and La Jolla

 Dan and I have two subscriptions to local theaters -- La Jolla Playhouse, and New Village Arts in Carlsbad. Three shows that top my list from the past season are "The Heart," "Rent," and "The Recipe."  Two of the them are original productions which may travel to Broadway, OR appear on a stage near you!

"The Heart," a La Jolla playhouse production directed by the theater's artistic director, Christopher Ashley, was a fast-paced musical taking the audience through 24 hours of a heart transplant.  As part of my job at UCLA, I worked with the heart transplant team, and was especially eager to see how this ambitious undertaking would be handled onstage. It was riveting from the start. A surfer in San Diego is killed in a car crash on his way home from a favorite beach for morning waves. His parents are called, and rush to the hospital to face the tragic news, followed soon afterwards by a request to consider a donation of their son's heart. The emotional impact of the situation is palpable, with urgent dialogue, an electronic-driven score, and a ticker-tape backdrop, blinking neon colors and graphs to suggest data from hospital monitoring equipment. Questions, concerns, and the shock of their dilemma delay a response from the parents. A girlfriend joins them while doctors and nurses go about their business, anticipating next steps. When the decision is made, the action picks up. 

We meet the recipient who is a match for the heart. Key staff step in to harvest the organ from the donor and prepare the recipient for surgery. From beginning to end, I was transported by scenes switching locations on the small stage, and props adapted to convey the action and pace of a hospital setting, when hours and minutes count. Donation of a son's heart on the most difficult day two parents could ever imagine is portrayed with poignancy, a gift of life from loss, a defining moment of generosity. My hope is that this emotional, heartfelt musical will appear in flashing lights on Broadway for all to experience. A pure work of art at its best, "The Heart" pulses with life in the face of death.  Catch it if you can!

 

 "Rent" at New Village Arts was a revival of a ‘90s rock musical about a diverse group of young artists and creatives living in an apartment building in New York City at the height of the AIDS epidemic. While fear, disease, and death are spreading throughout the city, rents are being raised, and will boot many of them onto the street. Despite the physical and emotional struggles, they cling to each other and their dreams. But the loss of a beloved young woman whose life ended abruptly cuts into theirs hopes for a better future. Some question if they are next. The play depicts a nightmare, taking this audience member back to the era when I was a single mom who felt the fear and vulnerability of the times. Even though deaths have calmed down from the 80's fervor, the disease remains a challenge among marginalized groups with non-traditional sexual preferences, and racial, addiction, and socio-economic risks. 

The play's book, lyrics, and music were written by Jonathan Larson to share some of his own experiences from the AIDS crisis. Kym Pappas, a member of Pasadena Playhouse Directors Lab West, directed the show in the theater's intimate setting, giving it the immediacy of the 80's story, with a timeless message about friendship, love, and creativity. Pappas directed previous, critically-acclaimed shows at NVA -- "The Half Life of Marie Curie," "Fun Home," "Doubt," and "The Ferryman." 

"The Recipe," another production of La Jolla Playhouse, was an entertaining biographical study of the life of the acclaimed chef, Julia Child. She evolves from a privileged childhood in Pasadena, California, to a career in intelligence in Washington DC, to her marriage to a colleague in the foreign intelligence service, to become a celebrated chef in America. The story is as captivating as the personality, a highly independent, free thinker who rejects her father's mandate to marry and start a family like other women in Pasadena's finest neighborhoods. A self-starter, Julia graduates from Smith College in Boston to take on DC and worlds beyond. Along the way, she meets a colleague who finds her intriguing, despite her untethered mannerisms and height at six-foot-two. With a cup of whimsy, a tablespoon of humor, and a sprinkling of romance, the two marry in 1946, and Paul Child accepts a position in Paris. Julia takes a liking to French dishes, and uses her considerable personal force to refuse a cooking course offered for housewives, and enrolls in the course for chefs at the Cordon Bleu. She bumbles along to master the culinary art as best she can, and meets a couple of women who partner with her to write and publish the English version of what would become a best-selling cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." It's released in America, establishes her as a bonafide expert, and leads to the PBS cooking show which cements her reputation as a winsome celebrity, beloved by American audiences.

Playwright Claudia Shear was drawn to the material based on the appeal of someone who could "break through boxes," much like Amelia Earhart. She credits her body of work on stories about "obsession and redemption." Director  Lisa Peterson signed on because she admired Shear's work, based on "female protagonists who are indomitable, devastatingly funny, self-deprecating, and butting up against intractable societal barriers."  Julia Child fits that bill to a T in "The Recipe!" Broadway bound?  Fingers crossed.