It may have taken nearly three decades, but Brad Zimmerman finally has found his life’s calling as a comedic actor and showcases his talent beautifully in his one-man show, “My Son the Waiter: A Jewish Tragedy.”
Zimmerman regales us with tales of his woes: a stereotypical Jewish mother who sees him as a failure, a monotonous life as a waiter for 29 years that barely affords him rent money, and years of being alone because no one will date him.
Unlike most struggling actors who find some acting parts or go home within a few years, too scared to audition, Zimmerman took acting classes for more than a decade and then continued working as a surly waiter until he was nearly 50. When customers yelled, “Waiter!,” he shot back, “Customer!”
He sunk into depression. His therapist said he had to go for his dream. Still too scared to audition, he took a class in writing and performing standup comedy, got good at it and ended up as the opening act for George Carlin and Joan Rivers.
In his one-man show — which ran on the New York stage in 2014 for nearly five months — he melds his standup alongside of his life’s tragedies. He takes us back to his days as a child superstar athlete and to nearly 40 years later when he is a failed actor who randomly calls his father for money. He shares his feelings about celebrity athletes and reality TV stars, his mother who constantly compares his life to the grown children of her friends who have sold their businesses and become rich, and his diet that has given him high cholesterol. Zimmerman excels at talking to and connecting with the audience while transforming himself into numerous characters: an athlete who dances a minute-long swish and sway as if he’d just made a touchdown, a stereotypical old Jewish woman who can’t decide what dish to order and a loudmouth braggart who shouts into her cell phone about her life of riches.
If you’re Jewish or know many Jewish people, or if you’ve ever struggled for years or dreamed of doing the near impossible, you’ll certainly relate to his comedic tales. For minutes on end, we are pulled into his life and are rooting for him. There he is, like Spalding Gray and Eric Bogosian before him, enveloping us into his life story, but standing up and acting scenes out, from as far back as when he was an adolescent at Camp Akiba before his was bar mitzvahed.
But all is not perfect. As a script writer, Zimmerman fails to seamlessly blend his comedic act into his storyline. We feel connected to his life’s story but then are pulled out of it, and are left wondering, “Are you now doing a standup comedy routine rather than continuing the story of your life?” Either way as a storyteller or comic, he’s funny, and his show is worth seeing. Zimmerman has found his just desserts and goes home each night with his biggest tip yet: he’s now an employed stage and TV actor.
Written and directed by Brad Zimmerman, “My Son the Waiter: A Jewish Tragedy” runs through June 18 at 7 Stages.
If you’re looking to find great theater in Atlanta this weekend, it’s the musical “Finding Neverland.” Yes, the movie was great, and this production is a musical version of the same story about how J.M Barrie came upon the idea and storyline for “Peter Pan.”
If you saw “Finding Neverland” on Broadway or elsewhere during this national tour, there have been a few tweaks since then, making this a wonderful production and so worthy of seeing. I had read earlier reviews of the show, and my guest and I both expected to be bored. Au contraire, we both loved it and thought the acting, singing, and choreography were wonderful. And we both left in tears. Bring tissues.
The show is perfect for adolescents and adults. There are plenty of theatrical stage antics — pirates swing from ship halyards, glittering lighted flakes stream down from the rafters and a real labradoodle puts children to bed — but there’s also loads of talent. The four lost boys are impressive actors and when they sing as a quartet as one of them plays a ukulele, they look and sound like the next superstar pop band. Their mother, Sylvia (Christine Dwyer) and J.M. Barrie ( Billy Harrigan Tighe) also are wonderful singers. The songs “What You Mean to Me” and the ballad “All that Matters” are standouts.
Book by James Graham, music and lyrics by Gary Barlow & Eliot Kennedy, choreography by Mia Michaels, directed by Diane Paulus, “Finding Neverland” runs through Sunday, May 21 at the Fox Theatre.
Two days after the birthday of the grand master of jazz, Duke Ellington, 40 Days of Jazz, a primer for the Memorial Day Weekend Atlanta Jazz Festival, continues with music this Sunday with the International Jazz Day. Unfortunately, I just discovered the cancellation of the concert that was scheduled at the Rialto Center for the Arts of Georgia State University with The Jazz Epistles, featuring Abdullah Ibrahim on piano, Kippie Moeketsi on alto saxophone, Jonas Gwangwa on trombone, Hugh Masekela on trumpet, Johnny Gertze on bass, and Early Mabuza or Makaya Ntshoko on drums. Boo, hoo, hoo! No one even told me.
Unfortunately, Hugh Maskela, one of the featured headliners with The Jazz Epistles, is ill and cannot travel to the United States, says the Atlanta Jazz Festival website. Instead, Japanese jazz pianist, Senri Oe, will be performing as a soloist this Sunday, April 30, at 3 p.m.
Check the calendar here for upcoming jazz events. The festival culminates Memorial Day Weekend with lots of free concerts, including Macy Gray.
The national touring company “Matilda the Musical” is worthy enough for its outstanding acting, choreography, dancing and singing aside from the story, whose ending made me shed a tear.
“Matilda the Musical” has won 70 international awards, including four Tony Awards and a record-breaking seven Olivier Awards.
Matilda is a precocious genius who was born into a family that doesn’t want her. Her father (Matt Harrington) is a car salesman who cheats his customers and calls Matilda a “brat” and a “boy.” Her mother (Darcy Stewart) spends her time ballroom dancing with a sexy dance partner, and neither parent understands why Matilda wastes her time reading books when she could be watching “the telly.”
On her first day of school, Matilda shocks her fellow students and teacher as she is already a whiz at math and reading. The principal, Miss Trunchbull (Dan Chameroy), mocks and belittles the children, trills her “Rs” as if she is casting evil spells on them and pulls them by their ears and their pigtails. The library and her warm, kind teacher, Miss Honey (Jennifer Bowles) are Matilda’s refuge.
Based on the novel “Matilda” by Roald Dahl, who also wrote “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” this musical production keeps both children and adults entertained with humor and music, but what makes this show so worthy is the fantastic performances by the adult and child actors. They keep the acting so real, even for those caricature over-the-top characters: the mother, father and Miss Trunchbull. On opening night Matilda was played by Jenna Weir, but she shares the role with Gabby Gutierrez and Jaime Maclean. Weir was outstanding.
If you have children, take them to this show. If you don’t have children, go simply for the wonderful performances and the creative choreography, which melds Broadway, ballroom, hip-hop, ballet and modern.
Book by Dennis Kelly, music & lyrics by Tim Minchin, “Matilda the Musical” runs through April 23 at The Fox.
Cast:
Party Entertainer . . . . . . . . . . . Stephen Diaz
Doctor . . . . . . . . . . . Justin Packard
Mrs. Wormwood . . . . . . . . . . . Darcy Stewart
Mr. Wormwood . . . . . . . . . . . Matt Harrington
Matila . . . . . . . . . . . Jenna Weir
Michael Wormwood . . . . . . . . . . . Darren Burkett
Mrs. Phelps . . . . . . . . . . . Keisha T. Fraser
Miss Honey . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Bowles
The Escape Artist . . . . . . . . . . . Justin Packard
The Acrobat . . . . . . . . . . . Kim Sava
Miss Trunchbull . . . . . . . . . . . Can Chameroy
Rudolpho . . . . . . . . . . . Stephen Diaz
Sergi . . . . . . . . . . . Eric Craig
Other parts played by Jacqueline Burtney, Marisa Kennedy, Anthony MacPherson, Tyler McKenzie, Gray Monczka, Soren Miller, Gabby Beredo, Jacob Anderson, Isabella Stuebing, Jim Kaplan, Molly Richardson, Talia Cosentino, Gregory Diaz IV.
The SF Jazz Collective performs The Music of Miles Davis and original compositions this Saturday. Launched in 2004 by SFJAZZ, the Collective, a bunch of jazz all-stars, has become known for playing the music of legendary composers, including Thelonious Monk, Stevie Wonder, Wayne Shorter, Michael Jackson, Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane.
The band includes Miguel Zenon, alto saxophone, David Sanchez, tenor saxophone, Sean Jones, trumpet, Robin Eubanks, trombone, Warren Wolf, vibraphone, Edward Simon, piano, Matt Penman, bass, and Obed Calvaire, drums.
Zenon is a multiple Grammy Award nominee, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. He has released many albums as a band leader and appeared on over 70 recordings as a sideman.
David Sanchez is a six-time Grammy Award nominee and Latin Grammy Award winner in 2005 for Best Instrumental Album, “Coral.” He has toured with Eddie Palmieri and performed with Hilton Ruiz and Claudio Roditi who brought Sánchez to the attention of Jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie. In 1991, Gillespie invited the young saxophonist to join his “Live the Future” tour with Miriam Makeba. Later having the opportunity to be a part of Gillespie’s recording, “Live At The Blue Note.”
Sean Jones is featured on the 2007 Grammy Award-winning album “Turned to Blue” by Nancy Wilson. As a bandleader, he has released seven albums under the Mack Avenue Records label. He performs with his own groups both nationally and internationally. Jones often plays at music venues and jazz festivals such as the Monterey Jazz Festival, Detroit International Jazz Festival, and Montreal International Jazz Festival.
Robin Eubanks has performed with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Slide Hampton, Sun Ra, Elvin Jones and Stevie Wonder, and has released several albums as a bandleader. He played for 15 years in double bassist Dave Holland’s quintet, sextet, octet and big band.
Warren Wolf taught at Berklee College of Music for two years and has toured and performed with Bobby Watson’s “Live and Learn” Sextet, Karriem Riggins “Virtuoso Experience” and Christian McBride & “Inside Straight.”
Bobby Simon was named Guggenheim Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and has been employed by Bobby Hutcherson, Herbie Mann, Kevin Eubanks and Paquito D’Rivera.
Matt Penman founded a collaborative quartet with Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks and Eric Harland called James Farm. He performs regularly with John Scofield; in trio and in quartet with Joe Lovano. He is a member of Nils Wogram’s Root 70, and Breve, a drummer-less trio with Hayden Chisholm and John Taylor. Other collaborators have included Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kenny Werner, Dave Douglas, Chris Cheek, Seamus Blake, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Guillermo Klein, Rebecca Martin, Nicholas Payton, Fred Hersch and Madeleine Peyroux.
Obed Calvaire has performed and recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Seal, Eddie Palmeri, Vanessa Williams, Mark Murphy, David Foster, Mary J. Blidge, Stefon Harris, Monty Alexander, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Music Soulchild, Nellie McKay, Yellow Jackets, Joshua Redman, Steve Turre, and Lizz Wright to name a few. He has also performed with large ensembles such as the Village Vanguard Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band, Roy Hargrove Big Band, and the Bob Mintzer Big Band.
SFJAZZ is a nonprofit organization that presents year round jazz concerts, festivals and educational programs at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco, CA.
Tickets can be purchased online at the Ferst Center for the Arts.
Tara Ochs, Photo: Jake Scott-Hodes,
“White Woman in Progress,” a one-woman show written and performed by Tara Ochs, revolves around racism against African Americans. Inspired by the real-life character she played in the film “Selma,” Viola Liuzzo, a white woman who was killed while fighting for civil rights, Ochs developed this piece to do her part in the fight for equality.
On the stage, Ochs discusses things she learned about the Civil Rights movement from her research for her role. Liuzzo, a nearly 40-year-old married white woman with five young children in 1965, drove from Michigan to Selma to join the Voting Rights march to Alabama’s capital, Montgomery. While driving a young black man back to Selma after the march, Liuzzo was shot and killed by the Ku Klux Klan. Ochs shares Liuzzo’s history and portrays the martyr as well as numerous other characters, including young children, teachers, a prejudiced white woman in Selma and the editor of Ladies Home Journal who wrote disparagingly of Liuzzo for going to Alabama. Ochs portrays those characters well, especially the editor, who appears to be a sly, catty Southern version of Donna Reed. As for portraying Ochs herself at different times in her own life, the actress tends to overact and talk at the audience rather than to them.
Ochs tells the audience she didn’t know much about the march before researching her movie role. Interspersed through the performance are fleeting, gut-wrenching video recordings of black people being disabused by authorities. At least there was that and the magazine journal that chilled my soul. The preachy content did not.
Ochs is an inprov performer and instructor at Dad’s Garage Theatre Company.
Directed by Heidi S. Howard, “White Woman in Progress” runs through April 9 at 7 Stages.
“The Magic Negro and other Blackity Blackness as told by an African-American Man who also happens to be Black” is billed as a hilarious one-man show performed and written by Mark Kendall. Although nearly the entire audience was howling with laughter, I was wondering what they all found to be so funny.
After the show, my middle-aged white girlfriend from my high school graduating class who was with me said her cheeks hurt from smiling so much. She and a black woman next to her tried explaining what they found funny to me by telling me the point of the show: to think about racism. I understood that. What I didn’t understand was what was so damn funny. The black woman asked if I was familiar with Dave Chappelle and Chris Rock. Yes, I said, and I find them to be funny.
I laughed some in this show. When Kendall reads aloud to an imaginary group of young children the book “Sam I Am,” a parody of Dr. Seuss’s “Green Eggs and Ham” I laughed and thought the humor was smart when he finally got the scene going. The first minute of two, he just creates the scene and the Seuss characters as he reads from the book’s pages while the pictures and words are shown on a large screen behind him. He juxtaposes the actual words from Seuss with his own words. When he finally gets to the part about a word that should not be uttered, I am laughing. This skit about a word that Sam refuses to say and then finally enjoys saying is very funny, especially since Kendall creates his characters so well.
I also laughed at the stereotypes of things that three different types of black men will say: one who is not black enough, one who is too black and one who is in the middle and calls himself African-American. Just when it makes sense for one of those types to say something about Martin Luther King, Kendall flips the direction so that his words fill us with laughter. Kendall is especially good at surprising the audience with the unexpected line.
Kendall is an ensemble member and teacher at Dad’s Garage Theatre, a local improv troupe. He was named best professional funnyman by Creative Loafing Atlanta in 2015.
“The Magic Negro and other Blackity Blackness as told by an African-American Man who also happens to be Black” runs through April 15 on the Hertz Stage at the Alliance Theatre.
The Off-Broadway hit musical comedy “Nobody Loves You” is one of the funniest most entertaining shows I’ve seen in years. Whether you love or disdain reality TV, this smartly written show will make you squeal as you watch TV-reality characters and producers behave as badly as they do on reality TV.
Mainly a cross between “The Bachelor” and “Big Brother,” “Nobody Loves You” is a reality TV show in which singles compete to find a mate and become the last couple standing. Think of the most neurotic, obnoxious characters you’ve seen on any reality show, add rhetoric and steroids, and meet the candidates. There’s super intense Samantha (Leslie Bellair), the Christian right, Christian (Ben Thorpe) and the seductress bombshell Megan (Jennifer Alice Acker), who in the hot-tub room thrusts her hips into Christian, pulls off his belt, spreads her legs and tells him to “come on in.” Although the characters are more than lively, they are no more over-the-top or unreal than the characters on reality TV.
Representing those who hate TV reality shows is Jeff (Patrick Wade), who says reality shows are only as real as the breasts on those shows. After his girlfriend, Tanya (Wendy Melkonian), dumps him at the end of a season to apply to be on the show to find someone who is better suited for her, he applies to be on the show to get her back. After joining the cast, he discovers that Tanya was not chosen as a cast member. He decides to stay anyway to write about stupid, “unreal reality TV” as part of his dissertation for his master’s degree. Nina (Melkonian), the show’s producer/director, encourages him to stay and state his true thoughts about reality TV as it shows how real the TV show really is.
The show’s host, Byron (Brad Raymond), brings “The Bachelor” show’s Chris Harrison to life with the same cock of the head and the same smirk with outstretched arms as he talks with viewers and the contestants. Byron also sings silly songs, sometimes in the style of Luther Vandross. Then, he sends contestants home because “Nobody loves you.”
You’ve seen characters like this: Dominic (Austin Tijerina), who tries to be hip and cool and to impress women by showing off his abs, acts similarly as the character “The Situation” from “Jersey Shore.” And there’s a scene that looks like something right out of “Big Brother” when Jeff wins the cupid staff, giving him the right to decide which contestants will room together. Evan (Tijerina), the gay roommate of Jeff’s love interest, Jenny (Jeanette Illidge), who works behind the scenes on the show, is hilarious as he sings and live-tweets about each episode.
I’ve never seen a full episode of “Jersey Shore” or “Big Brother,” but I’ve seen enough to see how “Nobody Loves You” parodies them as well as “The Batchelor,” a show I hate to admit to watching, religiously. “Nobody Loves You” is smart funny, not stupid funny. I and my companion, a 60-something-year-old straight male who practices law and does not watch reality TV, loved this show. Special shout out goes to Melkonian, who is outstanding in the three roles she plays.
Book & lyrics by Itamar Moses, music & lyrics by Gaby Alter, directed by Heidi McKerley, “Nobody Loves You” runs through April 30 at Horizon Theatre.
Itamar Moses is an American playwright, author, and television writer. He has been a staff writer for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, TNT’s Men of a Certain Age and most recently The Outsiders. Gaby Alter is an award-winning songwriter and composer based in Brooklyn. He writes for stage, television (MTV, PBS), film, radio (NPR), video games, and straight up pop songs.
No matter what your age or how often you’ve seen “Cinderella,” the world premiere of “Cinderella and Fella” will surprise you and fill you with joy and laughter. (The above video does not do it justice.) The script, singing and acting are excellent, and the performance by Queen Shelayley (Courtenay Collins) is reason enough to see this show.
The action takes place in a forest on the outskirts of a town called Kashoogie, where Cinderella (India S. Tyree) has just manually dragged her tiny house up to a forest filled with streams, kudzu, magnolias, wisteria, and lightning bugs. Her step-mother (Terry Burrell), step-sister, Vamnesia (Molly Coyne) and step-brother, Lavoris (Brian Walker), step outside of the house and read the announcement posted on a nearby tree. A “Boy Be Gonna” event will be held at the castle, where the prince will choose someone to become his cohort to live and travel with him for a year.
Back at the prince’s palace, Queen Shelayley dotes on Prince Maurice (Jeremiah Parker Hobbs) like a bubbale, fearing for each cough, germ, or item he touches that might harm him. Later, after his mother has sent him to his room, he considers aloud to himself why he should go outside anyway and quickly recalls a litany of all the things that could injure him. He sounds very much like little Peggy Ann McKay from Shel Silverstein’s poem “Sick” and it’s quite amusing.
Animal puppets, including a turtle (Scott E. DePoy) and a jive-talking frog, come to life to help Cinderella. Speaking of puppets, there’s a twist on the “Avenue Q” hit “It Sucks to be Me,” featuring Cinderella and Prince Maurice singing “How Cool It Must Be (to be you).” All the music is wonderful. Step Mom sings “I Must Love You Very Much” after prohibiting Cinderella from attending the gala. Cinderella belts out a soulful song, “I Got This,” Queen Shelalyley sings an operatic number, and Prince Maurice plays guitar and sings like a rock star. This is a feel-good show for happiness.
Book and additional lyrics by Janece Shaffer, music, lyrics and musical direction by S. Renee Clark, directed by Rosemary Newcott, “Cinderella and Fella” runs through April 9 at the Alliance Theatre.
“Exit Strategy” at True Colors Theatre takes a serious look at the social injustice of school closings in 2014 in lower-income neighborhoods in inner-city Chicago. There’s plenty of substance and humor and a talented cast that makes this show worthwhile.
The play opens with the assistant principal Ricky (Matthew Busch) trying to break the impending bad news to Pam (Tess Malis Kincaid), a 23-year-veteran teacher, that at the end of the year the school will close due to “low test scores and some other stuff.” School staff will have to look for new jobs and students will have no nearby schools to attend.
Determined to keep the school, teachers (white, black and Latino) organize neighborhood walkthroughs and protests. An insubordinate student, Donny (Lau’rie Roach), hacks into the school website where he creates a fund-raising site to support the cause to save the school. Arnold (William S. Murphey), a middle-aged teacher who has fought this battle at other schools before and lost, says it’s likely this closing can’t be stopped.
Fifty other schools in low-income neighborhoods have been closed down in the past year. The dilapidated schools are bulldozed down, as high-end real estate like Trader Joe’s remake the neighborhood. This high school is so underfunded that the ceiling tiles are missing or stained and teachers have to buy rat poisoning because they can’t afford an exterminator.
“Exit Strategy” was first produced in 2014, in Chicago, where the playwright was then living, a year after Chicago Public Schools had issued a list of 129 schools to close. The mayor at the time ended up closing 54 public schools, mainly in low-income black and Latino neighborhoods.
Written by Ike Holder (named the “Chicagoan of the Year in theater 2014”) and winner of the Windham–Campbell Literature Prize for drama in 2017, directed by John Dillon, “Exit Strategy” runs through March 19 at True Colors Theatre Company.
Cast:
Tracey N. Bonner . . . . . . . . Sadie
Ralph Del Rosario . . . . . . . . Luce
Diany Rodriguez . . . . . . . . Jania
