The Global Film Village

Re-Animator: The Musical is like a Blue Man Group Experience but with Blood

// July 2nd, 2011 // Comments Off // Stage Play

Re-Animator- The Musical," Jesse Merlin (l.), George Wendt. Photo: Thomas Hargis

by Marla Lewin

Stuart Gordon returned to the Steve Allen theatre with his new musical version of his own cult horror film “Re-Animator”. Complete with disposable plastic raincoats for those in the first few roses. The audience was amply warned of what was to follow when they found that the seats for at least the first three rows were already wrapped carefully in plastic. You had to make a simple choice spectator or participant. As the audience had a contingent of people sporting t-shirts honoring splatter movies you could easily tell not only what their choice would be, but where they wanted to sit. The closer to the action the better. The show has been extended again so their is still time to see it.

For those not versed in this genre the notes and this video will bring you up to speed:

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Fantastic Fest September 23-30, 2010 Geek Heaven

// July 3rd, 2010 // Comments Off // Film Festivals

by Marc Halperin

What can you say about a festival that advertises it self as having:

70 Features • 50 Shorts • Eight nights of parties * Guns • Barbecue • Swimmin’ Holes • Karaoke, and …an unholy amount of movies, booze and fun await you in Austin, Texas.

The last two words say it all, only in Austin, a city whose motto is “Help Keep Austin Weird.”

This annual event is put together with the prodigious help of Harry Knowles of Aint it Cool News. Harry has made a living for himself and a lot of other people by making the Internet into a refuge and business for many in fandom. Next to Comic-Con in San Diego this is probably the most important film festival in the United States for all things related to science fiction, horror, fantasy and the supernatural. (more…)

Nevermore to play Baltimore

// December 25th, 2009 // Comments Off // Stage Play

by Marla Lewin

Stuart Gordon,  Dennis Paoli and Jeffrey Combs’  terrific work Nevermore, recreating a night with Edgar Allen Poe will next play Baltimore at the Westminster Hall on January 23 and 24. This is Edgar Allen Poe’s bicentennial year and it has been an momentous one for him. A far better year than 1849 when he died at the age of 40 under mysterious circumstances. Poe didn’t receive a proper funeral and his death was not even publicly announced. This year a public funeral was held and a tombstone was finally erected at his grave site at Westminster Burying Ground.  Actors were engaged to portray friends and contemporaries to give a semblance of what should have occurred. All of this was accomplished by the Poe House and Museum of Baltimore, Maryland.

What is next for the production? Based on the enthusiastic crowds it has drawn over the long run here in Los Angeles there should be an extensive  future if audience’s have an opportunity to embrace it in other cities.

NEVERMORE tribute to Edgar Allen Poe held over till Dec. 19

// October 31st, 2009 // Comments Off // Stage Play

by Marla Lewin

I saw and wrote about this play in August when it began its limited run at the Steve Allen theatre in Hollywood. It seems so appropriate to comment on it today being Halloween. This the bicentennial year of Poe’s birth and Jeffrey Combs does a remarkable job of channeling Edgar Allen Poe for his stunning one man performance. Poe often did one man shows like this during his life because he wasn’t wealthy and needed the money to survive. He came from a theatrical family and he was very comfortable speaking to an audience.

The team of  Stuart Gordon,  Dennis Paoli and Jeffrey Combs have done terrific work recreating this experience and Los Angeles audiences have agreed by forcing extension after extension but now the play must end on December 19 because of prior commitments for the theatre.

If you love mystery, horror or just things that go bump in the night make it a point to see Nevermore before it closes.

To see the original article click here

Ray Bradbury’s “The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit” at the Fremont Centre Theatre

// October 6th, 2009 // Comments Off // Stage Play

photo by Ed Krieger

by Marla Lewin

Originally conceived by Ray Bradbury as a short story published in 1957 in the Saturday Evening Post as “The Magic White Suit.”  It is a fable based on characters and situations that Bradbury experienced as a child when he and his family lived in East LA among its largely latino population.The Bradbury family had left the midwest and moved to Los Angeles so that his father could seek work. Ray turned it into a short play and The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit was published with two of his other plays in 1972. It was produced by the Organic Theatre in Chicago that year by Stuart Gordon, who went on to gain fame as a horror movie genre director with Re-Animator. Stuart returned to the story in 1998 and directed the film version starring Edward James Olmos, Joe Mantegna, Esai Morales, Gregory Sierra, Howard Morris and Sid Caesar. The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit was screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

It’s a story of friendship, romance and dreams. Villanazul the poet of the group speaks for Bradbury, ”You are the dream, other people dream, in Silence, a man can think and dream.” Ray’s basic story was later borrowed for the book and movie ”The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.” Here as in that story the power of the magical white suit is the confidence it brings the wearer. Gomez the ring leader of the group sums it up, ”You feel like a million bucks, and anything is possible.  The suit is white.  The luscious color of vanilla ice cream, so pure in color that it radiates it’s own glow.” It is a story of possibilities and the ability of people to change their standing in the world.

A musical version was presented at the Pasadena Playhouse in 1989.  This new production marks a rare opportunity for audiences to see the original play.  It is now enjoying an extended run at the theatre following a month long run earlier in the year. Alan Neal Hubbs, resident director of Ray Bradbury’s Pandemonium Theatre Company, helms a cast including Adrain Elizondo, Joaquin Garay III, Daniel V. Graulau, Joan Jack, Robert Kerr, Joy Nash, Paul Renteria, Eddie Ruez, Rudy Rodriquez, Andy Sell, and Philip Sokoloff.

Ray Bradbury recently was honored by the Pulitzer Prize committee with a lifetime achievement certificate for his contribution to American letters. He also received a medal and Rank of Commander of Arts and Letters from the French government.  Ray recently celebrated his birthday party with a surprise visit by long time friend Bo Dereck.  In March, at the LA Book fair, he signed autographs for fans for three hours.  The Pandemonium Theatre Company plans to premiere his next original work a musical, and preparations are now in process. Remember there is always the chance of meeting Ray at the theatre and he is partial to the Saturday night performances.

Fremont Centre Theatre

1000 Fremont Avenue
South Pasadena, CA 91030
(626) 441-5977
(626) 441-5976 fax

e-mail: fct@fremontcentretheatre.com