Eugene weekly., July 05, 2007, Page 35, Image 35

BY SUZI STEFFEN
Measuring hair
for KIng David
Theatrics
at the OBF
a smaller stage in Germany, Honegger
stripped the play down to a narrator and an
oratorio, which became the more often per-
formed version. A few years ago, Royce
Saltzman saw a slightly expanded version in
Minneapolis and returned to Eugene with
ideas for the OBF.
“It’s not accurate to say that I wrote this,
but it is accurate to say I adapted it,” Boyd
says. “What we have here is a hybrid.” It’s
not the original play; it’s not the stripped-
down oratorio. It’s something that uses a nar-
rator but, Boyd says, adds “elements of the
actors, scenery, costumes and lighting for the
most compelling relationships.”
With 18 orchestra members, 50 chorus
members and three soloists along with six ac-
tors playing nearly 20 roles, Boyd and the
stagehand team had quite a challenge ahead.
So Boyd called on Olich — they spent
years working together at the Oregon
Shakespeare Festival in Ashland — to create
the design. “I looked at how to sandwich the
actors between the orchestra and the choral
performers,” Olich says, and he eventually
came up with a design that lifts the actors up,
“almost like they float.” Then he and a re-
search assistant looked at what people wore
in 1000 BC. “It’s historically based,” Olich
says, “but it’s very much stylized … like a
biblical pageant.”
Lighting designer Michael Peterson put in
a large lighting truss so that what Boyd calls
the “Las Vegas biblical” shine can be seen all
over the cavernous Silva. German music di-
rector Robin Engelen and chorus master
Kathy Romey also play key roles in this mas-
sive collaborative effort. “The style is super
classic melodrama, with large emotions and
bold, simple gestures,” Boyd says. The OBF
has presented spectacles before, but this is
something new.
“It’s so unique that it’s hard to describe,”
Boyd says, “but I’d like to think that
Honegger would be proud.”
ew
Collaboration key to
glittery pageant
I
n the Willamette Repertory Theatre’s
costume shop, Tina Schrager is making
hair. Actually, Schrager is cutting long
strips of leopard-print polyester fabric, and
Andra Barrow, strictly speaking, is making
the hair by tying those strips into knots — and
more knots, and more knots. Across the table,
Caroline Barnes takes bits of plastic egg car-
tons, found bottle tops (painted black), gold
curtain rings and dollar-store gold-colored
bling and makes a gorget, a fancy collar, for
the king of Israel.
But why are the WRT costume people so
busy? It’s late June, and the WRT doesn’t
have a play until September. Yet Willamette
Rep Artistic Director Kirk Boyd has been
working with actors all week. The answer, as
usual at this time of year, comes from the
Bach Festival. Everyone is involved in a col-
laboration stretching from the mind of the
OBF’s Royce Saltzman to Portland to France
and, as usual with the OBF, to Germany.
French playwright René Morax came up
with a dramatic presentation of the life of the
biblical King David. David, a shepherd boy,
may have lived around 3000 years ago.
According to the story, God decided that David
should become king and, using the prophet
Samuel, got him into the household of current
king Saul as a sort of bard. Then David slays
the giant Goliath and starts winning battles.
David eventually becomes king of Israel and
has many adventures, including some sexy in-
terludes with a married woman (Bathsheba)
and various conquests of territory. Oh, and did
we mention the Witch of Endor?
“Yeah, you’ve got the Witch of Endor,
you’ve got the shade of Samuel — you’re
going to dramatize that,” Boyd says. And
when he says dramatize, he means something
like “set up very exciting special effects that
are top secret.” Everyone associated with the
production speaks in hints and with mysteri-
ous glances about those special effects. And
for that, we can blame Boyd and Lewis &
Clark theater professor Michael Olich, not to
mention Swiss composer Arthur Honegger.
Morax had written his play and wanted
music for it, but composers including Igor
Stravinsky let him know that two months
wasn’t quite enough time for a composer to
come up with incidental music for the entire
script. But young Honegger took it on, and
the play opened to great success in 1921. For
Big Cheesy
All Shook Up by songs of the King
E
lvis songs! Elvis songs! Elvis songs!
That’s really all you need to know about All Shook Up,
but since this review isn’t one of The Guardian’s “Digested
Reads,” you might be expecting a bit more info. If you have
never heard a song by Elvis (I’m not sure how that would hap-
pen, but it’s not as if we live near Graceland), listen to a few first
in preparation for a couple of hours of relentless Elvis mania.
Yes, there’s a plot — a plot like the mutant offspring of Bus
Stop, Grease, Pleasantville, Picnic and Bye Bye Birdie — with a
bit of Grease II in there as well, not to mention a dollop of
Twelfth Night and As You LIke It.
Confused? Here’s the plot: Chad, a self-described
“roustabout,” gets out of jail in one town (guess which song
opens the show) and heads off on his motorcycle for another.
When his bike starts making a “jiggly wiggly” sound (cue faint-
ing sounds from the chorus), he stops and asks master me-
chanic Natalie Haller (Rebecca Teran) to fix it up. Chad wants to
jump start the town on his way through — and the town needs
lighting up. Everyone seems to be dealing with repression and
frustrated desire.
A buttoned-up mayor (Margaret Innocenti) has silenced the
entire place with her “Mamie Eisenhower Decency Act” — and
she sent her only son (Ben Klute) off to military school, where
apparently he learned to be apple-cheek adorable. Home for a
few days, the son, Dean, falls for Lorraine (Ashley Apelzin),
daughter of local tavern owner Sylvia (Erica Jean). Sylvia’s tart
tongue fails to hide her admiration for Natalie’s father Jim (Tony
Joyner), but Jim’s about to fall for voluptuous museum curator
Miss Sandra (Breanna Carter), who also attracts the attentions
of stranger Chad.
Natalie’s best friend Dennis (Nick Forrest) is agonizingly
silent about his love for Natalie, who, of course, falls for Chad.
When Natalie can’t seem to get Chad’s attention, she trans-
forms herself into Chad’s new buddy and sidekick Ed. Will Ed be
successful where Natalie was not? Will Sylvia woo Jim away
from Miss Sandra? Can Miss Sandra find someone to fall for
who’s not Ed? Could the audience please not respond with re-
flexive homophobic laughter when Miss Sandra wants to kiss Ed
or Ed wants to kiss Chad? The climactic scene at the old fair-
grounds will reveal all.
Chad (Greg Hall, lead singer for local band The Johnson Unit
and a tall, skinny Elvis impersonator) should serve as the focus
of the musical. But Hall doesn’t have enough vocal training or
power, and though he has clearly worked hard on his acting,
ain’t no swang to his thang. Luckily, Teran’s pure excellence as
Natalie (and Ed) carries many of their scenes together.
Other strong cast members include Jean as Sylvia and
Apelzin (whose mom also appears in the ensemble) as Lorraine.
Lorraine (Ashley Apelzin) faces off with mom Sylvia (Erica Jean)
Both possess strong voices and mobile features perfect for mu-
sical theater. Apelzin and Klute, who perform competitively to-
gether in high school musical theater competitions, move to-
gether easily. Joyner is sweet and fairly solid as “Natalie’s
daddy,” and Carter has some good, if melodramatic, moments
as Miss Sandra.
Generally, this show serves up slice after thick slice of
Velveeta: It’s gooey, enveloping and all too yummy. From the
full-on hokey chorus scenes (which were highly enjoyable) to
the sublimely absurd “statues come to life” set piece for Miss
Sandra and Ed; from the doofiest lines (“Feel it in your heart!”)
to the goofiest expressions (the falling-in-love trope of “One
Night with You”), this show bounces from moment to moment
with not even a crust of whole-wheat bread underpinning the
cheese.
And yet, who cares? I mean really, who cares? The silly script
by Joe DiPietro no more than scantily covers the body of the
piece: Elvis songs!! I was surprised people weren’t on their feet
by the end. Yes, OK, I understand that Elvis would be 72 now
were he alive, and that definitely influences the average age of
those snapping up tickets for this show, but people, get up and
dance. The cast members, often blasting out their lungs (and
our ears), deserve a bit more love. To be honest, one night with
them and you won’t be able to help falling in deeply affectionate
like with this schmaltzy, fun musical.
ew
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