Latest news with #PasadenaPlayhouse
Los Angeles Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Ibsen's 1879 play left audiences shocked. Now in Pasadena, the door opens to ‘A Doll's House, Part 2'
In 'A Doll's House, Part 2,' playwright Lucas Hnath cheekily proposes an answer to a question that has haunted the theater for more than a century: Whatever happened to Nora after she walked out on her marriage at the end of Henrik Ibsen's 1879 drama, 'A Doll's House'? The door slam that concludes Ibsen's play ushered in a revolution in modern drama. After Nora's exit, anything was possible on the stages of respectable European playhouses. Conventional morality was no longer a choke hold on dramatic characters, who were allowed to set dangerous new precedents for audiences that may have been easily shocked but were by no means easily deterred. 'A Doll's House, Part 2,' which opened Sunday at Pasadena Playhouse under the direction of Jennifer Chang, is a sequel with a puckish difference. Although ostensibly set 15 years after Nora stormed out on Torvald and her three children, the play takes place in a theatrical present that has one antique-looking shoe in the late 19th century and one whimsical sneaker in the early 21st. The hybrid nature of 'A Doll's House, Part 2' isn't just reflected in the costume design. The language of the play moves freely from the declamatory to the profane, with some of its funniest moments occurring when fury impels a character to unleash some naughty modern vernacular. More crucially, comedy and tragedy are allowed to coexist as parallel realities. Hnath has constructed 'A Doll's House, Part 2' as a modern comedy of ideas, divided into a series of confrontations in which characters get to thrash out different perspectives on their shared history. Chang stages the play like a courtroom drama, with a portion of the audience seated on the stage like a jury. The spare (if too dour) set by Wilson Chin, featuring the door that Nora made famous and a couple of rearranged chairs, allows for the brisk transit of testimony in a drama that lets all four characters have their say. Nora (played with a touch too much comic affectation by Elizabeth Reaser) has become a successful author of controversial women's books espousing radical ideas about the trap of conventional marriage. She has returned to the scene of her domestic crime out of necessity. Torvald (portrayed with compelling inwardness by Jason Butler Harner), her stolid former husband, never filed the divorce papers. She's now in legal jeopardy, having conducted business as an unmarried woman. And her militant feminist views have won her enemies who would like nothing more than to send her to prison. Nora needs Torvald to do what he was supposed to have done years ago: officially end their marriage. But not knowing how he might react to her reemergence, she makes arrangements to strategize privately with Anne Marie (Kimberly Scott), the old nanny who raised Nora's children in her absence and isn't particularly inclined to do her any favors. After Torvald and Anne Marie both refuse to cooperate with her, Nora has no choice but to turn to her daughter, Emmy (crisply played by Kahyun Kim). Recently engaged to a young banker, Emmy has chosen the road that her mother abandoned, a distressing realization for Nora, who had hoped that her example would have inaugurated a new era of possibility for women. Hnath works out the puzzle of Nora's dilemma as though it were a dramatic Rubik's Cube. The play hasn't any ax to grind. If there's one prevailing truth, it's that relationships are murkier and messier than ideological arguments. Nora restates why she left her marriage and explains as best she can the reasons she stayed away from her children all these years. But her actions, however necessary, left behind a tonnage of human wreckage. 'A Doll's House, Part 2' offers a complex moral accounting. As each character's forcefully held view is added to the ledger sheet, suspense builds over how the playwright will balance the books. Each new production of 'A Doll's House, Part 2' works out the math in a slightly different way. The play had its world premiere at South Coast Repertory in 2017 in an elegant production that was somewhat more somber than the Broadway production that opened shortly after and earned Laurie Metcalf a well-deserved Tony for her performance. The play found its voice through the Broadway developmental process, and Metcalf's imprint is unmistakable in the rhythms of Nora's whirligig monologues and bracing retorts. Metcalf is the rare actor who can lunge after comedy without sacrificing the raw poignancy of her character. Reaser adopts a humorous mode but it feels forced. More damagingly, it doesn't seem as if Hnath's Nora has evolved all that much from the skittishly coquettish wife of Ibsen's play. The intellectual arc of 'A Doll's House, Part 2' suffers from the mincing way Reaser introduces the character, with little conviction for Nora's feminist principles and only a superficial sense of the long, exhausting road of being born before your time. The early moments with Scott's Anne Marie are unsteady. Reaser's Nora comes off as a shallow woman oblivious of her privilege, which is true but only partly so. Scott has a wonderful earthy quality, but I missed the impeccable timing of Jayne Houdyshell's Anne Marie, who could stop the show with an anachronistic F-bomb. Chang's staging initially seems like a work-in-progress. The production is galvanized by the excellent performances of Harner and Kim. Harner reveals a Torvald changed by time and self-doubt. Years of solitude, sharpened by intimations of mortality, have cracked the banker's sense of certainty. He blames Nora for the hurt he'll never get over, but he doesn't want to go down as the paragon of bad husbands. He too would like a chance to redeem himself, even if (as Harner's canny performance illustrates) character is not infinitely malleable. Bad habits endure. Kim's Emmy holds her own against Nora even as her proposed solution to her mother's dilemma involves some questionable ethics. Nora may be disappointed that her daughter is making such conformist choices, but Emmy sees no reason why the mother she never knew should feel entitled to shape her life. The brusquely controlled way Kim's Emmy speaks to Nora hints at the ocean of unresolved feelings between them. The production is somewhat hampered by Anthony Tran's cumbersome costumes and Chin's grimly rational scenic design. Elizabeth Harper's lighting enlivens the dull palette, but I missed the surreal notes of the South Coast Repertory and Broadway stagings. Hnath creates his own universe, and the design choices should reflect this wonderland quality to a jauntier degree. But Chang realizes the play's full power in the final scene between Nora and Torvald. Reaser poignantly plunges the depths of her character, as estranged husband and wife share what the last 15 years have been like for them. 'A Doll's House' was considered in its time to be politically incendiary. Hnath's sequel, without squelching the politics, picks up the forgotten human story of Ibsen's indelible classic.
Los Angeles Times
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Parents, rejoice! Pasadena Playhouse provides childcare during a show: L.A. arts and culture this week
I was unreasonably elated to discover that the Pasadena Playhouse is test-driving a program that offers Saturday childcare during the May 24 matinee of 'A Dolls House, Part 2,' starring Jason Butler Harner and Elizabeth Reaser. The program is open to kids 5 to 12 and offers theater-based activities inspired by the play and led by Playhouse teaching artists. The cost is $20 per child — far less than what a parent would pay for a sitter for the afternoon — and the group fun takes place on site while parents watch the show. Here's hoping more theaters develop similar programs. For so many parents, childcare is the No. 1 barrier to attending live shows and cultural events. A good sitter will set you back $15 to $25 per hour, plus tip. Add the cost of tickets, parking and even a modest dinner out, and a night on the town easily soars past $300. Pasadena Playhouse is suited to hold such a program since it already runs youth theater classes and has a wonderful group of artists who regularly teach children. (Full disclosure: My daughter attends these classes.) But I can imagine a world in which other theaters, classical music groups and dance troupes begin offering similar programs. They would pay dividends in ticket sales and patron loyalty. There is no more grateful a human than a parent given a much-needed break. I'm arts and culture writer Jessica Gelt. I came for the childcare and stayed for the show. Here's this week's roundup of arts news. With opening-weekend crowds behind us, now is an excellent time to experience Jeffrey Gibson's show at the Broad museum, which Times contributor David Pagel noted in his recent profile has the Gibson artworks that wowed visitors at the 2024 Venice Biennale: 'a giant, stylized bird, festooned with thousands of glistening beads; a laser-sharp painting, composed of up to 290 supersaturated colors; an array of lavishly patterned flags, from places no one has ever visited; or an evocative phrase, lifted from a novel, a pop song, a poem or a document, such as the U.S. Constitution.' Note that the museum, usually free, is staging this as a special exhibition with admission of $15. Through Sept. 28, closed Mondays. The Broad, 221 S. Grand Ave., downtown L.A. Writer Susan King started a 2019 L.A. Times article with this great lede: Robert Townsend, the acclaimed director of such films as 1987's 'Hollywood Shuffle' and 1991's 'The Five Heartbeats,' got his start in the biz as a teenager with a one-line role in the 1975 African American teen dramedy 'Cooley High.' 'The movie changed my life,' recalled Townsend in a recent interview. 'I remember after I made the movie and it finally premiered in the theater in downtown Chicago, I started to cry. It was like this is my life. ... [Director] Michael Schultz really changed the landscape of cinema for people of color. He was the first one to paint with that brush of truly being human. We had never seen a movie where there was a young Black man talking about that he wanted to be a writer.' On Monday, you'll have the chance to see 'Cooley High' on the big screen. The event at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood includes a Q&A with Schultz and actors Glynn Turman and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, moderated by Townsend. 7:30 p.m. Monday, Egyptian, 6712 Hollywood Blvd., L.A. The nonprofit Printed Matter returns with the eighth installment of its fair, which has drawn tens of thousands of fans with booths selling limited-edition prints, handcrafted artist books and obscure titles by small presses. (For a visual sampler, check out Carolina A. Miranda's amusing photo tour from years ago.) The celebration, formerly held at the Museum of Contemporary Art's Geffen Contemporary, this year moves to ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena. Although the location is different, much of the programming will be the same, including live music performances and the discussion series 'The Classroom.' 6-9 p.m. Thursday, 1-7 p.m. Friday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday (first two hours Sunday is a mask-required period). ArtCenter South Campus, 870 and 950 S. Raymond Ave., Pasadena. The only two surviving buildings from Terminal Island's days as a thriving Japanese American fishing village in the early 1900s have been placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 2025 list of America's 11 most endangered historic places. The buildings are in danger of being razed by the Port of Los Angeles, and the hope is that the visibility afforded by the list will help preservation efforts. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Terminal Island was the first place from which Japanese Americans were uprooted and sent to government camps such as Manzanar in the Owens Valley. The Trump administration is attempting to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts in its latest budget proposal, and the NEA recently sent a wave of letters to arts organizations across the country canceling grants. Center for the Art of Performance at UCLA, South Coast Repertory, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Industry and L.A. Theatre Works are just some of SoCal nonprofits that got the bad news last week. The loss of this longstanding funding has left many organizations scrambling. Features columnist Todd Martens participated in the fourth Immersive Invitational, an interactive theater experience that gives participating companies 48 hours to create a 10-minute production and perform it multiple times on the event's final day. 'With the limited time frame, participating theater crews have to quickly establish a place and a sense of purpose, lending the audience, which must immediately contort to their role as actors, a call to action,' writes Martens of the fast-paced and joyful proceedings. The latest show at Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, is from an artist who has long been compelled by the visible and invisible labor of immigrant communities. Times contributor Tara Anne Dalbow notes how Castillo's work draws attention to the workers responsible for building construction, maintenance and repair. 'Beneath the facade of every home, school, business and community center lie layers of material meaning and memory that bear forth records of the minds and hands that envisioned and assembled them,' Dalbow writes. Wednesdays-Sundays through Aug. 31. ICA LA, 1717 E. 7th St., L.A. South Coast Repertory announced a 2025-26 season lineup that includes Edward Albee's 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf' and Yasmina's Reza's 'God of Carnage,' running from late January to March in rotating repertory. The season opens this September with the jukebox musical 'Million Dollar Quartet,' featuring the music of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. That's followed by the Lloyd Suh play 'The Heart Sellers,' about the chance connection between two immigrant women, one Filipino and one Korean, preparing a Thanksgiving meal. Also on the schedule: SCR's 'A Christmas Carol' tradition, carried on for the 45th year; the Karen Zacarias musical 'Cinderella: A Salsa Fairy Tale,' part of the Theatre for Young Audiences and Families programming; two world premieres opening in April, 'Fremont Ave.' by Reggie D. White and a second title to be announced later; and 'Hershey Felder, Beethoven,' in June 2026, and the one-night-only 'Hershey Felder's Great American Songbook Sing-Along,' on June 14, 2026. More details and production dates are at Los Angeles Youth Orchestra is holding auditions for new members on Saturday and Sunday at First Presbyterian Church, 4963 Balboa Blvd., Encino. Applicants must have had at least two years of private instruction on their instrument. LAYO has more than 100 student musicians from more 50 schools in the region. The National Children's Chorus under Artistic Director Luke McEndarfer has partnered with Compton Unified School District in establishing scholarship-funded vocal training classes at Compton High School. The classes, which began this semester, take place three times per week and include ensemble singing, vocal technique, music theory, sight-singing and performance practice. Leave it to Baltimore to stage the absurdly fun Kinetic Sculpture Race, hosted by the American Visionary Art Museum. This year's 25th anniversary event featured a massive pink dog sculpture, 'Fifi,' that was part of a group of wild creations to be pushed, biked and otherwise maneuvered on a 15-mile long race track. — Jessica Gelt The president and director of the Art Institute of Chicago is taking time off while the museum investigates a news report that he began stripping off his clothes on a flight from Chicago to Munich after drinking alcohol and taking prescription meds.
Time of India
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Ruth Buzzi, legendary comedian and Scowling Lady from 'Laugh-In', passes away at 88
Comic actress Ruth Buzzi , who made millions laugh with her unforgettable role as the stern handbag-swinging Gladys Ormphby on 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In ', has passed away at the age of breathed her last peacefully on Thursday at her ranch near Fort Worth, Texas, after living with Alzheimer's disease for over 10 years, as confirmed by her long-time agent, Mike Eisenstadt. 'Her husband of almost 48 years, Kent Perkins, expressed to me that she was making people laugh just a few days ago,' Eisenstadt said in an email to Reuters. Ruth Ann Buzzi was born on 24 July 1936 in Westerly, Rhode Island, and raised in Stonington, Connecticut. She had her heart set on acting from a young age. Straight after school, she packed her bags and moved to California to train at the Pasadena Playhouse for the Performing Arts. While studying there, she crossed paths with future greats like Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman , who were also sharpening their craft at the same time. Rising Through the Ranks by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Secure Your Child's Future with Strong English Fluency Planet Spark Learn More Undo Before becoming a household name, Buzzi honed her skills in comedy revues and small television roles. She appeared on 'The Garry Moore Show' in 1964, catching attention with her sharp comedic timing. She also took to the stage in the original Broadway run of 'Sweet Charity' in 1966, playing alongside Gwen Verdon . This helped launch her into the mainstream, where her unique blend of physical comedy and quirky characters made her stand out. Making History on 'Laugh-In' Ruth Buzzi found fame and national love in 1968 when she joined the cast of 'Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In' – a fast-paced, zany sketch comedy show on NBC. She was the only cast member to appear in every episode until the show ended in 1973. Her most famous character, Gladys Ormphby, became an icon. Dressed in a brown dress, tight hairnet, and forever scowling, Gladys sat on a park bench and fought off the cheeky advances of Arte Johnson 's creepy old man character by whacking him with her handbag. It was comedy gold, and viewers adored it.
Hindustan Times
03-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
'Laugh-In' star Ruth Buzzi, scowling lady with the handbag, dead at 88
WASHINGTON - Comic performer Ruth Buzzi, who played a counterpoint to the 1960s sexual revolution for laughs as the frumpy, hairnet-wearing, handbag-swinging spinster on U.S. prime-time television hit "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In," has died at age 88. Buzzi succumbed to complications from Alzheimer's disease at her ranch home near Fort Worth, Texas, on Thursday, 10 years after she was diagnosed, her longtime Los Angeles-based agent Mike Eisenstadt said in a statement. "Her husband of almost 48 years, Kent Perkins, expressed to me that she was making people laugh just a few days ago," Eisenstadt said in an email message to Reuters on Friday. Born and raised in New England, Buzzi moved to California after high school to study acting and joined the Pasadena Playhouse for the Performing Arts, alongside future Oscar winners Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman. She went on to an entertainment career spanning 60 years. She was best known for her work on "Laugh-In," a groundbreaking NBC ensemble comedy hour that premiered in the summer of 1968, helping to define the pop culture of the era and launching the careers of several stars, including Goldie Hawn and Lily Tomlin. Buzzi devised a series of sketch comedy characters on the show. Gladys Ormphby, her most famous, was a scowling, irascible spinster who wore drab brown dresses and a hairnet with a spider-like knot in the center of her forehead. Sitting on a park bench, she would react to the approaches of a dirty old man played by Arte Johnson by mercilessly walloping him with her handbag when he muttered come-ons to her. The Gladys and Tyrone bits offered a satiric contrast to the era's sexually permissive vibe celebrated on the show, which ran until 1973. The Gladys character became so popular that she began appearing elsewhere on prime time, and it became a badge of honor for a celebrity to be thrashed by Buzzi. Appearing on one of several televised celebrity "roasts" hosted by actor-singer Dean Martin, Buzzi encountered the heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. As Gladys, the diminutive Buzzi ranted about Ali interfering in her relationship with her boyfriend, then threateningly pointed her index finger at him. "If you want to make something of it, I want you to meet me out in the parking lot, and we'll have it out, man to man," Buzzi tells him, unleashing dozens of rapid-fire handbag hits to the head and shoulders of the bemused champion, who took it all in good humor. At another roast, Buzzi as Gladys tells Martin: "Look at you, sitting there so calm and cool, when last night you were yearning for my body." Martin responds: "That wasn't yearning, it was yawning," precipitating a handbag assault, with entertainment legend Frank Sinatra looking on and laughing. "No, it didn't hurt," Buzzi told interviewer Nick Thomas in 2016. "It looked vicious, but it was just a felt purse lined and filled with old pantyhose and cotton. I was able to swing it with all my might and it still wouldn't hurt anyone, although it looked great and sounded great with a 'thud' when it landed." Buzzi earned three prime-time Emmy Award nominations in the 1970s - for "Laugh-In" and "The Dean Martin Show" - and two daytime Emmy nods in the 1980s and '90s, including one for her work on the acclaimed children's show "Sesame Street." She won a 1973 Golden Globe award for "Laugh-In." Buzzi perfected a portfolio of zany characters. "My favorite character to play was actually 'Doris Sidebottom,' the sloppy drunk," Buzzi said. "I also had fun with 'Busy Buzzi,' the gossip columnist, and my hooker character, 'Kim Hither.'" In addition to guest appearances on various variety shows and sitcoms over the years, Buzzi occasionally played supporting roles in films such as "Freaky Friday", "The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again" and "The North Avenue Irregulars."
Perth Now
02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
US comedian and entertainer Ruth Buzzi dead at 88
Ruth Buzzi, who rose to fame as the frumpy and bitter Gladys Ormphby on the groundbreaking sketch US comedy series Laugh-In and made more than 200 television appearances during a 45-year career, has died at age 88. Buzzi died on Thursday at her home in Texas, her agent Mike Eisenstad said. She had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease and was in hospice care. Shortly before her death, her husband, Kent Perkins, had posted a statement on Buzzi's Facebook page, thanking her many fans and telling them: "She wants you to know she probably had more fun doing those shows than you had watching them." Buzzi won a Golden Globe and was a two-time Emmy nominee for the NBC show that ran from 1968 to 1973. She was the only regular to appear in all six seasons, including the pilot. Born Ruth Ann Buzzi on July 24, 1936, in Westerly, Rhode Island, she was the daughter of Angelo Buzzi, a nationally known stone sculptor. Her father and later her brother operated Buzzi Memorials, a gravestone and monument maker in Stonington, Connecticut, where she was head cheerleader in high school. Buzzi enrolled at the Pasadena Playhouse at age 17. Two years later, she travelled with singer Rudy Vallee in a musical and comedy act during her summer break. That earned her an Actors' Equity union card before she graduated from the playhouse's College of Theatre Arts. Buzzi moved to New York and was immediately hired for a lead role in an off-Broadway musical revue, the first of 19 such shows she performed in on the East Coast. She was a semi-regular on That Girl as Marlo Thomas' friend. She co-starred with Jim Nabors as time-travelling androids on The Lost Saucer in the mid-1970s. Her other guest appearances included variety shows hosted by Burnett, Flip Wilson, Glen Campbell, Tony Orlando, Donny and Marie Osmond and Leslie Uggams. Buzzi guested in music videos with Weird Al Yankovic, the B-52's and the Presidents of the United States of America. She was Emmy nominated for her six-year run as shopkeeper Ruthie on Sesame Street. Buzzi was active on social media and had thousands of followers whom she rewarded with such one-liners as "I have never faked a sarcasm" and "Scientists say the universe is made up entirely of neurons, protons and electrons. They seem to have missed morons." She married actor Kent Perkins in 1978. The couple moved from California to Texas in 2003 and bought a 260-hectare ranch near Stephenville. Buzzi retired from acting in 2021 and suffered a series of strokes the following year. Her husband told The Dallas Morning News in 2023 that she had dementia.
